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Popular Culture Review
changing world. My analysis is based on three TV dramas from the late 1990s:
To Live a Good Family Life (haohao guo rizi), Holding Hands {quian shou), and
Coming and Going {lailai wangwang). 1 will first look at the challenges to
Chinese families caused by China’s economic development. Then, I will briefly
outline the storylines of the three TV dramas. Finally, I will explore the moral
messages from these dramas.
Economic Development and Challenges to the Chinese Families
Since the implementation of economic reform and open-door policy in
1979, China has made great progress in strengthening the country’s economic
capacity and in raising its people’s living standards. In the last two decades of
the 20‘^ century, the average growth rate of China’s per capita GDP was 8.4
percent. The total GDP had been doubled twice in twenty years from 1980 to
2000. With the fast economic growth, the quality of people’s lives also increased
dramatically. According to the statistics carried in China Information Daily,
August 30, 2001, Chinese people produced 24.49 billion RMB of wealth a day
in 2000, 19.41 billion more than that of 1990, or nearly four times increase in
just 10 years. Also, in 2000, people spent 11.82 billion RMB a day, 9.32 billion
more than that in 1990. A recent report states that in the five years from 1998 to
2003, China’s GDP “has grown by more than 60% and its exports by 140%”
(Clissold 1). These economic achievements have brought progress to the country
and a happier life to its people. However, serious social problems like bigamy,
domestic violence, and divorce co-exist with the economic growth just like the
seemingly inevitable twin. They are the side-effects of China’s economic
development and reform.
The first side-effect of China’s economic development and reform is
the higher divorce rate. Statistics show that the divorce rate in China has
increased nearly three-fold over the past two decades. More than 1.2 million
Chinese couples divorced in 1999, and among every 1,000 people there are 0.96
broken families (“Can Law” 23). According to the All-China Women’s
Federation, since 1999, the number of divorces had remained stable at about 1.2
million each year until 2003 when it jumped to 1.33 million, while “the number
of Chinese registering for marriage dropped from 8.92 million couples in 1998
to 7.86 million in 2002” (“ 1.33 Million” 1). Although the rate of divorce is still
very low and the number of broken families is very small in comparison with
many other countries such as the United States and Germany, the change is
undoubtedly significant. For example, in 2003, the city of Shanghai “had over
four couples out of every 1,000 divorced,” with its divorce rate “20 times more
than 20 years ago” (“Valentine’s Day” 1). Many of these divorces are caused by
the husbands’ infidelity and third-party individuals’ (the mistresses’) intrusion.
A research conducted by the Marriage Service Center of west China’s
Chongqing Municipality found that out of 280 divorce cases “ 198 were caused
by one partner having an affair” (“Adultery” 1). As extra-marital affairs have
become the top marriage killers, some suspicious wives and husbands start to