Many consider ideology to be obsolete in contemporary China. By taking a case study on cultural production in China, this article argues that ideology still plays a symbolic, yet crucial role in influencing Chinese politics. This article shows how China’s cultural production, in particular, TV industry has been struggling between political dogmatism and economic pragmatism. By using the six-facet cultural production model as a theoretical framework to study China’s TV industry, this article provides a notable addition to understanding the role of ideology and the development of the cultural industry in contemporary China.