Identifying with Sherlock and Downton Abbey in China

By analysing Chinese online comments on Youku, Douban and Zhihu about Sherlock and Downton Abbey, this thesis seeks to gain perspective on the viewers, their interests and outlooks on life. Theoretically, the thesis draws on scholarship that engages with media as practice (Couldry, 2004) with a focus on specific online practices of Chinese TV viewers in the twenty-first century. “Cultural complexity” as discussed by Hannerz (1992) offers a non-essentialist way of discussing the actions and aspirations of middle-class Chinese and what it means to be “cosmopolitan” in China.