The Chinese television show Super Girls, an American idol knockoff that airs in China, had over 400 million people tune into its season finale in 2005 and continued to command a large viewership. Even as a proportion of the Chinese population, such a level of success in the United States would be roughly equivalent to 100 million people tuning into a show (likely even more as many Chinese households do not own a TV at all).
In the midst of its success, the show was abruptly axed by the government last week with the official reasoning given by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) being that the show violated the 90 minute cap allowed by the organization. Chinese netizens and microbloggers as well as many bloggers overseas have claimed that the real reason that the show has been cancelled is because it promoted democracy in its practice of having viewers vote by text message on the winner (millions of votes were cast in each episode).
It is easy to dismiss this incident as just another example of heavy-handed Communist censorship. Yet while the democratic aspects of the show were very likely an impetus for its cancellation, it does not capture the full picture behind this governmental action. First of all, the timing of the cancellation as well as statements released by top Chinese media and cultural officials are very interesting. The show has been consistently criticized by the government since 2005 which even resulted in a three year suspension of the show with officials repeatedly making statements about the vulgarity of the show as well as how “profane” and “unhealthy” it was for Chinese youth. However, on the whole, the party seemed largely content to let media organizations set their own programming as long as they stayed clear of news, policy, and political commentary. The question of what drove the government from mere criticism to decisive action is a very important one to ask.
First of all, this incident definitely fits into the larger narrative of the “Red culture revivalism” that the party has instituted across the country in memory of the 90th anniversary of CCP. Under this movement the party has cracked down on many television shows as well as other forms of media and placed state programs advocating correct “morals” in their place. This mode of government interfering in the hugely growing and profitable business of advertising in order to enforce cultural programming is a very disturbing political development that has haunting similarities to earlier efforts to dictate national culture and morals (the Cultural Revolution). Even more, the officials’ support for conservative Confucian-like morals seems painfully out of touch with the desires of the Chinese youth, some of whom are even speaking out against the cancellation of the show.
Further, the cancellation of the show is part of a broader political effort by the state to attempt to control people’s access to increasingly available information through mediums like the internet. China’s internet censorship has been roundly criticized and talked about; however, while cracking down on popular TV shows is done relatively easily, this action only drives people to seek entertainment from the internet, which is infinitely harder to control.
In this information age, Chinese citizens have become increasingly exposed to the outside world. The advent of shows like Super Girls was only the beginning. If the state increases control on TV, people will just turn to the internet. What we are witnessing is the beginning of the Chinese party-state’s loss of control of one of the most important existing powers that they have: the power to control and disseminate information. One can only speculate how a collapse of control in this arena would profoundly impact Chinese politics.
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