Remaking Red Classics in Post-Mao China: TV Drama as Popular Media

In the 1990s, China’s economic reform campaign reached a new high. Amid the eager adoption of capitalism, however, the spectre of revolution re-emerged. Red Classics, a historic-revolutionary themed genre created in the high socialist era were widely taken up again in television drama adaptations. They have since remained a permanent feature of TV repertoire well into the 2010s. Remaking Red Classics in Post-Mao China looks at the how the revolutionary experience is represented and consumed in the reform era. It examines the adaptation of Red Classics as a result of the dynamic interplay between television stations, media censorship and social sentiment of the populace. How the story of revolution was reinvented to appeal and entertain a new generation provides important clues to the understanding of transformation of class, gender, locality and faith in contemporary China.