Two Billion Eyes: The Story of China Central Television

Up until Two Billion Eyes, wrote the Los Angeles Review of Books, the view of Chinese media has often been limited…[Ying] Zhu expands the periphery of our vision. Acclaimed in hardcover by experts on China, Zhu’s brilliant dissection of China Central television (CCTV) is the first book to look at the dynamic modern media conglomerate and official mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, with an audience of over 1.2 billion viewers globally, including millions in the United States. With cogent analysis and penetrating insight (Publishers Weekly), Two Billion Eyes tells the groundbreaking story of this hugely influential media player.

A fascinating window into the emergence of a Chinese public sphere (Fredric Jameson) and an indispensable guide to the Chinese media landscape (The New Inquiry), Two Billion Eyes explores how commercial priorities and journalistic ethics have competed with the demands of state censorship and how Chinese audiences themselves have grown more critical. A unique window (South China Morning Post) into one of the world’s most important corporations, this is a crucial new book for anyone seeking to understand contemporary China.