104 Wanning Sun
cultural life is diverse and plentiful”, and that “our cultural products must become
more abundant and diverse” (Hu 2012). Just as balance and equilibrium in terms
of the number of species is needed to ensure ecological soundness in the natural
world, policy statements and top leaders’ instructions make it clear that they see the
key to maintaining China’s ideological ecology in the media to be a balance and
equilibrium of various forces—social, cultural, economic, and political.
Lifestyle television programs, by the nature of the genre and format, specialize
in giving everyday practical and viable life advice to consumers, and as such,
in terms of genre, function, and format, they are an important “species” in the
general ecology of the Chinese media. Among a long list of recommendations
on what the Party must do in the future, Chairman Hu mentioned the need for
the Party to “guide our people to engage in cultural practices in which they can
express themselves, educate themselves, and provide services to themselves” (Hu
2012). Lifestyle media embody precisely this kind of cultural practice. Although
lifestyle media genres in China often prominently feature “state-authorized”
experts (Farquhar and Zhang 2012), these genres are generally considered to
be politically uncontroversial and economically lucrative cultural products that
provide practical information and services to consumers. Ranging from CCTV
2’s renovation show Transforming Spaces to its makeover show Shopping for
Fashion, to Shanghai Television’s Channel Young Fashion Guide, from local
Bengbu Television’s At Your Service to Zhejiang TV’s Woman Who Likes to Help,
a plethora of lifestyle programs that combine information with entertainment and
employ a diversity of formats deliver to viewers, on a regular basis, much-needed
knowledge about how to survive the economic and social challenges thrown
up by economic reforms (Xu 2007, 2009; Sun 2012). While they appear to be
non-political on the surface, these programs are nevertheless highly effective in
teaching people a wide range of skills and a set of new attitudes—in the realms
of health care and “life nurturance” (yangsheng); mental, psychological, and
emotional well-being; familial and interpersonal relationships; personal finance,
travel, and everyday living—which are necessary to survive the turbulences
caused by the transition from socialism to a neo-liberal market economy.
Admittedly, lifestyle programs are not the place to ask probing questions and
engage in in-depth investigation into the causes and effects of environmental
damage. Nor is lifestyle advice likely to become the primary site to engage in
campaigns aimed at raising public awareness and advocating citizen involvement
in environmentalist activities. Having said this, it is also true that, as the staple
diet of most television viewers in China, lifestyle programs present themselves
as a potentially valuable site from which to advocate a greener way of life. As
Yang and Calhoun rightly observe, to practice environmentalism is to adopt a new
understanding of the meaning of life, a new moral vision, and a new personhood
(2007, p. 215). And lifestyle television programs, dedicated to teaching viewers
“desirable” ways of living, are constituted by many popular categories of makeover,
self-transformation, and overhaul of the self, body, and soul. Critiques of these
cultural forms reveal that as a popular media and cultural expression, lifestyle
television provides a justification as well as moral support for the transition from