A Comparative Study On Perceptions Of Romantic Love In Chinese And American Sitcoms

Romantic love has a life-long impact on people’s lives,especially the lives of younger generations,and these are increasingly influenced by media portrayals.Positive factors in romantic love may bring a good life while negative ones may have undesirable or even destructive effects on people’s lives.While prior studies on romantic love tend to be framed from psychology and literary perspectives,this thesis has sought to employ media analysis and a cross-cultural comparative method to shed light on some different perceptions of romantic love found between young adults in China and the United States.As widely-enjoyed sitcoms,both i Partment from China and Friends from the United States tell stories of young people especially related to their romantic involvements.In the thesis,cultural patterns pertaining to romantic love in Chinese and American sitcoms are investigated,using i Partment and Friends as two comparative cases.Based on the analysis of main characters’ romantic relationships in both i Partment and Friends,the perceptions of romantic love in these two sitcoms and among contemporary young generations are highlighted,and the underlying cultural values are explored.Applying Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love,the present research found that: when starting a love relationship,Chinese characters in i Partment take external conditions such as social status,family,and income into consideration while the American characters in Friends base a romantic relationship mostly on personal interests and passion.In i Partment,families or friends often interfere with individuals’ romantic relationships,and individuals are often influenced by their families or friends when involved in romantic relationships,while in Friends,families or friends try not to interfere with individuals’ romantic relationships,and individuals take control of their own romantic involvements;protagonists in i Partment are much less involved in romantic relationships than those in Friends.The cross-cultural differences in perceptions of romantic love were then linked to the theoretical frameworks developed by Kuo-Shu Yang(particularly his Social Orientation and Individual Orientation)and Geert Hofstede(particularly his dimensions of Long-term/short-term and Restraint/indulgence orientation).And new features of perceptions of love relationship among young people are highlighted including more than one love relationship and more tolerant and diverse sexual discourse.Thus,as these types of television series have high popularity among young people,studying romantic love in sitcoms offers a new window to cultural comparison.Future research could extend this study to look at how values associated with romantic love are depicted in sitcoms and specifically affect young people’s love life in these or other cultural contexts.