January  2012 19
專輯論文Special Issue Articles
現代幻想在中國之符號踐行: 「流星花園」模式的文化解析
Modern Fantasy and Its Symbolic Actualization in China: A Cultural Analysis of the Meteor Garden Format
  (3005)
作者 馮應謙、張瀟瀟
Author Anthony Y. H. FUNG, Xiaoxiao ZHANG
關鍵詞 「流星花園」模式、現代幻想、符號踐行、權力
Keywords Meteor Garden, modern fantasy, symbolic actualization, power
摘要 通過解析「流星花園」模式的台灣和內地版電視劇,本文力圖釐清流行文化與權力的關係。借由文本分析及話語分析,作者解析出「現代生活方式」與「現代愛情童話」幻想。「流星花園」模式以眾多能指將現代生活簡約為富人生活,並以人稱指代、隱喻等話語元素構建貧富對立。為跨越貧富鴻溝及踐行現代生活,該模式所提供符號解決措施卻是現代灰姑娘神話,從而將社會結構問題轉化為個人因素。相比台灣版,內地版尤為美化社會陰暗面從而助長霸權建構,此乃其政治經濟處境所決定。
Abstract Originally a Japanese manga in the 1990s, the Meteor Garden format narrates a story about four rich boys with good looks and a poor girl with an attractive personality. Among the format’s variants, two TV drama versions were produced: Meteor Garden, by Taiwan producers in 2001; and With the View Of Meteor Shower, by mainland China’s producers in 2009. The former is a super hit with significant influence on all of Asia. The latter is the latest adaptation, located in a unique social context. In analyzing these two television dramas, the authors explore the relationship between popular culture and power in the Meteor Garden format.

Our textual analysis focuses on the signification system of the Meteor Garden format and is supplemented by the analysis of character dialogue. The discourse analysis explicates how personal pronouns and metaphors discursively construct the contradiction between two different stratum identities, the rich and the poor. Finally, we analyze the fantasies of “modern lifestyle” and “modern love tale” inherent in the Meteor Garden format. This format oversimplifies modern life, by equating modern life to rich life with the multiple-signifierssingle- signified representation, which betrays the ideal of “life politics” proposed by Anthony Giddens. Moreover, the rich-poor contradiction has been constructed by the discursive opposition between the personal pronouns “you” and “we,” which is dramatized by the metaphors “parasites” and “weeds.” In order to bridge the rich-poor gap, the format provides audiences with a symbolic solution, that is, the modern Cinderella myth. On one hand, the romantic love between the rich Prince Charming and the poor Cinderella advocates a pure relationship. But on the other hand, it reconciles the conflicts between the two opposite stratums and accordingly transfers social responsibility to individuals. In short, the Meteor Garden format actualizes modern fantasies and to some extent helps to maintain the status quo, which are similarities shared by both the Taiwan version and the mainland version.

Despite the similarities, the two versions differ significantly in ways that might be caused by their different social contexts. In comparison with the Taiwan variant, the mainland show bears a lesser degree of “semiotic excess.” Furthermore, With the View Of Meteor Shower conspicuously beautifies the dark side of mainland China. By constructing a perfect character, a land agent, the mainland version purifies the image of the real estate industry, which has actually caused many severe social problems in China. Chinese audiences are indulged in modern fantasies and fail to see the real problems with the social structure. The mainland version thus contributes greatly to hegemony building.



本文引用格式

馮應謙、張瀟瀟(2012)。〈現代幻想在中國之符號踐行:「流星花園」模式的文化解析〉。《傳播與社會學刊》,第19 期,頁59–76。



Citation of this article:

Fung, A. Y. H., & Zhang, X. (2012). Modern Fantasy and Its Symbolic Actualization in China: A Cultural Analysis of the Meteor Garden Format. Communication & Society, 19, 59–76.
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