The greying of greenspeak? 111decade ago. This is indeed ironic and poignant. Despite the obvious problems
usually associated with one-party authoritarian regimes, they do in theory have
a crucial advantage over liberal-democratic societies: They are more capable of
deploying the state apparatus to mobilize, enforce and implement environmental
measures. As this discussion shows, however, the Chinese state’s involvement
in environmental causes seems to take the form of tokenistic and superficial
campaigns and coverage. It is fair to conclude that, so far, the party-state has
passed up a crucial opportunity to be a global leader in these issues.
In its attempts to tackle environmental issues, the Chinese Communist Party
is often held to ransom by the very market forces it has unleashed. At the same
time, it is clear that the potential of lifestyle media to be “generative of modes
of popular civic politics” and to speak to “progressive modes of citizenship and
activism”, which have been tapped elsewhere (Lewis 2008b, 227), is yet to be
realized. So far, the main incentive of marketizing the concept of green seems
to be an economic bottom line. As we can see from lifestyle and consumer
advice media, green-themed content is produced more with the practical aim of
improving consumers’ health on an individual basis and less as a moral and ethical
imperative to save the Earth or improve the conditions of human life.
This chapter has argued that in order to arrive at a clear understanding of the
scope and reach of greenspeak in China, we need to consider China’s media and
communication as an ideological-ecological system whose function and purpose is to
maintain and ensure the social stability and political legitimacy of the party-state. Of
course, the use of the term ecological is metaphoric, implying a comparison of various
media forms and genres to species of life forms. An ideological-ecological system
denotes a complex relationship and interaction between various media forms, genres,
and practices in the Chinese media and communication sector. This approach entails
looking at how environmental issues are talked about in the mainstream media—
including the state media and the commercial mainstream—in conjunction with what
is referred to as “greenspeak”. This discussion points to the possible shrinking of the
green public sphere in China—if it ever existed—and the greying of greenspeak.
While this conclusion is not as upbeat as one may wish, achieving a more accurate
and realistic assessment of the impact and size of a genuine green public sphere may
well be a first important step toward effective environmental action.
References
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Beaumont-Thomas, Ben. 2015. “Smash-Hit Chinese Pollution Doc Under the Dome Taken
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taken-offline-government.
Bonner, Frances. 2011. “Lifestyle Television: Gardening and the Good Life.” In Ethical
Consumption: A Critical Introduction, edited by Tania Lewis and Emily Potter, 231–43.
London: Routledge.
Chan, Ricky Y. K. 2004. “Consumer Responses to Environmental Advertising in China.”
Marketing Intelligence & Planning 22 (4): 427–37.