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Abstract
Taiwan director Hou Hsiao-hsien (1947–present) is widely recognized as one of the foundations of the New Wave of Taiwan film. Melding both cultural analysis and urban theory, this article explores how cities are represented by the vision of border in Hou Hsiao-hsien's films All the Youthful Days (Hou, 1983), Dust in the Windy (Hou, 1986), Millennium Mambo (Hou, 2000) and A Time for Youth (Hou, 2005). These films draw a spatial topography that maps Taiwan's history of urbanization and globalization. In the cinematic representation of space, the border is both the geographical space of the rural transforming to the urban and the cultural space of traditional lifestyles transforming to modernity or postmodernity. Hou Hsiao-hsien describes and represents the city from the vision of a 'rural observer' who creates an outsiders' city map. Following Raymond Williams' theory of the country and the city, the article then approaches Hou Hsiao-hsien's film works in dialogue with a range of other theorists (Georg Simmel, Barbara Mennel, Fredric Jameson, Micheal de Certeau, Jacques Derrida, Edward Relph, Walter Benjamin, Wolfgang Schivelbusch). Hou's border worlds enable him to explore change, confusion, alienation and loss. In this way, each of his films can be seen as a microcosm of the changing world in which the rural and the urban open to and interact with each other.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the cultivation effects of television advertising viewing on the perceived affluence in society and the materialistic value orientations among adolescents in urban and rural China.Design/methodology/approachThe paper shows that a survey of 646 adolescents aged 11 to 17, in Guangzhou City, and in a rural county of Henan Province, was conducted in 2006. Constructs were measured using established scales.FindingsTelevision advertising viewing demonstrated first‐ and second‐order cultivation effects among urban as well as rural respondents. Heavy television advertising viewers were more likely to have a higher perceived affluence than light television advertising viewers. Heavy television advertising viewers were also more materialistic than light television advertising viewers. When television‐advertising viewing was controlled, urban respondents had a higher perceived affluence, while rural respondents had a higher level of materialism.Research limitations/implicationsStudents in grades 7 and 8 were examined only. A convenient sampling method was adopted. The city selected for the study is highly advanced in terms of economical and advertising development compared with most other Chinese cities.Practical implicationsRural adolescents did not hold strong beliefs about prevalence of affluence in society. Popularity appeal may not be a fruitful marketing communication strategy for durable goods for them. Different marketing communication strategies should be adopted for the urban and rural adolescents as target audience.Originality/valueThe paper is a pioneer work on the study of consumption values of adolescents in urban and rural China.