Hong Kong television drama () refers to televised
dramatic programming
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-ge ...
produced mainly by the territory's two free-to-air TV networks of
Television Broadcasts Limited
Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) is a television broadcasting company based in Hong Kong SAR. The Company operates five free-to-air terrestrial television channels in Hong Kong, with TVB Jade as its main Cantonese language service, and TVB ...
(TVB) and
Asia Television
Asia Television Limited (, also known as ATV) is a digital media and broadcasting company in Hong Kong. Established as the first television service in Hong Kong as Rediffusion Television () on 29 May 1957, it shifted to terrestrial televisio ...
(ATV) until its license expired. Locally produced television dramas have helped contribute to a unique cultural identity among the
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
population and serve as a cultural resource for the
Cantonese Chinese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding a ...
speaking community worldwide.
History
Local broadcast television in Hong Kong was first produced in 1957 with the launch of
Rediffusion Television
Rediffusion Television (RTV) was the first television station in Hong Kong, making it both the first British colony and the first predominantly ethnically Chinese city to have television.Kitley, Philip. 003(2003). Television, Regulation and ...
, making it the first territory in
Greater China
Greater China is an informal geographical area that shares commercial and cultural ties with the Han Chinese people. The notion of "Greater China" refers to the area that usually encompasses Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan in East A ...
and colony of the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
to be served by local TV.
[Kitley, Philip. ]003 003, O03, 0O3, OO3 may refer to:
*003, fictional British 00 Agent
*003, former emergency telephone number for the Norwegian ambulance service (until 1986)
*1990 OO3, the asteroid 6131 Towen
* OO3 gauge model railway
*''O03 (O2)'' and other related ...
(2003). Television, Regulation and Civil Society in Asia. Routledge. TVB was later founded in 1967 to become the territory's first
free-to-air
Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the FTA Receiver, appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring ...
television network. With a massive influx of refugees from Mainland China coming into a rapidly industrializing Hong Kong during the 1960s and 1970s, the television medium became a prominent force in shaping local identity and formed a cultural resource.
The development of early television dramas in the 1970s and early 1980s proved to be enormously successful, with viewership of the ending for primetime serials sometimes creating ratings as high as 70%.
Television dramas tended to stray away from Chinese traditionalism, with themes relating more to those of industrialized societies, such as personal survival over collective good, reflecting Hong Kong's global position as a modernizing
Asian Tiger economy.
By the 1980s, television dramas had become a cultural icon of Hong Kong throughout East and Southeast Asia, with the territory becoming a center for television and film production. Furthermore, the success of the Hong Kong television industry later served as a major influence for television in mainland China and other industrializing Asian nations, most notably
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
and
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
.
Audience and reception
Hong Kong television dramas, along with
cinema
Cinema may refer to:
Film
* Cinematography, the art of motion-picture photography
* Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of a moving image
** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking
...
, have fostered an identity for the Cantonese speakers separate to those of
Standard Mandarin
Standard Chinese ()—in linguistics Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, in common speech simply Mandarin, better qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin or Standard Mandarin Chinese—is a modern standar ...
. As a result, Cantonese has been able to maintain a prominent standing relative to other non-Mandarin Chinese dialects.
The success of early Hong Kong television dramas throughout East and Southeast Asia has resulted in their continued popularity throughout the regions, as well as with Chinese immigrant populations around the world.
In fact, Hong Kong media became so influential in China's neighboring
Guangdong Province
Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...
(which is traditionally Cantonese-speaking) in the 1980s, that in 1988 the
State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television allowed for the local production of Cantonese television broadcasts in order to countermeasure against Hong Kong influence. This is a notable exception from the Chinese government's strict measures against the broadcasting and public usage of local dialects, which usually must be given approval by local and national authorities.
The popularity of Hong Kong television programs in Taiwan has resulted in the launch of a TVB affiliate network in the country,
TVBS
TVBS Media Inc. (), formerly Liann Yee Production Co., Ltd. (), is a Taiwanese commercial television broadcasting company. It was originally established as a joint venture between TVB in Hong Kong and Era Group in Taiwan, but TVB took over Er ...
