Raymond Zhou

Setting record straight

By Raymond Zhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-10-15 06:57

A month and a half ago, I wrote a piece of news analysis on the Super Girls phenomenon. It was carried on the weekend edition of China Daily the day after the grand finale of the wildly popular vocal contest.

Since then, I have been quoted by several English-language news outlets, among them The South China Morning Post, The New York Times, and recently, The Asian Edition of Time magazine.

I suppose I should feel flattered by the attention of such prestigious peers. But instead, I'm a little dismayed because I have been invariably misunderstood - and in every possible way I can imagine.

All of them quoted the same sentence from my article and mistakenly attributed it to the Chinese Government: "How come an imitation of a democratic system ends up selecting the singer who has the least ability to carry a tune?"

I'll clarify it once and for all: Nobody - not any government agency, nor my boss - had given me instructions or hints that I should question the validity of the winner, the tomboyish Li Yuchun. I happen to be a lover of vocal music, and I was truly puzzled. Besides, there was a consensus that, among the top five finalists, Li is vocally the weakest. Even her fans concurred. That doesn't mean she could not be a good entertainer, though.

But that's not the point. Contrary to what the Time piece said, my article was not an editorial, nor was it an opinion piece as everyone else seemed to believe. It was a summary of the debate that was going on throughout Cultural China in August, and I tried to cover all significant points expounded by eminent opinion leaders, none of whom, by the way, were on the China Daily staff.

My oft-quoted remark was a mere transitional sentence. Even though it reflected my own bewilderment, most of my interviewees shared this view.

The more I talked to people, the more I realized that Super Girls is such a conundrum that presenting a convenient argument about it would amount to the proverbial blind man deciphering an elephant.

The South China Morning Post editorial said I missed the point because I had mistaken audience participation for democracy.

Of course, 15 text message votes for each mobile phone number is different from one vote for one person. But when the votes tallied millions, wouldn't it at least simulate the mechanism of democracy in spirit, if not in detail? Otherwise, all those experts would be making a mountain out of a molehill.

The author then mentioned in the same breath "The Apprentice," which, on a political level, has just the opposite connotation of democracy since Donald Trump, the one big boss, makes the final decision and doesn't need to bother with any voting system.

On the other end of the spectrum is Time Asia, which has just made Li Yuchun one of "Asia's heroes" in the iconoclast category. Now, I would respectfully disagree, not on the ground of vocal prowess, but because I feel they have taken the reflection of an object for the object itself. Normally, the mirror image of a person, figuratively, is identical with the person, but in this case, overblown reactions towards this reality show are what have added weight to it.

Super Girls is indeed an entertainment show, and a highly successful one at that. It's not out to make a statement. The producers in Hunan adopted audience participation as a "business paradigm," and as business people they are by nature averse to risks, including political ones.

Nor were voters - mostly teenagers for this American Idol wannabe - conscious of possible ramifications. They often felt funny when asked about this.

However, it was natural for cultural experts to read meanings into it especially after a few American newspapers reported on it first, inadvertently leaving a cue to their Chinese counterparts. The influential Southern Weekend even had two multi-page special sections on it within two months, effectively elevating the topic from the entertainment page to the cultural page.

On this higher plane, the implication could not and should not be ignored. And democracy is not the only angle. One can interpret the phenomenon from a variety of perspectives. No matter which way you examine it, Li Yuchun is not "the hero," not in the sense of a Cui Jian or even a Madonna - at least, not yet. What some distortedly see as "heroic" is their image of her as a star born out of millions of votes.

raymondzhou@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 10/15/2005 page4)