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I can do it slowly. I understand all the words. It is the spelling of some words would slow me down.
'Super Girl': Is it for REAL?
By Dora, Class 1
This was a weird sight: It was the crack of dawn, and a stream of girls was lined up outside the Xiong Mao Town Plaza in Chengdu, looking like they were in all walks of life: The beautiful ones with dyed curly hair were putting on heavy makeup; the ones who dressed as prepubescent baby dolls were impatiently flipping through magazines; the tomboys wearing dark sunglasses seemed to have had never taken off their MP3s』 earphones; and the majority, those energetic schoolgirls, always enjoyed chit chat although some quiet ones were trying to read their schoolbooks in such a noisy crowd…As the sun stretched over the downtown skyscrapers, more girls were joining this queue and those who attempted to cut in line would soon give up this idea because they were immediately confronted with a storm of protest…Up to 9:00 am, the queue has already been as long as 3 miles. When the passers-by became all curious about this unusual scene, the plaza』s gate opened and what these young girls were queuing for was finally revealed: They were all going in for the 2005 China』s 「Super Girl」 show.
The above is what happened in Chengdu, the capital of Si Chuan Province, about one month ago, on the 14th of May which was the first day for signing up the show』s regional contest. Actually, besides these girls in Chengdu, young women all over China seemed to have all swarmed to this television show.
Borrowing the format of 「American Idol」 in the US and 「Pop Idol」 in the UK, 「Super Girl」 is China』s first nationally televised show of its kind, which accepts only female contestants. Despite its almost impenetrably complex rules for winnowing down contestants, it still attracts millions of Chinese females』 attention. When the program started a few months ago, more than 100,000 girls and women ranging in age from 4 to 89 applied. The audience showed even more interest. Through May 6, an estimated 30% of all television sets in the country, about 210 million viewers, tuned in to a regional finale episode in Hu Nan; when the show held its regional finale in Guangzhou, it drew its largest audience of more than 22 million…
As Liao Ke, the co-creator and designer of the program for state-owned Hunan Province satellite television, claimed: 「This is the most popular entertainment program we』ve ever done」. His words are definitely true. If you type in 「China Super Girl Show」 on Google today, it will immediately give you a list of more than 1,110,000 web pages with loads of pictures, related articles and up-to-date news, even providing contestants』 videos. 「Super Girl」 became a national spectacle and enjoyed unprecedented popularity.
So what really contributed to its popularity?
Most importantly of all, this is a program which everyone can get involved in. 『Super Girl』 is participatory for all common people. Although the program features a panel of judges drawn form the entertainment industry, many more judges from the ranks of common people made their presence. Besides, viewers can also vote for their favored contestants in many ways. On that evening during the regional finale in Chengdu, more than 271,000 viewers cast their votes through text messaging, which had a decisive influence on the final result. Super Girl is also close to the audience. Since the contests are ordinary young women, most of whom with little experience on stage, their singing can by no means compared with the flawless performance give by the professionals. However, their girl-next-door performance does give the viewers a sense of familiarity and participation, which is critical to the show』s popularity. That』s why millions of people were glued to the TV, eagerly waiting to see who the final lucky girl was.
Then, why do so many girls and women take part in it?
Jinyi, a pretty, confident girl who is crazy about singing, won the Changsha regional final last month. This is what she said after winning: 「Ever since I was a little girl, I had this dream of standing up on stage and singing. Today I realized my dream!」 A lot of girls at young age come here with the same dream―the daughters of farmers, migrant workers, coal miners or low-level government workers…』Super Girl』 offers such a platform where everyone is given a chance to express themselves. For the first time in their life, they go onto the real stage with courage and display their talent in front of the audience confidently. It is just as the logo of 「Super Girl」 goes: 「If you want to sing, sing.」
But it is not just self-expression that motivates contestants. An Youqi, 21, winner of last year』s show took home more than $6,000 and her newly released album has sold over 1 million copies. Zhang Hanyun, 16, who finished third in last year』s national showdown, is now a household name as she became the face of the Mongolian Cow diary』s Sour Sour Yogurt that sponsors the show this year. People now can often see her pitch the yogurt on bus stop posters and national television commercials. During an interview this high school girl said: 「As soon as I learnt the concept of a star, I wanted to be one」 which gave us a hint of why so many young women have lunged at this opportunity. They wish to be like An and Zhang, to remove from anonymity in very short time and stand onstage to be spotlighted. They want to rise to stardom and reach fame, as soon as possible. Seen 「Super Girl」 as a short cut for success, they entered the show even though the chance for winning seemed to be extremely slim.
