As P2P and file-sharing programs grow in popularity in China, American TV content is being viewed in almost real-time and is increasingly influencing the way that Chinese citizens view the United States and themselves.
Hollywood continues to convey perceived American cultural norms and values, correctly or incorrectly, through the content it produces and then which is quickly shared via P2P and file-sharing programs in China and elsewhere.
Thanks to a recent 12-part documentary series on CCTV, China Central Television, called “The Rise of Nations,” an article soon appeared in the Chinese publication “San Lian Life Week” that discussed the series and its conclusions.
The article noted how in many ways P2P and file-sharing software are also an important emerging new technology responsible for influencing the rise of a nation, and were not discussed in the series.
It broached the subject of how P2P and the power of the internet have allowed Chinese audiences to watch popular American TV shows at nearly the same time as viewers in the United States.
It then mentions how shows like “Prison Break,” “Desperate Houswives,” “Lost,” “The West Wing,” and others are available for download with complete Chinese subtitles less than 12 hours after the show is originally broadcast in the United States. For programming without subtitles, software like TVU and Sopcast allow for real-time streaming of American television
Interestingly enough, the ability of Chinese citizens, who may otherwise have no real source of news or insight into American society and culture, to watch these shows is beginning to have an effect on their views and opinions of what American society is like, and therefore in turn causes them to question what they want and expect from their own society.
Of particular note is the Fox series “Prison Break,” which apparently has quite a following in China.
There’s a fan-run website that offers script translations and subtitled clips, as well as news translated from the official Fox website. It also provides BitTorrent tracker links for downloading episodes. There’s also a site that provides entire subtitled episodes for online “on-demand” flash-movie viewing.
In an op-ed piece by Top Gudong titled “Prison Break as a view into American Prison Administration,” he argues that the TV series “Prison Break” and the movie “The Shawshank Redemption” offer a glimpse of the American psyche and it’s criminal justice system.
Now surely we can all agree that both are works of fiction but, it nonetheless is an example of how Hollywood is broadcasting a message into the subconscious minds of the world at large. Whether the message is always a correct one or not is open for debate yet, either way the movies and TV shows Hollywood produces send the world a message telling them what the American people are all about. In turn, it makes people examine their own societies for potential shortcomings and causes a certain amount of expectation for how things should or should not be.
In one of the more interesting comments of the piece he notes how one guy couldn’t understand why in “The Shawshank Redemption” that the warden would allow Tim Robbin’s character Dufresne to write letters to his elected representatives and also why they would even grant his requests.
This is but the first of several tantalizing effects that the content available through P2P and file-sharing programs has had on individuals in China.
He goes on to write:
In “Prison Break” and “The Shawshank Redemption,” though there is violence in prison administration, we can see no trace of any soldiers. Only police. Soldiers have no means, no right, to mobilize; the Constitution proscribes the American military from interfering in domestic affairs. Even during last year’s “catastrophe of the century” – hurricane Katrina – it was only after a long delay that the army was at last permitted to assist the rescue in a limited fashion. Americans seldom see scenes of “soldiers and citizens fighting catastrophe together.” Even something as large as 9.11 had only police and firefighters at work.
In the United States the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, intended to prohibit Federal troops from supervising elections in Confederate states, prohibits military personnel from acting in a law enforcement capacity. In China there is no such delineation, the military can enforce the laws as ordered to do so.
Thus, to see the military perform only military-related duties and functions, and so too the police perform only police-related duties and functions has to at the very least.make viewers in China wonder why this is and what the pros and cons are.
Irrespective of which model is better, the fact that it causes this sort of introspection on both systems, is very healthy for each of our societies.
Gudong furthers:
In Prison Break there is also the following puzzling scenario:
An impatient warden can tune out the governor.
At his pleasure, the governor can tune out the president.
The vice-president can frequently disagree with and contradict the president.
The governor’s daughter can tune out the governor.
In theory, criminals can mostly ignore the prison administration.
This is a potentially groundbreaking revelation, that unlike a system where a party chairmen has virtually total control over all the mechanisms of power, there can exist a system composed of a series of checks and balances.
Wardens, governors, vice-presidents, and even presidents all govern or carry out their duties in a capacity that’s always limited and kept in check by the duties and capacities of others.
In China you would have no such checks and balances. Power and control flow downward, and are not mitigated or curbed by other mechanisms of government.
The author continues:
In Prison Break you will find that writing a letter to some congressman is kids’ stuff; under suitable conditions, you can make the bold request to have a date with your girlfriend, and during the date, you can make love to your girlfriend practically out in the open!!! Even illiterate Americans feel their personal rights deep within their marrow. They are accustomed to them – someone might go his whole life without feeling the existence of his what’s inside, but once it is gone he’ll feel something. Fernando Sucre met with his girlfriend in prison and the guards had to grit their teeth in frustration – they wanted to slaughter that brazen fellow right there but couldn’t do a thing, since this was one of the personal rights prisoners have. Once prisoners’ rights come into the picture, getting upset doesn’t do anything.
For better or worse sometimes, this is also very true.
Americans are deeply accustomed to the notion of “civil rights,” an invisible sort of bible that defines our humanity and inalienable rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” We are guaranteed a series of rights that become entrenched “deep within (our) marrow,” as Gudong puts it.
