From Screen To Stream: Platform Transition, Cultural Proximity, And The Reception Of Chinese Variety Shows Among Malaysian Audiences

Abstract

With the strategic expansion of Chinese streaming platforms in Southeast Asia, the cross-border distribution path of Chinese variety shows is undergoing a profound transformation from traditional TV broadcasting to online streaming platforms. As the earliest Southeast Asian market where iQIYI has landed, Malaysia, with its unique background of Chinese communities, multicultural coexistence, and highly digital media consumption, constitutes a typical field for exploring the mechanism of overseas dissemination of Chinese variety shows. This study takes Cultural Proximity Theory as the main theoretical framework, integrates Uses and Gratifications Theory and Global Media Flow Theory, and employs a mixed research method combining questionnaires and in-depth interviews. Using a mixed-method approach, the study examines Malaysian audiences' exposure to Chinese variety shows, their preferences and cultural identity responses. The study aims to clarify how platform transformation reconfigures audience reach pathways and how cultural proximity variables (language, ethnicity, values) modulate audience acceptance of content. The theoretical contribution of this paper is to introduce the theory of cultural proximity into the streaming media platform context and empirically test the mechanism of Chinese-language content dissemination in non-Chinese dominated societies, providing new analytical perspectives for understanding South-South media flows within Asia.