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Comment by gvb | Hacker News Reader

I saw a TV in 8 of 11 pictures. All the pictures were remarkable in their austerity. The first picture struck me by the wind generator, satellite dish, and TV next to the other utilitarian possessions.

Conclusion: information ranks right up there with food and shelter.

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It's entertainment. From my experience in China I've rarely seen a news channel over a movie. Traditional kung fu style movies are the most common amongst the older population.

Entertainment can be equated to information in a practical sense though.

No, it really can not.

Except in the Niquist/Shannon sense, or if you work for E channel...

Entertainment is a method by which people acquire cultural facts, knowledge, even wisdom and philosophy. It easily extends to picking up domain specific knowledge as well, episodes often center around a scientific/technical subject which allows audiences to pickup a cursory level of knowledge in a subject otherwise foreign to them. So directly, yes, entertainment=information even in a very literal sense.

Probably never watched Chinese TV...

I suspect it's entertainment, rather than information. Underlying both both possibilities, the TV is a viewable link to the larger society.

This surprises me, why people expect that they not have TVs in the countryside? Even the most remote village has some kind of power (water wheels are common, wind and solar also), then the TV, the DVD player, the karaoke machine are minimums (but cellphone is always first). The only pic without a TV...people who live on a boat, and what looks like a rich antique dealer.

The antique dealer's TV is to the left of his Lexus in the background.

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