Abstract:

The young Chinese have been profoundly changed and shaped during the significant economic transformation and structural reforms in China in recent years. A research was conducted on the TV reality show which has played an important role in shaping people’s perspectives while the study of work values on these shows was still nascent. The purpose of this paper was to analyse the young Chinese’s work values presented in “Only You”- one of the most popular job-hunting TV reality show in China. The content analysis method was used to investigate the work values reflected in the discourses of forty-nine young job candidates (age from twenty to thirty-five) in the show. The research suggested that contemporary young Chinese seem more self-centred in their job selection; the data also showed some hints of overly optimistic and idealistic in their career pursuit. The data might have suggested that reduced young people in China thought about giving back to society and others as well. Some reflections of the research were noted in the final section of the paper. Many investigations and studies have been conducted on reality shows. But, until now the research on job-hunting reality shows have focused on the influence of TV reality show on society; to explore the reasons for the craze evoked among the public; to analyse the structural settings of the show, etc. The research perspectives primarily centred on journalism, communication, marketing, applied linguistics, and psychology, while the sociological perspective was not fully interpreted and researched. The research in this paper is a novel exploratory attempt with courage and prudence beyond the overly repeated research lenses and methods applied.