The flood of TV dramas depicting ancient court struggles are nothing but banal productions that could lead to a misunderstanding of China's history. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has banned such TV dramas at prime time, but more healthy shows are needed, says an article in Guangming Daily.
The TV dramas on court struggles have been following a rigid and boring pattern for lack of innovation. Some netizens summarize the plots and the pattern of the dramas in advance, for example, close friends betraying each other. Some have even said that Chinese mainland TV series are a mere copy of those made by TVB, a well-known television station in Hong Kong without any originality.
A more serious problem is the way the dramas portray history. Usually, we tend to let history judge the validity of truth, and we are still ready to review our past to learn lessons from it.
The complexity of market economy plays a role in deconstructing faith and values, for as long as history continues to help us pursue values, we have to uphold its sanctity.
In fact, market economy can help eliminate the vulgar orientation of court struggles on TV. More importantly, we, especially the administration, need to publicize and encourage diversity in cultural products to allow diversified artistic forms to attract audience and eliminate vulgarity.