Reality Bites: Pop Idolatry on Chinese television

It started with the UK’s semi-successful Pop Stars, which mutated into the very successful Pop Idol, which duly crossed the Atlantic and transfixed the United States as American Idol, and now it would appear that Asia, or more importantly, China, is getting in on the act of making a television sensation out of finding a pop star. Taiwanese entertainment network ETTV is running its second series of Top Idol this summer, in which contestants battle it out for their share of a $50,000 prize fund and the opportunity to sign a contract with ETTV. Last year’s inaugural competition saw wannabes from across Asia, and indeed the US, strutting their stuff, but despite the hype, the audience at the finals in New York numbered little over 100.

Perhaps more successful, certainly as far as the massed ranks of China’s television viewers are concerned, is Wo Xing Wo Show (莱卡我型我Show), a Pop Idol-style programme in which contestants are judged not only according to their singing prowess, but also general charisma. Teams of editors whittle down and re-order the audition footage so as to package the hopefuls as particular “characters”, thereby giving the judges and TV audience a juicier, if less representative, basis on which to vote contenders in or out. Viewing figures last year hit a record 430 million, and 50,000 hopefuls turned up for auditions this year, of which only 40 make the cut. However, Shanghaiist must confess that when six female Shanghainese friends were canvassed regarding their interest in the programme, some had never heard of it, and only one had ever watched it. Perhaps the reason for this lies in the explanation given by one, that “these types of programmes are generally preferred by people from Hubei and Sichuan.” As opposed to the more sophisticated Shanghai audience, one might assume.