Here comes more concrete examples of these girls』 determined attempts:
To reach the Chengdu auditions, one teenager named Zhang Yan endured a 15-hour train trip from her home in western China;
It reported that a woman from Fujian province traveled to each city in sequence, losing in the first round every time. She spent more than three months』 wages before finally abandoning her quest for fame.
There are also reports of some 10,000 school girls skipping their lessons to attend the 「Super girl」 auditions, just like what is described at the beginning of this article…
The latest craze for 「Super Girl」 among the young people has recently aroused great controversy in public. People hold different attitudes towards the show.
Mr. Wang from Shan Dong thinks that young people should be encouraged to display their talent and pursue their dreams. 」We can』t blame people for their dreams, right?」 He admires those with strong self-confidence. In addition he also sees the intensive competition as a good opportunity for the young girls to build up a strong character.
However, there have been more dissenting voices.
Niu na, an undergraduate in Beijing gave another idea. She has a negative point of views towards the show since, as she says, 「it is completely a commercial thing.」 She thinks 「Super Girl」 have been over-commercialized that it became more like a 「Beauty Contest」 aiming at catching audience』s eyes.Too much weight has been put on contestants』 appearance and some girls got booted only because they are not good looking enough. Thus she doubted the authority and fairness of such a contestant. 「They are picking the prettiest face, not the best voice.」 Niu concluded.
Ms Gui, whose 15-year-old daughter took part in this contestant, talked about her feeling as a mother: 」Why stars everywhere?」 She says today』s media cast too much influence on youngsters and make them lose touch with reality. Pop stars frequently appear in the public and are shown on TV. The media mislead the youth into believing that, to become a star, whether a singer or actor, is a quick and easy way to be wealthy and be respected by the public. That』s why today so many young people want to be famous and be viewed via TV living program. For them, this is good opportunity to shoot for fame. Many companies sponsored such shows with the hope to improve the reputation of their products. They help impose the conception on the people. That explains why a number of similar televised amateur talent programs emerge today in China. She said with a serious look at last: 「It gives the young girls a shot at televised fame and fortune, which is not real, far from real.」
「Dreaming of overnight fame is common among Chinese youngsters. The pursuit of superficial success and vanity has become a big social problem,」 said Lu Yulin, professor and dean of the youth research department at China Youth University of Political Science. According to Lu, TV, together with other media, has a great impact on people』s life, especially the teens』. The young will do anything to get on TV because their value, pursuit, outlook has been affected and directed by what they see on TV and learn through other channels. She reminds the young that TV is just fun and the chance of getting instant fame is just too slim.
In today』s idol-like mania it is important as well as urgent to bring the young back down to earth, to prick their bubble and tell them about the real life. 「To learn more and work more is the real way to success.」 said Lu. Only by concentrating on study can a young person really be professionally skilled and improved in all-rounded ability. Certain appropriate guide is needed to help the young keep a clear mind of how to definite 『success』. To associate success with instant fame and stardom is shallow and may cause unpredicted bad consequence. So, what the 「Super Girl」 craze reflects also gives us an alarm of how the society should take its responsibility to help guide the youth into their not so distant future.
We also call for the young to take a serious consideration of themselves. What is their real interest and talent? What are they heading for? What are their dreams? What do they really expect of their future? What should they do, more realistically, to realize their dreams…Having taken all this into account, they might come up with some new ideas and set up goals other than merely becoming a 「Super Girl」. With more impetus and energy, they can then work hard to pursuit their dreams. It』s possible that they will have hard time and a long way to go. But having gone through all this, they will gain valuable experience and deserve real credit when they achieve their ambitions and succeed finally. By then, they will become real 「Super Girl」. |
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