Ryu2.mind

Add another thing to the list of what I've done here that I wouldn'thave dreamt of back home: Last Saturday night, I had a chance to attendthe live broadcast of the finale of 创智赢家(Winner), the Chinese version of The Apprentice, as an audience member.  One of my local friends works for the mainsponsor, so she was able to hook me up with a ticket... xie xie for a fun night out! =)

Basically, the gist was that contestants entered by submitting businessplans, and 20 people  selected from that pool to participate. Every week, they were asked to do tasks, a la Apprentice, and one byone they were eliminated by the judges.  The final judging was by apanel of about 40 VCs, industry execs, business journalists, andprofessors, as well as being influenced by the votes (via SMS)of the TV audience.  The winner receives 1 million RMB of seed moneyand the support of top-flight (for China, anyway) VCs in the creationof their enterprises.

I never really watched much local TV (although I hear CCTV news worksgreat for insomnia) until my friend Tim was a contestant on a musicshow produced by the same station, 我型我Show (My Way My Show),basically a Chinese version of "American Idol" and actually made it tothe final 4 or 5 out of an initial pool of thousands ofcontestants, becoming a minor national celebrity in the process.  As Winner was produced by the same media company that did My Way My Show, I recognized some faces from the previous show... anyone in the pics ring a bell, Tim? ;)

It was my first live reality show ever, so I don't have much data points to compare it to, but a few things stuck in my mind.

*** The studio seems a lot smaller when you're actually in it, versus watching it on TV.  Also, the environment wasn't as rowdy as I expected it to be, knowing local Chinese,but that was probably due to the constraints of the studio itself.  The MC warned everyone (before airtime) NOT to throwobjects or fruit specifically... methinks that's a potential problemwith overzealous fans in China? =)  Still, everyone was cheering,holding up signs, lightmakers, and the like, as if it were a sportingevent.

*** With the element of audience participation (ie, the SMS voting), both"candidates" and their fanboys and fangirls were canvassing thestreets, universities, clubs -- everywhere -- passionately soliciting support. When and if multicandidate political elections come to this country,it'll be quite the spectacle to watch (and maybe avoid), if thefervor of these two gentlemen and their "campaigns" are any precursor of things to come.

*** The final two contestants were polar opposites in a way, mostlikely delibrately chosen for such.  The show used the term 斗争 (douzheng,struggle) a lot... where and when else in China has that term been usedfrequently before?  (Hint: think 1967-1976...)  That was a sort of interesting way to think about it... essentially a modernprojection onto a new arena of prole-vs-intellectual?


Chen Xi -- slick, smooth talking, able to control and use his emotionscrying at all the right moments, and a Doogie Howser type (enteredTianjin University at the age of 14, graduated with a triple major inEconomics, Philosophy, and something else I forgot), started threecompanies while in his teens.  He's in the mobile games industry,and his plan was to start Yet Another Mobile Game Company.


Peng Zheng -- everyman, your typical "hard worker", with an ideathat's off the beaten track (using the web to not just list andcategorize sports facilities, but keep track of sporting facilitiesoffering a desired sport near someone's location.  It createsessentially a "virtual gym" spanning all of Shanghai.  In asurreal way, it's almost like an operating system... where resourcesare virtualized, allocated, and scheduled, with the resources beinggyms and other venues, and the processes being the users =P )  

Essentially, I thought the douzhengcould be distilled down to a battlebetween everyman and Mr. Smooth.  Of course, Chen ended up winningby a healthy margin.  Outward appearance and sexiness once againreigned supreme here, which let me down a bit.  It's by no means endemic to China of course,but for a moment, I thought that maybe the judges would try somethingnew... take some risk and stray off the beaten path with their money. 

I dunno, Chen had experience and brains going for him, so his win wasunderstandable too in that sense.  I was rooting for Peng, butthen again, I like to root for the underdog anyway.  =)  Butbeing in games myself, it struck me as more of the same oldsame old in a space that (as some of the judges asked during theirquestioning) is crowded and not getting any better except viaconsolidation and attrition.  All the best of luck, Mr. Chen,you'll need it.

Regardless, I thought the show was executed pretty well compared towhat I had always thought Chinese TV to be.  With My Way MyShow, Super Voice Girls, and now this, the tidal wave of reality TVhas definitely crashed on Chinese shores.  If this keeps up, my TVmay actually be useful for more than just DVDs, video games, andpirated satellite feeds. =)