Moreover, just think twice why this "vulgar" entertainment TV show became so popular as to cast shadow onto the benchmark Spring Festival Eve gala party of CCTV? It is much worth considering. TV programs are competing for audience by doing polls gathering the audiences' favorite programs and "Super Girl" succeeded in this by letting audience have the final say who is their favorite super girl.
By contrast, quite a lot of other entertainment programs mainly star celebrities, suiting part of the people's tastes, rather than most people's, except for that they are much more professional.
Anyway, the "Super Girl" phenomena are reflections of the progressing social lives; people tend to enjoy their lives in their own ways. And each emergence of new social phenomena deserves our close attention by welcoming their good sides and solving the problems accompanying them.
Democracy or Not ?
陈文斌 03级 10 班 200310411308 ‘The voting itself can not be called democracy. Except from voting,transparent procedure,equal rights, freedom of discussion and the respect towards others and an equitable role beyond any personal volition, are all indispensable parts in the definition of democracy.’For nearly three hours last week China stopped – and voted. But this was no political revolution.This was po pular culture at its most powerful and bizarre – a massive thumbs-u to a 21-year-old from Sichuan, who belted out a song called “Zombie”, a rendition of a hit by Irish rock band, the Cranberries. The masses – young and old, male and female, the educated and humble workers – rned on, tuned in and amid jeers and hoorays, said “aye” or “nay” according to their pop taste. ? All are debating the biggest thing since instant noodles ?the TV entertainment TV show “Super Girl”, which has generated moreatings than the benchmark Spring Festival Eve gala party of CCTV (China’s Central Television). Some 8 million Chinese, mostly young, send a “text message of support” via cell phos for one of the three Super Girl finalists. Li Yuchun, a music student whose tomboy looks and confidence onstage are the talk of Chinese chat rooms, won with 3.5 million votes. The three finalists, who also included Zhou Bichang and Zhang Liangying and all in their early 20s, became instant celebrities in a nation. China’s “Super Girl” is based on the British Pop Idol-style TV show whose grand finale of dancing and singing drew 400 million viewers last Friday night, roughly equivalent to every pon in the US and Britain.The show has created a stir from villages to cities, and is seen as a new phenomenon. Nothing this large and spontaneous has ever pushed its way unapproved into China’s mainstream media before And never before have the Chinese voted in such large numbers.Super Girl owes its popularity to its raw authenticity, to its unscripted creation of a feeling of “happiness”, and for indirectly giving a voice to individual Chinese via theelephone ballot box. Like American Idol, the program features a panel of judges drawn from the entertainment industry. In Changsha, the four arbiters were an agent, a composer, a TV producer and a folk singer. ? But the expert judges’ influence is dwarfed by that of 31 other judges drawn from the ranks of common people. Duringa series of dizzyingly complex showdowns that eliminated two of the five contestants, the amateur judges cast their votes by walking across the stage to single out their favorites as the studio band banged out up-tempo rock. The election process has set some Chinese pundits pondering this bizarre by-product of democracy. Some say the purpose of this programme is to showcase the variety of responses about democracy in China even if it is a result of a particular ‘vulgar’ television progra “Super Girl represents a victory ofgrass-roots over elite culture,” argues Beijing sociologist Li YinheLike American Idol, the program features a panel of judges drawn from the entertainment industry. In Changsha, the four arbiters were an agent, a composer, a TV producer and a folk singer. Like American Idol, the program features a panel of judges drawn from the entertainment industry. In Changsha, the four arbiters were an agent, a compo ser, a TV producer and a folk singer.“It’s like a giant game that has swept so many people into a euphoria of voting and selectingwhich is testament to a society opening up,” said a well-known critic Zhu Dake. He added it showed the public breaking loose from “elitist aesthetics” strangling China’s entertainment industry and the show had “bla trail for cultural democracy.”Super Girl may not represent serious democracy, but it has seemingly given the fantasy of such freedoms to 1.3 billion Chinese people who do not have an important say in how their li ves are governed. A netizen left his/her words on the web, “I don’t think that I will ever get to vote for a president in this lifetime, so I’ll choose a girl that I like Xu Jilin, a professor at East China Normal University, denied that democracy assert and the show claims to have opened. ‘The voting itself can not be called democracy. Except from voting,transparent procedure,equal rights, freedom of discussion and the respect towards others and an equitable role beyond any personal volition, are all indispensable parts in the definition of democracy.’