Voices
As credits roll, drama roils gala
By Li Fangchao (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-02-24 11:31
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Few TV shows attract so much attention.
The annual CCTV Spring Festival gala never fails to draw eyeballs and spark controversy.
Despite all kinds of so-called exposure of the content of the annual extravagant entertaining feat in advance, there are always spits and sometimes curses ensue.
The grand show, alleged to be aired live at prime time, is undoubtedly the juggernaut of CCTV, showing its absolute control over this privileged time period.
There is simply no similar festival gala at the same time because every provincial channel is ordered to broadcast it at the same time, which means you have to see it if you are watching TV.
The gala, which is more than four hours long, includes a wide range of entertainment, such as dancing, singing and magic and lasts until shortly after the striking of the New Year's bell.
Since its inception in the 1980s, the show has gradually become part of the most important cultural event during the most important festival in China.
Just like lovers kissing in Times Square in New York, huddling together to make dumplings while watching the gala on Chinese New Year's Eve is part of the heart-warming memory of many Chinese.
The unchallengeable high viewing ratings (helped by the fact that there is nothing else to watch) have spawned many overnight celebrities and drawn waves of criticism the second day.
And the contentious nature of the show shows no sign of abating this year.
The day after the gala, complaints that programs were full of various soft ads were awash on all kinds of online forums.
The CCTV website was hacked shortly after, apparently by someone wanting to vent about the commercialization of the gala, according to media reports.
Donation, a witty skit from Zhao Benshan, an all-time winning comedian who is known for his farcical lines and a must-have for the gala in recent years, was lampooned by netizens for promoting a website and a brand of wine.
A huge uproar arose when the Shanghai-based Oriental Post revealed that the 20-minute comedy earned CCTV nearly 15 million yuan in ad revenue.
Then, Faye Wong, a renowned singer, was exposed as having lip-synched on stage.
The song was supposed to have been a comeback for Wong, who bowed out of entertainment several years ago.
Despite wild disbelief, a director of the gala has denied both accusations.
As if to add spice to the seemingly dull New Year holidays, Han Han, a young writer, slammed the performance of Louis Liu, a magician from Taiwan, as "a drama by a group of con men" in his blog, which is very popular among the country's youths.
The comment was immediately picked up by the media and escalated into an oral fight, with media quoting Liu as countering that it was an "unprofessional comment".
"I could shrug it off, but I can't accept it from your mouth," Liu was quoted by media as saying.
All things said, the show, which is entertaining in nature, never stops entertaining, even after it is over.
My opinion is that let's just treat it as a show.
After all, it is a gala performed by people from the entertainment industry, which is a little distant from ordinary people.
Just as some socialites are "inadvertently" caught by paparazzi dating secret lovers, they need media hype to become the focus and the talk of the town, no matter good or bad.
As long as you are impressed and interested in it, the show fulfilled its obligation.
They get the fame, media coverage and you have the laugh. That's a fair deal.
You don't have to feel indignant seeing tons of "invisible" ads during the show or feel offended by lip-synching.
It is just a show. Don't take it too seriously.
If you don't like the show, just turn it off.
A Cantonese friend of mine once told me he never watched it because he can't understand the jokes and dialects that are familiar only to people in northern part of the country.
"We play poker with friends instead," he said.
Indeed, given the various leisure activities people can do nowadays, the show will gradually lose appeal among audiences if more and more people fail to find laughter from it.
