Richard Madsen 
China and the American Dream [EPUB ebook] 
A Moral Inquiry

From the ‘Red Menace’ to Tiananmen Square, the United States and China have long had an emotionally tumultuous relationship. Richard Madsen’s frank and innovative examination of the moral history of U.S.-China relations targets the forces that have shaped this surprisingly strong tie between two strikingly different nations. Combining his expertise as a sinologist with the vision of America developed in
Habits of the Heart and
The Good Society, Madsen studies the cultural myths that have shaped the perceptions of people of both nations for the past twenty-five years.


The dominant American myth about China, born in the 1960s, foresaw Western ideals of economic, intellectual, and political freedom emerging triumphant throughout the world. Nixon’s visit to China nurtured this idea, and by the 1980s it was helping to sustain America’s hopefulness about its own democratic identity. Meanwhile, Chinese popular culture has focused on the U.S., especially American consumer goods—Coca-Cola was described by the
People’s Daily as ‘capitalism concentrated in a bottle.’


Today we face a new global institutional and cultural environment in which the old myths no longer work for either Americans or Chinese. Madsen provides a framework for us to think about the relationship between democratic ideals and economic/political realities in the post-Cold War world. What he proposes is no less than the foundation for building a public philosophy for the emerging world order.



From the ‘Red Menace’ to Tiananmen Square, the United States and China have long had an emotionally tumultuous relationship. Richard Madsen’s frank and innovative examination of the moral history of U.S.-China relations targets the forces that have shaped

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Preface 

Introduction: Entertainment as Social Control

    DONALD LAZERE 

Further Readings 


Part I. MEDIA AND MANIPULATION

Introduction 

Further Readings 

Reshaping the Truth: Pragmatists and Propagandists in America

    ALEX CAREY 

Selling to Ms. Consumer CAROL ASCHER 

The Blockbuster Decades: The Media as Big Business

    WALTER POWELL 

The Corporate Complaint Against the Media

    PETER DREIER 

Conservative Media Criticism: Heads I Win, Tails You Lose 

    DONALD LAZERE

    

Part II. CAPITALISM AND AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY

Introduction 

Further Readings I 

Doublespeak and Ideology in Ads: A Kit for Teachers

    RICHARD OHMANN 

Stars, Status, Mobility JEREMY TUNSTALL I 

From Menace to Messiah: The History and Historicity of Superman

    THOMAS ANDRAE 

Domesticating Nature TODD GITLIN 

The lnfantilizing of Culture ARIEL DORFMAN


Part III. MOMENTS OF HISTORICAL CONSCIOUSNESS

Introduction 

Further Readings 

Shirley Temple and the House of Rockefeller CHARLES ECKERT 

Frank Capra and the Popular Front LEONARD QUART 

The Politics of Power in On the Waterfront

    PETER BISKIND 

Machismo and Hollywood’s Working Class 

    PETER BISKIND AND BARBARA EHRENREICH 

Gimme Shelter: Feminism, Fantasy, and Women’s Popular Fiction

    KATE ELLIS 

    

Part IV. THE MASS-MEDIATION OF POPULAR AND OPPOSITIONAL CULTURE

Introduction 

Further Readings 

Television’s Screens: Hegemony in Transition

    TODD GITLIN 

The Search for Tomorrow in Today’s Soap Operas

    TANIA MODLESKI 

The Blues Tradition: Poetic Revolt or Cultural Impasse? 

    CARL BOGGS AND RAY PRATT 

Working People’s Music GEORGE LIPSITZ 

Rock and Popular Culture SIMON FRITH 


Part V. IDEOLOGY IN PERCEPTION, STRUCTURE, AND GENRE

Introduction 

Further Readings 

Representation and the News Narrative: The Web of Facticity

    GAYE TUCHMAN 

Daffy Duck and Bertolt Brecht: Toward a Politics of Self-Reflexive

Cinema? DANA B. POLAN 

Women and Representation: Can We Enjoy Alternative Pleasure?

    JANE GAINES 

Masterpiece Theatre and the Uses of Tradition TIMOTHY BRENNAN 

The Liberating Potential of the Fantastic in Contemporary Fairy Tales

for Children JACK ZIPES 


Part VI. MEDIA, LITERACY, AND POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION

Introduction 

Further Readings 

The Teachings of the Media Curriculum NEIL POSTMAN 

Class as the Determinant of Political Communication

    CLAUS MUELLER 

Charting the Mainstream: Television’s Contributions to Political

Orientations GEORGE GERBNER, LARRY GROSS, MICHAEL MORGAN, AND

NANCY SIGNORJELLI 

Mass Culture and the Eclipse of Reason: The Implications for Pedagogy 

STANLEY ARONOWITZ 


Part VII. FROM THE HALLS OF MONTEZUMA TO THE SHORES OF TRIPOLI: CULTURAL IMPERIALISM

Introduction 

Further Readings 

Ambush at Kamikaze Pass TOM ENGELHARDT 

Sports and the American Empire MARK NAISON 

Introduction to How to Read Donald Duck

    DAVID KUNZLE 

The Great Parachutist ARIEL DORFMAN AND

    ARMAND MATTELART 

Media Imperialism? JEREMY TUNSTALL 


Part VIII. ALTERNATIVES AND CULTURAL ACTIVISM

Introduction 

Further Readings

Should News Be Sold for Profit? CHRISTOPHER JENCKS 

An Alternative American Communications System ROBERT CIRINO 

Pacifica Radio and the Politics of Culture CLARE SPARK 

A Course on Spectator Sports LOUIS KAMPF 

Rethinking Guerrilla Theater, 1971, 1985 R. G. DAVIS 

Public Access Television: Alternative Views DOUGLAS KELLNER 

 

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Richard Madsen is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego. He is coauthor of Habits of the Heart (California, 1985) and The Good Society (1991), author of Morality and Power in a Chinese Village (California, 1984), and coauthor of Chen Village under Mao and Deng (California, 1992).