While an abundance of research has been conducted examining representations of the family on television, little has been done to explore how those representations are understood by audiences receiving them. This research considered how the family representations on a Western television program, Star Trek: The Next Generation, were perceived by individuals from a collectivist society. There were no significant differences between groups of Chinese subjects on the basis of Chinese/Western nor Modern!fraditional orientation. Uniformity of responses seem to be linked to the influence of the family as a powerful frame of reference from which assessments were made.