Ke Wang,a Chinese television soap opera with a message

Abstract

China's first domestically-produced, long-running television soap opera, Ke Wang ('Aspirations'), was immensely popular with its audiences since it was first broadcast on a local Beijing television station in October, 1990. An audience of at least 550 million people in China watched Ke Wang, the largest audience in any single country for any television program. While Ke Wang was designed primarily to entertain people, it addressed many of the important social issues confronting the Chinese society: Status of women, social morality, family harmony, class conflict, responsible parenthood, maintenance of traditional culture, volunteerism, child development, physical disability, and others. We trace the history of Ke Wang, showing how the soap opera represents a watershed in Chinese television programming. We analyze Ke Wang's audience success, and investigate the various social impacts of Ke Wang. The promises and problems of entertainment-education soap operas like Ke Wang are discussed.