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A few months ago, we informed you of the latest information about the 15th edition of CBS' Survivor: China, to be held...in China (surpise, surprise). In a few short weeks, the show will debut after filming its episodes during July and August. As the stentorian narrator in this early promo for the show says,
"For the first time, a major American show goes behind the Great Wall to shoot entirely in China. It's a place where the strategy of war became an art."And cue the quotes from The Art of War. Naturally, every contestant was given a copy of that book. We're not kidding.
While initially, an island near the Chinese mainland coast (not one of those disputed ones with Japan) was believed to be the setting for the show, that rumor proved to be false. The true location of the shoot was actually near or around the part of the large Zhelin Reservoir (柘林水库) located in Wuning county (武宁县), Jiujiang city (九江市), in Jiangxi province (江西省). In accordance with Survivor tradition, the names of both "tribes" or teams are a tribute to the host country's culture. In this case, the names of the tribes are Flying Dragons (飞龙) and Fighting Tigers (战虎)...hmm...sounds familiar. Allegedly, the show will be using an ancient Shaolin temple and the Great Wall for unknown reasons, even though to the best of our knowledge the Great Wall is not in Jiangxi province. While the show has been known to place contestants in difficult environmental conditions, this season should be no exception, with the host of the show describing the heat and humidity of Jiangxi province as "indescribable." Clearly he has never experienced the body odor wetlands of Line 1 during rush hour.
On the show's official website, you can learn more about the two tribes by getting to know some of the contestants, including the Hong Kong-born party girl, who got kicked out of UCLA. Perhaps we've seen her at Zapata's. She is one of two contestants of East Asian heritage on the show (okay...one and a half). Curiously, SurvivorChina.net, one of the blogs covering the show's first dabble in China is blocked. On their site, they claim that yet another Survivor season will be filmed in China with no location known yet, that will air in 2008.
In two weeks, the show will premiere over CBS stations in America. We are too po for satellite television and don't even know if it's available in Shanghai. But if you want to see heavy editing and reality writing at its finest, you can tune in on Thursday, September 20 at 8pm (EST) for the premiere and every Thursday night thereafter. Of course, there are other ways to view the show, but we would never, ever encourage that kind of activity.
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So, in Shanghai, do we live "behind the Great Wall" or in front of it?
Dumb, ignorant, cheesy Americans. Is it any wonder that they elected Bush... twice???
Dumb, ignorant, prejudiced commenters. Take a look at popular TV around the globe -- not exactly highbrow material. Feel free to boycott all American television series, and see what you are left with.
assuming that the great wall was built to keep people on its west side from passing over to the east side of the wall, and Shanghai being on the far east side of the wall, we are safely behind it.
i would call this the application of in-side out-side logic to great wall geography
Haha blame all Americans for whatever you see on TV. Very modern. You'd fit in with the ancient Babylonians and good ol' Hammurabi with such a fine command of "collective responsibility". :D
TV will always be TV. If you see anything educational or brilliant on TV, let the rest of us know.
America has some terrible TV . . . but have you checked out CCTV? Or European TV? The best TV in the world is made in America, no question. What country has the quality of the HBO shows?
UC Berkeley IS NOT UCLA. Jesus, your fact checking gets worse and worse everyday.
And the Chinese girl in question is from LA - sure she was born in HKG, but she grew up in SoCal.
Sloppy sloppy.
Bad Shanghaiist.
Oops, I'm not nanheyangrouchuan.
fact checking? you think a blog written by volunteers has fact checkers? are you volunteering for the job? didn't think so. i'll take shanghaiist over any of the local rags any day, and those magazines have paid staffs.
The entry has been corrected.
As guest#8 said, we are volunteers and do not have copyeditors. Therefore, the writers must correct the entries themselves. Naturally, some mistakes are not caught by the writers as it is always difficult to correct ones own writing. I tried my best to correct any grammatic and spelling errors in the entry, but I neglected to check every fact in the article. I thank you for pointing it out. If you are volunteering for the position as official fact-checker, we would appreciate that.
I wish I could get Two and A Half Men on DVD.
You can purchase Two and A Half Men at various DVD stores in Shanghai or China for that matter.
That was my response to the criticisms of American TV shows. ZING, bitches
Really? the best answer is "Why don't you do it?" Is it really that difficult to figure out the difference between UCLA and UC Berkeley - considering its in the linked website? I mean its not like I was asking if it really was a whale shark or a giant catfish. It's IN THE LINK.
Berkeley and LA are not easily confused either. Sheesh.
Or I suppose I could go on accepting half assed article writing that passes for journalism in this town.
OF COURSE it's much easier to sit here at my desk and criticise someone else's work (hell, lamb kabob makes a life of that) - but I don't think this is brain surgery.
I think my best answer was that it was an unintentional mistake that didn't take away from the content or overall message of the entry. I'm appreciate you holding Shanghaiist to such high standards, but I'm not a journalist and I don't claim to be one.
'I wish I could get Two and A Half Men on DVD."
haha. they're replaying that show on wgn here in the states. shakespeare it isn't.
lol@the giant catfish post. that was a dark day in shanghaiist history.
dark day? they basically said they thought the story was bunk from the beginning. i see nothing wrong with a site like shanghaiist pointing out the absurd stuff making the rounds through the chinese internet.
care factor zero