From Sex and the City to Prison Break, from Lipstick Jungle to Ugly Betty, undeniably, we now expose ourselves to a multitude of American soap operas. Tornado of American soap opera has hit our country, rendering increasing influence on different spheres of the society. You shouldn’t be too surprised by getting to know a four-year-old child’s idol is Blake Christina Lively（heroine of Gossip Girl）, hearing a sixty-year-old granny talk about plots of Friends, or discovering the novel styled English course, in which students pick up the language by watching soap dramas.
As for me, a college student, American soap drama means a combination of recreation and study. Not only do I learn more about American people, their values, their life style, but also enjoy the product of American-style innovation and imagination. Lipstick jungle shows me how those charming and smart women struggle to build up their position in the society. Lie to me fascinates me by discussing the theme of honesty through various odd cases. The forever classic, Friends, leads me to the world of American humor. To some extend, these soap dramas assist me in understanding phenomena of the super-power country in the world. Of course, improving my ability in English is the most direct benefit I gain from piles of soap dramas. When it comes to daily conversation, English turns alive, since no longer does it lie in textbook but exists in the real world.
Some people assert that TV play serials of America pose a great threat to our own culture, because they are playing a more and more prominent part in our people’s life, in which way values of the US is gradually instilled into Chinese people’s mind；consequently, they will act like Americans step by step. Instead of regarding the popularity of American soap dramas as culture invasion, I believe they are the product of globalization and culture exchange. When given the platform to thrive, any form of culture has the chance if it is to the tastes of people. However, what’s deep down in our mind wouldn’t change. During the process of socialization, what is taught by schools and parents makes up the largest part in our values, rooting deeply in our hearts, and will not transfer to another type easily. Changes occurred in some people who seem to welcome American values remain superficial. Those people might act like Americans, but they are just acting. They are Chinese in the bone, which wouldn’t change simply by watching TV.
Watching American soap dramas has become a trend. Though we don’t need to worry too much that what they show will threaten our ideology, we still have to do the self-examination, or we will see the can’t-help-but-sorry situation that foreign TV soap operas become the dominant power of the TV program industry in our country. Why the number of native big-hit soap operas remains so small? How to enhance the influence of domestic TV production? Seriously we should leave some question marks for ourselves and learn something from others.
（本文为英文网征文比赛二等奖获奖作品）
