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Abstract
Taking one of the most representative subgenres of lifestyle TV, the cooking show, as a case study, in this article, we examine the history and changing cultural meanings of this televisual genre in the context of Taiwan's postwar social history and TV industry. We conduct textual analyses of Taiwanese cooking shows across three different historical stages: Fu Pei Mei's shows (the 1960s–1980s), Chen Hong's shows (the 1990s), and Metrosexual Uber-Chef with Master Ah-Ji (the 2000s), in order to advance a critical exploration of the complex relationships between these popular media texts and their social and industrial contexts. We argue that, in line with the ongoing transformations in Taiwan's society and television industry over the postwar era, the cooking show essentially shifted from educational-cultural to entertainment programming. However, at the same time, the pedagogical function of teaching both cooking skills and life ethics was maintained throughout the different stages, albeit represented very differently in each of the three periods, corresponding with the social and industrial contexts pertaining in each.
Notes
1. A note on terminology: we define the cooking show in distinction to a related subgenre, the food-and-eating show. The content of the cooking show is mainly the teaching, practice, and comment on specific cuisine from a culinary expert. The show is normally shot live in studio, and the expert practices cooking with a variety of ingredients and cooking implements. The food-and-eating subgenre, meanwhile, is a broader one and may incorporate elements of travelogue (traveling and learning about local cuisine), restaurant review, documentary exploration of a particular foodstuff, etc.
2. The GIO was terminated on 20 May 2012. All its broadcast media-related affairs were reassigned to a newly established governmental department, the Ministry of Culture.
3. According to the Radio and Television Law that was first issued in 1976, the authority divided television programs into four categories: news, educational-cultural, public information service, and entertainment. The mandate of educational-cultural programs is ‘to develop Chinese culture, promote social education, support school teaching and inspire children's intelligence.’ Introducing the knowledge of housework is one of its missions. The term educational-cultural has been used interchangeably with social-educational by official and academic sectors and the public. In their research on Taiwan television programs, Liu and Tsai (Citation1995) defined the social educational program as ‘providing audience common knowledge, ideas, customs, and cultures and has social educational function.’
4. Since the license was issued to the private company of which the major stockholders were key figures in the major opposition party, the DDP, the meaning and effect of FTV's founding were much more complicated than it superficially appears. This was more like an exchange of political interests rather than simply a democratic action.
5. Quoted in TTV (2006) Fu Pei Mei Time (DVD), No. 3. Taipei: TTV Cultural Corporation.
6. According to a writer in the fashion industry, the term Metrosexual, originating in UK newspapers, refers to a new breed of man who is young, urban, and softens and diversifies his masculinity by taking more care and spending more money on his body caring, clothes, drinking and eating, and arts appreciation, all in all establishing a lifestyle based on refined taste (Flocker, Citation2003).
7. This episode was broadcast in 2000. The video was retrieved from: http://www.tudou.com/listplay/o1tz2EhagAs/sl3Ujm-OytA.html
9. Martin's 2011 interviews with young Taiwanese fans of Curtis Stone, Jamie Oliver, and other Euro-American celebrity chefs featured on the TLC Taiwan cable channel revealed that these viewers highly valued the emphasis on ‘creativity’ espoused by the Western TV chefs and contrasted it directly with the ‘rule-bound’ character of ‘traditional’ or ‘housewife-targeted’ Taiwan-made cooking shows. See Lewis, Martin, and Sun, Telemodernities (forthcoming).
10. In the 1970s, as a testimony to Taiwan's ‘economic miracle,’ certain public figures were famed for their arduous life struggles that transformed them from ‘nobodies’ into successful people. Mass media widely transmitted these legendary stories. For example, Wang Yung-Ching (1917–2008), son of a poor tea farmer, became the owner of Taiwan's largest petrochemical corporation (Formosa Plastics Group) and the island's wealthiest man – all (so the legend goes) by his own efforts. Wang's story was one of the most well known in Taiwan at the time.