The Chinese are not accustomed to such a notion, with the state being the sole arbiter of what a person’s rights are. The fact that even condemned criminals still possess rights is even more so a foreign concept.
Gudong notes:
Beating prisoners is a serious offence, and discovery leads to immediate dismissal. And after being sent packing they’ll have a hard time finding other work. Even a capital offender like Lincoln is given no uncertain respect days and even hours before his execution. No one questions the rights that anyone ought to possess, even if he has committed some monstrous crime.
Though prisoners cannot vote, they still possess many of the rights the Constitution provides. The main being the right to be free from “cruel and unusual punishment” The fact that prisoners are properly fed, sheltered, and medically cared for speaks volumes about the American criminal justice system and also about how we treat even those we have removed from society. Even the worst among us still have rights.
It makes we wonder how much a part the show played in recent reforms of the death penalty in China. For On October 31, 2006, the Chinese legislature adopted death penalty reforms mandating that the Supreme People’s Court review all death penalty verdicts imposed by Provincial Courts. This change, which will go into effect on January 1, 2007, is expected to reduce the number of people executed annually.
Though to say the show “Prison Break” effected Chinese government policy is a big claim, and probably not the case, it nonetheless makes you wonder whether or not that in in some small way that perhaps it at the very least had an indirect effect.
Gudong also points out that the common theme of Hollywood screenwriters is that politicians are never to be trusted. In China they mange the state like trusted father figures, following in the the vein of a historic trend of Confucianistic thought. In the United States, the opposite is true. They are often perceived as “…selfish, suspicious, and blameworthy.”
Gudong writes:
American writers particularly enjoy putting criminals in the White House, the Department of Defense, the State Department, and in Congress, and they like choosing the president, vice-president, or department head as the “fantasy evil antagonist”. You could say that on the small and large screens, Americans don’t hesitate to take those who hold power and “knock them to the ground and give them a kick.” American thinking is: politics is a dirty business; politicians are never to be trusted and must always be treated with suspicion. Keep a tight reign on them, and don’t let them set one foot outside the lines. If there are any suspicious movements, then terminate them with extreme prejudice. You’d most certainly never see something like what happened in Taiwan where millions of people took to the streets putting Bianbian at his wits’ end, or absurdities like “good folks are at home sighing, while the bad ones are onstage singing.” The most difficult thing in the world is to realize “the dream of putting rulers in a cage” (says George Bush). And Hollywood and American TV has realized this dream. Like the American constitution says, when the rights of the people are not guaranteed, the people have the right to topple an oppressive government. “Prison Break” is a symbol of the right of the American people to pursue freedom through extraordinary means.
Many people in the world, particularly in authoritarian countries like China, do indeed I’m sure have a tough time of realizing the “dream of putting rulers in cage.” Here in the United States we realize that dream often, and so too often take it for granted. We even almost managed to impeach a President for little more than marriage infidelities. Try doing that in China.
Gudong goes on to note that every country has its fair share of problems, that no county is perfect, and that each type of government has its own drawbacks and rewards.
He writes:
There’s nowhere on earth that is perpetually cloudy, but likewise there’s nowhere that flowers bloom forever in the spring warmth. In America, according to probabilities, there are certainly miscarriages of justice and violent enforcement. But America has the TV show Prison Break!
I’ve never heard of “Prison Break” being cited as an example of a country’s freedom before but, maybe he does have a point. If a country allows a show that explores controversial topics or subject matter, as sensational or as fictional as it may be, then maybe that is a good example of a country’s freedom after all.
Moreover, the fact that more and more people of China, as well as other countries I’m sure, are able to use P2P and file-sharing software to watch programming such as “Prison Break” can only be a good thing for us all. For, the simple fact is that it exposes people to enlightened concepts like justice, freedom, and equality.
If P2P does one thing for sure, it’s helping the spread of information.
RELATED NEWS AND “HOW TO” GUIDES:
BitTorrent torrent sites & search engines
Azureus – A Beginner’s Guide to BitTorrent Downloading
uTorrent – A Beginner’s guide to BitTorrent downloading
Sopcast, another P2P streaming TV player
Tons of Your Favorite Movies On-Demand for FREE!
Watch The Simpsons, The Office, Jackass, South Park, Lost, X-Men, and More On-Demand For Free
TVU, Free P2P Cable TV
SOULXTC: “walkin’ the streets of P2P”
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That is a moving article. These are things I never really stopped to consider though I always thought in general that freedom of information was a most excellent thing.
I know kinda weird heh? Who wouldve thought that the show Prison Break which I grudingly admit I watch and am a fan of would be used as a catalyst for reform and freedom of thought?
Very interesting article. We know these things but it still gives a broader perspective.
Yah its still odd to consider the dramatic effect that media can have on a people and a culture. We hear all the time about how it affects us in the US or that this country or that country hates it but its not often that we stand back and consider some of the more basic notions and thoughts that it transmits to people in a GOOD way.
Things like maybe womens rights or freedoms for instance. Maybe the fact that women can be lawyers like in Ally McBeal or what not or can be judges like in that show Chasing Amy (?). Its really weird when u think about how we take such basic freedoms for granted we see them every day. But for others it can be really mind-blowing.
This would make an awesome college paper………