Trans-border televisual musicscape: Regionalizing reality TV I am a Singer in China and Hong Kong

Abstract

This article focuses on the regionalization of reality TV I am a Singer from China to Hong Kong. It explores the features of a successful flow of a reality singing contest with the concepts of mediascape, televisuality and cultural memory of pop music. The three research questions: what format structures of televisuality are being integrated in I am a Singer; how locals in China and Hong Kong interpret and appropriate I am a Singer to their experience of cultural identities and how trans-border televisual musicscape facilitates regionalization of television programme, are answered by textual analysis and in-depth interviews with 12 informants from China and Hong Kong. It is found that the focal programme is implemented with excessive performative style that holds audience’s attention, authentic music performance that resonates with post-1980s identity in China and Hong Kong, and dramatic reality contest that links to nationalism and Hong Kong people’s victimized identity. Identity politics is consumed by audience in China and Hong Kong as the dramatized excitement of the focal programme, which nurtures a group of loyal audience across China and Hong Kong.