, with the
TVBS Entertainment Channel
TVBS Entertainment Channel (formerly TVBS-G) is a satellite television channel in Taiwan, launched on 12 September 1994.
TVBS Entertainment Channel rebroadcasts Hong Kong dramas from TVB, yet also produces its own dramas since 2003.
Programs
...
largely rebroadcasting Hong Kong dramas. Furthermore, TVB has also created the affiliate channels of TVB Korea and TVB Vietnam in South Korea and Vietnam respectively.
Over the past decade, TVB has consistently received a much larger market share over its competitor ATV, which in turn has reported consecutive losses. Much criticism has been due to ATV's lack of variety in programming, including television dramas that are largely out of touch with Hong Kong locals, and a pro-Beijing government stance.
Genres and subject matter
Subject content and themes in Hong Kong television drama often reflect the ideals and attitudes of the general populace in the present state of the territory.
For example, during the rapid development of Hong Kong during the 1960s to mid-1980s, characteristics deemed too traditional, such as communal benefit that is emphasized in traditional Chinese values, were ignored in favor of "Western, industrialized values" such as personal gain and material wealth, and became reflected in drama themes. The approach of the
transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong
Sovereignty of Hong Kong was transferred from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China (PRC) at midnight on 1 July 1997. This event ended 156 years of British rule in the former colony. Hong Kong was established as a special admini ...
saw themes in television dramas shift from the general optimism of growth to increased pessimism fueled by the possible consequences of Chinese rule reflected by Hong Kongers. More recently, the increasing antagonism in relations between local Hong Kong residents and mainland Chinese has also found its way as a central theme in local TV dramas.
Hong Kong TV Drama Plays Out Uneasy Ties With China
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
, 2013 While the majority of Hong Kong television drama serials are set in the present, historical themes set in imperial China or colonial Hong Kong are also popular. Genres of modern themed serials can include, but are not limited to: criminal and/or judicial, medical, supernatural, or comedy. The martial arts genre that has become a trademark of Hong Kong cinema is also often used in imperial Chinese themed serials.
See also
* Television in Hong Kong
Television in Hong Kong is primarily in Cantonese and English. It is delivered through analogue and digital terrestrial, cable, IPTV, and the Internet. Satellite TV is not common, although many housing estates have dishes and re-distribute a li ...
* List of Hong Kong television series
This is an incomplete list of Hong Kong television series and programmes.
Current shows
Children's
*''After School ICU'' (TVB Jade, in Cantonese)
Current affairs
*''City Forum'' (RTHK, in Cantonese)
*''Headliner (TV programme), Headliner'' ...
* Cinema of Hong Kong
The cinema of Hong Kong ( zh, t=香港電影) is one of the three major threads in the history of Chinese language cinema, alongside the cinema of China and the cinema of Taiwan. As a former British colony, Hong Kong had a greater degree of ...
* C-pop
C-pop is an abbreviation for Chinese popular music (), a loosely defined musical genre by artists originating from mainland China,Hong Kong and Taiwan (the Greater China region). This also includes countries where Chinese languages are used by ...
* Cantopop
Cantopop (a contraction of "Cantonese pop music") or HK-pop (short for "Hong Kong pop music") is a genre of pop music written in standard Chinese and sung in Cantonese. Cantopop is also used to refer to the cultural context of its production ...
* Chinese television drama Chinese television dramas ( Simplified Chinese: 中国电视连续剧), sometimes colloquially known as C-dramas, are television dramas originating from China or the Greater China region. China produces more television dramas than any other country ...
* Taiwanese drama
Taiwanese drama (, also known as T.W. drama) refer to dramatic programming of television programming extended stories usually dramatizing relationships through the general range of ten to forty one-hour episodes. They are produced in Taiwan and hav ...
* Korean drama
Korean dramas (; RR: ''Han-guk deurama''), more popularly known as K-dramas, are television series in the Korean language, made in South Korea.
They are popular worldwide, especially in Asia, partially due to the spread of Korean popular cultu ...
References
{{Hong Kong topics
Asian drama
Television genres