Article International Journal of Cultural Studies 14(3) 307–321 © The Author(s) 2011 Reprints and permission: sagepub.co.uk/ journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1367877910391869 ics.sagepub.com Are our families still Confucian? Representations of family in East Asian television dramas Myungkoo Kang Seoul National University, Korea Sooah Kim Seoul National University, Korea Abstract 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. Keywords China, Confucian family, East Asia, family, Japan, Korea, representations, Taiwan, television drama This study seeks to explore how television dramas of South Korea, China, Japan and Taiwan have represented familial relations, and how they construct symbolic realities of the family, realities coded with socio-cultural norms, ideals and tensions through which audiences can relate against their own experiences. In our research, we juxta- posed the convenient cultural suppositions of East Asian societies as predominantly Corresponding author: Myungkoo Kang, Department of Communication, College of Social Sciences, Seoul National University, Daehak-dong, Kwanak-gu, Seoul, Korea 151-742. Email: kangmk@snu.ac.kr