Constructing National Identity through Media Ritual : A Case Study of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala

Abstract: National identity is an important social bond for the existence and development of nation-states. National identity is not an innate or unchangeable awareness; instead, it is continuously produced by historical and realistic contexts. Nowadays, given their far-reaching penetration and influence, the mass media have become the principal platform for building national identity. The Spring Festival Gala (SFG) is a grand TV celebratory gala which is produced by China Central Television (CCTV) and has been aired on every lunar New Year’s eve since 1983. Ever since then, for Spring Festival celebrations, watching the live broadcast with the whole family has increasingly become as indispensible as posting spring couplets, setting off firecrackers, and eating dumplings. In other words, watching the CCTV SFG on lunar New Year’s Eve has gradually developed into an emerging folk custom and tradition in China since the early 1980s.This thesis investigates the national identity issue from the perspective of media ritual. It is argued that the SFG is in itself an elaborately-orchestrated media ritual, which plays an irreplaceable role in constructing national identity. In terms of its operation mechanism, the thesis argues that the SFG contributes to constructing national identity mainly through two strategies; one is a structural strategy, namely, ritualizing the SFG; the other is a textural strategy, mythologizing the SFG.