Divergent staging of East Asian patriarchy within the Confucian order in Taiwan's transnational television drama co-productions

UsingLetter 1949(2009, hereafterLetter) andFathers Don't Like Each Other(2011, hereafterFathers) as case studies, this article explores the contrasting presentations of capitalist patriarchy in the otherwise young-women oriented Taiwanese television dramas that collaborated with China. Their narratives bear marks of the larger Cross-Straits contestations. China's dominant narrative of capitalist patriarchy traditionalized as Confucian paternalism, shared by Taiwan's Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), is seen inFathers; and the post-authoritarian, democratic, non-official narrative inLetter. The exemplary person (junzi) is illusive inLetter, yet ideally illustrated inFathersaligning with state ideologies of China and the KMT.