Are our families still Confucian? Representations of family in East Asian television dramas

Given the changes of the modern family, this study seeks to compare the ways in which television dramas of four East Asian societies, namely Korea, China, Japan and Taiwan, represent the family and family relationships. By analysing their similarities and differences, the study attempts to explore changes of family in these supposedly Confucian East Asian societies. Three analytic categories were proposed: the structure and form of the family as represented in dramas; family relationships; individuality and the family. The study found that the historical trajectories of East Asian countries are articulated in the different familial representations across the television dramas of the countries in the region surveyed. The common assumption that all East Asian countries have the same model of the Confucian family therefore needs to be re-examined along the more specific national conditions.