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I love Chinese dramas (and Korean dramas, and Japanese dramas). I love them for the stories and the actors and the costumes and for all kinds of reasons, not the least of which is how fascinating it is for me, a Western person, to see how television, especially very popular television, is perceived and functions outside of the US. It's entertainment, but it's also so much more, especially the with regard to controversies Westerners observe through a very confusing filter, that rise up around specific actors, dramas, and censorship issues. I'm not equipped to speculate about those things but I am driven to understand some of the historical context, and a few months ago I found this absolutely amazing doctoral thesis on the subject of Chinese drama, politics and propaganda by Yingzi Wang, a doctoral candidate at Loughborough University. Click on the download button to see the whole paper; definitely worth the read.