The greying of greenspeak? 105a state-regulated life to a self-managed way of living (Lewis 2008a, 2011). At the
same time, there is also evidence (Lewis 2008b, 2012; Bonner 2011) to suggest
that it could be a much more useful site to guide consumers to become more
environmentally responsible citizens. Indeed, lifestyle programs in the Global
North, especially in food television, are increasingly dealing with issues to do with
environmentalism and ethical consumption (Lewis 2008b). So, questions naturally
arise pertaining to the Chinese case: How are environmental issues constructed in
lifestyle programs on Chinese television, and what kind of strategies and solutions
are proposed? Equally important, if, as is discussed earlier, environmental news
is more likely to be censored than promoted due to its perceived capacity to
trigger social instability, to what extent can lifestyle television present itself as an
alternative discursive space to promote genuinely green messages?
It has to be said that programs with an explicit green focus are few and far
between, but this does not mean that we should rule out lifestyle television
programs as a potentially effective discursive space. One example that testifies
to this potential is a 2010 episode of Channel Young’s wedding show (Xingshang
Hunli), which points to some real possibilities in relation to environmental
pedagogies. Preceded by a few episodes of weddings, featuring for instance a
European wedding and a traditional Chinese wedding, the episode in question
features a “Low Carbon Wedding”. Rather than in a fleet of stretch limousines, the
bride, groom, bridesmaids, and best men all arrive at the wedding riding bicycles.
Guests receive invitation cards made from recycled milk cartons and a subway
ticket that incentivizes them to take public transport to the wedding. The host
interviews the bride and groom on the design of their wedding clothes—all made
from recycled material but looking stylish and glamorous. Guests are shown as
being suitably impressed with the novel ideas behind the design, presentation, and
green ethos of the event. They say they have learned a lot from this event and that
they are going to think about how they will organize their own weddings.
The newlyweds are featured on the show as much for their individualistic
consumption practices as for their environmental activism. Nevertheless, the
show points to the potential usefulness of the lifestyle media in promulgating a
new ethical position, a different moral vision, and an alternative way of life. To
be sure, many consumer-oriented television programs do make gestures toward
introducing green ways of living. Transforming Spaces (Jiaohuan Kongjian) on
CCTV 2 (China Central Television) is a renovation show that adopts the typical
format of a renovation show and combines the genres of reality TV, competition
and makeover. As part of the show, each episode has a segment entitled “Turning
Oldies into Goodies” (Jiuwu Gaizao), in which Teams A and B are given the
task of turning a discarded consumer item into something useful. An episode in
March 2014, for instance, gave contestants the task of finding innovative ways
of recycling an empty tea tin. Team A turned a few tins into a number of flower
pots for fake flowers, whereas Team B made a toy train with connecting carriages.
Although one may wonder how useful flower pots for fake flowers are or how
durable a toy train made of a few tins can be, the message behind this show was
unmistakable: Recycling is a worthy consumption practice.