The theme song of a television drama does something more than introducing the plot: it helps establish the tone and emotional character of a television drama. This sense of identity is created not only by the melody, but also through the arrangement that includes the organization of form, functional harmony, instruments, and playing techniques that define its sonic signature. When a television drama is distributed across regions and requires localization, the theme song is sometimes rearranged to suit local audiences, producing new cover versions that are recognizable but distinct. This paper uses Justice Bao (Bao Qingtain) to examine how, as a localization process, the rearrangement of a theme song could play an important role in retaining the sonic identity of a television drama. 

Originally a Taiwanese television drama first broadcast in 1974, Justice Bao became widely known for its 1993 remake that was exported and localized for different regional markets. The theme song of this remake was also modified to various degrees in the process. Instead of reusing the original instrumental tracks—a common practice for producing East Asian pop covers during the 1980s and 1990s—there were rearrangements for those localized versions that retained the original formal and harmonic structures while reorganizing other musical elements with different choices of instruments and timbres. In this light, this paper demonstrates how these rearrangements accommodated region-specific audience settings while rendering the sonic identity of Justice Bao still recognizable.