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Representations of Africa in a Hong Kong Soap Opera: The Limits of Enlightened Humanitarianism in The Last Breakthrough

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 September 2009

Martha Saavedra
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Abstract

Several studies have looked at “Africa” in the Western imagery, and explored how it is constructed for Americans through popular media. This article offers a preliminary query into whether Chinese popular media functions in a similar way by examining a 2004 Hong Kong-produced soap opera that uses a medical humanitarian mission in Kenya to advance its plot and central themes. While many tropes regarding Africa found in Western media are repeated, there is a conscious effort in this production to embody a more enlightened approach. Nevertheless, the core relationship is marked by humanitarianism, and necessarily one embodying unequal power relations. The soap opera thus avoids critical questions of development, globalization or even post-colonial solidarity, and instead rests more on older, safer paradigms of modernization. Still, an analysis of the drama reveals contradictions and unresolved tensions in which the relationship with Africa parallels Hong Kong's relationship with mainland China. This study posits that popular culture can offer unique insights into understanding dynamics affecting the evolving relationship between China and Africa.

Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 199 , September 2009 , pp. 760 - 776
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 2009

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References

1 Tin Ngai Hup Yi (Heaven Edge Heroic Doctor) “Teen Ngai Hap Yee” (The Heroic Doctors of the World).

2 Television Broadcasts Limited, Annual Report 2004 – Management Discussion and Analysis: Review of Operations (Hong Kong, 2005), pp. 1–77Google Scholar. Pont reported 35 million viewers in Hong Kong and the mainland: Pont, J., Pontact Productions Newsletter (Nairobi: Pontact Productions EPZ Limited, 2005)Google Scholar. Kitson reports: “Viewers tuned in: 180 million; ratings: average 27 pts; first week 27 pts; final week 29 pts; peaking 33 pts. Kitson, “[TVB] ratings report since 1997–2005,” http://tvbchinesenews.blogspot.com, 2005, http://asianfanatics.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=152451, accessed 9 December 2008. Ratings range from 0 to 60, with each point representing 1% of the viewing population over 4 years of age. TVB is a dominant network in Hong Kong, thus in recent years if one of its shows receives a rating less than 30, “the show is considered as a failure.” TVB Fan Square, “TVB information bank” (nd), http://www.tvbsquare.com/TVBinfoBank.htm. accessed 9 December 2008. In 2004, the population of Hong Kong was 6.9 million. The television penetration rate among the 2.2 million households was 99%. Read, P., The Film and Television Market in Hong Kong (The Department of Canadian Heritage, Trade Routes Program, 2005), pp. 1–24Google Scholar.

3 One online poll placed it as the third best TVB series of 2004. See http://pollgenius.com/answer/default/pollID/172/What-was-the-best-Hong-Kong-TVB-series-of-2004, accessed 24 August 2008. Several fans hoped for a sequel (http://asianfanatics.net/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t154262.html). A Chinese-language fan site (http://www.babeijiu.com/babeijiu6/82/TVB1180242a.htm and http://www.babeijiu.com/bbj10/891/31330682a.htm) discusses ten reasons why it was not rated higher (http://www.babeijiu.com/bbj2/82/111230012a.htm), as well as offering an imagined sequel (http://www.babeijiu.com/bbj5/82/21278302a.htm), all accessed 31 August 2008.

4 Xinhua News Agency, “Kenya to launch major tourism marketing drive in China,” People's Daily Online, 1 November 2006, http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200611/01/eng20061101_317316.html, accessed 10 October 2007.

5 In 2003, Kenya had only 2,700 visitors from China. The two governments signed an MOU granting Kenya Approved Destination Status on 16 March 2004, with direct flights starting in October 2004. “Kenya, a new tour destination for Chinese tourists,” People's Daily Online, 9 August 2004, http://english.people.com.cn/200408/09/eng20040809_152304.html, accessed 21 June 2008. The Kenyan Tourist Board expected 30,000 to 50,000 Chinese visitors that year, though ultimately only 5,000 came. “Kenya targets 15,000 tourist arrivals from China,” People's Daily Online, 14 January 2005, http://english.people.com.cn/200501/14/eng20050114_170627.html, accessed 21 June 2008. An overall number repeated in several sources is that in 2005, 110,000 Chinese tourists visited African destinations, doubling the number from the previous year. Prior to 2004, Egypt and South Africa accounted for virtually all Chinese tourist visitors to African locations. See Kim, Samuel Seongseop, Guo, Yingzhi and Agrusa, Jerome, “Preference and positioning analyses of overseas destinations by mainland Chinese outbound pleasure tourists,” Journal of Travel Research, Vol. 44, No. 2 (2005), pp. 212–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar. In 2008, even after the post-election violence, Kenya expected to have its best year in tourism ever, exceeding for instance 100,000 from the US (personal communication with Kenyan Embassy representative in the United States, 4 August 2008).

