PhD thesis final - Royal Holloway, University of London

Chapter 4- Home, domesticity and belongingOn the other hand, Taiwanese TV programs are useful, comforting and a way to relaxnot only because of their easy-to-understand content, but also due to the familiarity theybring to the Taiwanese audience, as Tony explained:Yuhui:What do you do after work.Tony: Watch TV.Yuhui: What kind of [programs]?Tony: Easy ones; it is too tiring to watch serious programs like political talk shows afteran exhausting work day.Yuhui:You have your own TV set?Tony: No, it is in the living room, it's shared. We watch together, often, we will watchTaiwanese entertainment shows which I didn‘t watch in Taiwan.Yuhui: Why?Tony: When in Taiwan, I always think they are low-grade [laugh]. But now, I feel thatthey are also good in the sense that they make you feel easy and so relaxed. Theyare very entertaining, so in here, I watch them because they always make me feelrelaxed. I just don‘t care whether they are low-grade or not.However, watching Taiwanese satellite TV is not merely a pastime to relax, but it mayalso be able to imbue the domestic space with the ‗familiar tone and language, soundand music, talk and ideas‘ (Roger, R&D department manager living in the local gatedcommunity in Shanghai with his family). Through immersing themselves in such anatmosphere, my respondents can also feel a sense of being in place whereby they wouldoften switch and leave the TV on as a background just ‗to make the house full of soundI am familiar with‘ (Willi).135