Chinese TV drama in a regional market: Aspiring to be a cultural actor?

Once isolated from the outside world, Chinese TV exclusively and loyally served as a Party’s propaganda tool, and almost “zero” trans-border TV trade was developed. With China’s unreserved embrace of market economy after the 1980s, TV production has been internationalized, and sporadic cases of overseas trade have taken place. Joining the WTO compelled Chinese TV officials to face increasing challenges from global broadcasters which led them to formulate the “going-global” policy to encourage large scale of TV exportation. China, now, has displayed its aspiration to increase its TV exportation, or put it more ambitiously, to “centralize” a regional Chinese cultural market, including the areas of Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and possibly Korean and Japan.