2.3 Study of media cross-cultural communication in China 

In 2000, overseas TV series went popular, raising much concern of scholars in China and researches began on the media cross-cultural communication. It should be noted that the new world mania sweeping around the world is American TV series fever along with Obama and financial crisis and the time when people only gazed at Coco cola, MacDonald and Marlboro was gone. American soap operas, the media which takes a superior place in the world discourse, can be more likely to attract the attention of the lower and middle class in inferior society(like China). Relevant researches include “post-colonial context of cross-cultural communication ”, by Jiangfei (2004)，which maintains American’s culture spreading might cause a devastating blow to culture of the third world countries. Comparable Research of Sino-US TV Series edited by Chunjing Qu and Ying Zhu (2004) established a platform for comparison and research and provided a scope and latitude of them. However，reasons why American TV series realize successful cross-cultural communication in China haven’t been sorted systematically and the basic information and their reception of audience in China hasn’t been studied specially.文献综述

As an important carrier of cultural communication, TV series influences people’s behaviors, conversations, ways of thinking or even sense of values. Thus, researches would like to label them as “culture imperialism” as they are exploring the American TV series broadcasting in China. In order to serve for its own economic and ideological benefits, hegemony information recognized by scholars spreads to psychologically undefended audience of every corner of the world. (Dorfman, Morris, A. Matelart, 1975) In order to prove that American TV series is imposed by imperialism, several questions must be resolved: (1) it contains information designed deliberately to serve for American overseas benefits (2) information is decoded by receivers the same way as producers encoded it. (3) Information is received without any skepticism and doubt by receivers and has permeated into their cultures. (Liebes，Kartz, 2003:2)

3 General introduction of spread of American TV series in China

This part introduces basic information of American TV series spreading in China, including the history, its features, regular audience and its widely recognized values.

3.1 History of American TV series spreading in China  

China mainland firstly imported American TV series in the 1980s like Man from Atlantis, Garrison’s Gorillas, Hunter, Dynasty and Growing Pains and all exerted a huge influence in society at that time. It should be noted that Man from Atlantis was the first American TV series in Chinese TV screen as the result of Deng Xiaoping’s visit to USA and the normalization of Sino-US diplomatic relation. However, the situation changed recently, which directly had the negative impact on the successive importation. Compared to Korean soap operas, Japanese soap operas, HK and Taiwan dramas, the number of American TV series introduced by CCTV is much fewer. Nowadays almost all series are transmitted through the Internet. That is why many scholars call the popularity of American dramas the secret rage. Desperate Housewives was also introduced to Chinese market, dubbed and broadcast on CCTV 8 at the end of 2005, but its average audience rating was merely 0.4%, lower than other two Korean soap operas. The dubbed version lost its originality, what’s more, many sensitive topics like sex and drugs, were deleted, weakened or even replaced by alternative expressions, making it hard to understand sometimes, according to viewers. (Liu Haining, 2006:15) American TV series bring with it unique culture, attracting a specific group of audience.ve a speech a

3.2 Features and groups of audience of American TV series in China

We need to explore the features of USA soap operas for better understanding of successful spread of American dramas in China. First of all, the production level of TV series almost catches up with Hollywood movies, including storytelling and image display. All TV series are characteristic of compact plot, exquisite picture, providing viewers with the sense of beauty. The various and inclusive themes guarantee each drama series gain the steady and continuous affection of a certain group. In terms of broadcasting time, it already has commercialized and mature operating mode: one episode per week at weekends, leaving certain suspense for audience to discuss with their friends. (Zhang Muxia, 2008:199) They have a powerful group of people serving as the strong backup of high audience rating. All work is accomplished through teamwork from the beginning creation-providing, screenplay to shooting and postproduction. The highly market-orientation pushes producers to increase the quality of products and the open structure allows screen players to change the plot whenever possible to appeal to desire of audiences. The fair relationship is constantly maintained among TV station, production company and agency. (Gao Huan,2009：167)来~自^优尔论+文.网www.youerw.com/