Propaganda of national cultural values in modern Chinese television broadcasts

The active filling of modern Chinese television with cultural programs is considered to be a response to the westernization of the PRC's value system, which the country faced at the end of the last century. The need to rehabilitate the culture, traditions, and history of China in the people's minds made the Chinese Communist Party develop a large-scale program aimed at destroying the image of the Republic as a manufacturer of cheap, low-quality goods and switching the nation's focus to its own values. All national media, including television, are involved in solving this problem. This study aims to find and describe well-known television projects about Chinese culture created by major television companies of the country. The strategies of identifying guidelines and strengthening the important behavior patterns that are used in China's TV program may prove to be useful for Russian journalists as well. Geopolitical events of the recent years have led to the emergence of a crisis of self-determination in Russian society. However, today there are virtually no cultural programs on Russian television that can induce respect for the traditions and achievements of their country, and give belief in the validity of the path chosen by the nation. The authors study 16 television projects (486 episodes in total). The main objectives of this research are: (1) searching for distinctive characteristics of television projects, (2) identifying the composition of participants and creators, (3) determining the topics and goals of the projects, (4) finding data on the target audience and popularity indicators. The content analysis method, the contrastive method, the systematic approach, the axiological analysis, and the random sampling method were chosen to reach the objectives. It is revealed that modern cultural television shows in China are created with the help of outstanding scientists, theater and film directors. They tell the viewer about: museums and attractions, traditions, the history of the state, national dishes, dances, clothes, literature, holidays, etc. Many projects use expensive decorations and involve actors. Show, docudrama, travelogue, reality show, documentary film are the most common genres of cultural programs. A large amount of expensive video equipment allows directors to shoot the content of a very high quality. Young people play key roles in a large number of projects. Television cultural content is also distributed through online platforms of TV channels; thus, access to such projects is available to a wider audience. A lot of attention is paid to PR support of each project. It is found that the persuasive strategies chosen by Chinese TV channels in the context of promoting cultural topics helped to achieve impressive results. A dialogue between generations has been established. Traditional Chinese culture has become popular. Modern young people are passionate about the history of their country, traditions, customs, and incorporate them into their everyday lives. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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