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7 Kathryn Mathers points out that in this kind of work intentions are almost always useless anyway. “What people think they [are] doing is fairly obvious, and/or also completely false … [The] reason why it is valuable to ‘read’ television like this is because it has power way beyond intentions and agency” (personal communication, 15 September 2008).

8 I communicated with a Kenyan production manager for the series, but did not learn any details about the production.

9 A Vietnamese version was created, as was a dubbed-Mandarin version. It was broadcast in Malaysia, Singapore and in other parts of the Chinese diaspora. Many fans viewed it online through a variety of sites (crunchyroll.com, megavideo.com, tudou.com), some of which have since removed the series as a result of copyright claims. Copies of the series were also offered for sale online through one of eBay's Asian sites. I have also seen sales offered on other sites. In the US it is not licensed for sale, only for rental. I initially viewed the series through a fan site that subsequently took down the episodes posted. I then watched episodes on Veoh TV.

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12 Besides Cantonese, the dialogue also includes Swahili, English, at least one other African language and Japanese. Accents are also key signifiers: Andrew Lien, a native of Taiwan, plays Dr Ho Ching aka Dr Handsome aka Brother Beard. Fans have commented on how “cute” his accent is when he speaks Cantonese. See http://asianfanatics.net/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t20304.html, accessed 24 August 2008.

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14 My gratitude to Kathryn Mathers for un-knotting me in this section.

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16 Deborah D. Kaspin, “Conclusion: signifying power in Africa,” in ibid. pp. 320–36.

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21 I have left Roots (1977) and the TV series Shaka Zulu (1986) off this list, the former because, though Africa looms large, it is mainly about the African American experience in the US, and the latter because it was a South African Broadcasting Corporation production. Each of these had their own unique problems with representations.

22 Lesley Smith, “Song of me: review of “Flame Trees of Thika” DVD set,” PopMatters, 26 May 2005, http://www.popmatters.com/film/reviews/f/flame-trees-of-thika-dvd.shtml, accessed 3 May 2009.

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26 http://www.chinadevelopmentbrief.com/dingo/Province/Hubei/1-27-0-146-0-0.html.

27 See the 20 December 2004 to 14 April 2006 discussion and debate over whether relationships or the representation of the profession and volunteering should take narrative precedence in this series. This discussion started during the final episodes of the original broadcast of TLB. http://asianfanatics.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=71504&pid=639715&mode=threaded&start=#entry639715, accessed 9 December 2008.

28 TLB: episode 30, chapter 3.

29 TLB: episode 29, chapter 4.

30 TLB: episode 27, chapter 1.

31 In spring 2004, when this series was produced, the conflict in Darfur was well under way, but not yet the focus of activists in the West. Hence China was not yet under pressure for its involvement in Sudan via oil extraction, weapons trade and construction. The civil war depicted here was between the government of Sudan and the Sudanese People's Liberation Army and was mainly in the south. Peace negotiations began in 2004, culminating in the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in early 2005. Though fighting in Darfur started in February 2003, it was not until after the ten-year commemoration of the Rwandan genocide in April 2004 that the international community took notice. Student and celebrity activism did not coalesce until autumn 2004.

32 Frank Dikötter, “Racial identities in China: context and meaning,” Barry Sautman, “Anti-black racism in post-Mao China,” and Sullivan, Michael J., “The 1988–89 Nanjing anti-African protests: racial nationalism or national racism?” all in The China Quarterly, No. 138 (1994), pp. 404–12Google Scholar, 413–37 and 438–57 respectively.

33 The complicated aspects of the China/Africa relationship can be found in other contributions to this volume. For some insights to the Hong Kong/Mainland China relationship, see Hong, Ying-yi, Liao, Hsin-ya, Chan, Gloria, Wong, Rosanna Y.M., Chiu, Chui-yue, Ip, Grace Wai-man, Fu, Ho-ying and Hansen, Ian G., “Temporal causal links between outgroup attitudes and social categorization: the case of Hong Kong 1997 transition,” Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, Vol. 9, No. 2 (2006), p. 265CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Law, Kam-yee and Lee, Kim-ming, “Citizenship, economy and social exclusion of mainland Chinese immigrants in Hong Kong,” Journal of Contemporary Asia, Vol. 36, No. 2 (2006), pp. 217–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lee, Kim-ming, Wong, Hung and Law, Kam-yee, “Social polarisation and poverty in the global city: the case of Hong Kong,” China Report, Vol. 43, No. 1 (2007), p. 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wong, Daniel Fu Keung, “Differential impacts of stressful life events and social support on the mental health of mainland Chinese immigrant and local youth in Hong Kong: a resilience perspective,” British Journal of Social Work, Vol. 38, No. 2 (2008), p. 236CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Yeung, Sylvester and Leung, Cherry, “Perception and attitude of Hong Kong hotel guest-contact employees towards tourists from mainland China,” International Journal of Tourism Research, Vol. 9, No. 6 (2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.