Reprogramming emotion repertoires: The affective politics of light entertainment format in the Chinese reality show <i>Sing!China</i>

This article expands existing research on television formats by analyzing the Chinese reality talent show Sing!China. After losing the copyright lawsuit for The Voice of China , Zhejiang TV and Canxing Media produced the show as an alternative and marketed it as an independently developed format. Through a critical discourse analysis from the lens of affect, this article explores how the show reprograms the affective appeals of global formats by deploying three sets of emotion repertoires—surprise and immediacy, humor and positivity, belonging and nostalgia. These coalesce into a light entertainment format that distances itself from the visible markers of The Voice of China ’s Western template while adjusting its underlying affective economic logic. As an adaptive strategy for shifting media ecology, this superficial and non-intensive format reduces audience affective labor while subtly integrating ideological semiotics into mundane pleasure. By exploring the adaptation and divergence of global formats in the distinct media context of China, this article advocates for a more nuanced, context-sensitive understanding of localization in TV production.