Between ironic pleasure and exotic nostalgia: audience reception of Thai television dramas among youth in China

Abstract

Thai television dramas, which have been a staple of the nation’s TV landscape for over five decades, have recently expanded their popularity to other Asian countries. Besides being exported for telecast, enthusiastic fans who voluntarily provide fan-subtitled versions in various languages have made Thai dramas widely accessible. The paper takes the case of Chinese viewers watching Thai television dramas to examine how Thai dramas evoke different kinds of involvement and responses from young Chinese audiences, who today can choose from a multitude of entertainment options. As Thailand is not considered to share cultural proximity with, nor is it more ‘advanced’ than China, the paper seeks to investigate the aspects of audience reception while examining the positions of both sending and receiving countries, and the dynamics of relationships between countries in the region. The paper employs the concepts of cultural proximity and cultural differences, arguing that cultural proximity does not necessarily lead to positive reception towards transnational texts. Furthermore, the consumption of any popular culture needs not be understood from audience reception analysis alone, but cultural and political relationships between the sending and receiving countries also need to be taken into account.