瓊瑤電視戲劇風格的蛻變：《還珠格格》－一個類型(genre)的分析

Intending to explain a popular cultural phenomenon, that is, the unprecedented popularity of 1997 TV drama Huanzhu GeGe in the greater China regional media market, this paper employing generic analysis to find an appropriate answer. Huanzhu GeGe, a production from Taiwan’s renowned romance novel writer/TV drama producer Chiungyao, was an instant hit show in the greater China region after it's first broadcasting in Taiwan. Using Jane Feuer's generic analysis approach, this paper argues that the popularity of Huanzhu Gege is based on three aspects. Firstly, in aesthetic perspective, Huanzhu Gege is a generic-hybrid, which means it is not a standard Chiungyao's romantic soap opera. The creator added quite a few genres she never used before, such as comedy, slap-stick, martial arts genre, making Huanzhu Gege a generic invention full of freshness and pleasures. Secondly, in ideological perspective, Huanzhu GeGe was emphasizing populism, a rising ideology within the greater China region; Finally, in ritual perspective, with keenly sensing the social changes accompanied the decreasing fertility undergone in greater China societies, Chiungyao created Huanzhu GeGe as a escape haven to appeal the youth audience. Through the generic analysis, this paper argues that Huanzhu GeGe's popularity lies in its ability to bring audience pleasures not only aesthetically, ideologically but ritually.