Chinese TV, a (very) critical look at,

Chinese TV is, well, different. It very well illustrates how different the Chinese culture is from the West.

It shows well when I try to watch a comedy - I sit there bored and disoriented when my Chinese friends are rolling on the floor laughing, and vice versa, I laugh and they are asking why.
There are dozens of channels available, CCTV, the all-China central television channels, and more local, every province and even bigger city has at least one. And yet the only thing I can stand are the weather forecast, and the Formula 1 races - more about that later.
Flicking through channels I sometimes wonder why is it that the only things I see are game shows - usually hosted by a fat geeky bloke wearing black-rimmed glasses; soap operas in which half the action happens over a mobile phone; and advertisements.
Looking at the ads on TV is a delightful treat. The Chinese women - it seems to me - are obsessed with their hair, the men - with their teeth, and everyone - with taking digital pictures with their mobile phones; sweets; and fast food.
And especially - with their health, but not in a good way. The population seems to be full of raving hypochondriacs, obsessed with pills, potions, and various eye, ear, throat, and whatnot drops.
The TV here does not beat around the bush when it comes to graphic details. The other day I was in the gym, there were four TV screens on the wall in front of me. I could watch:
- bodies being cut out from wrecked vehicles after an accident on a highway,
- a fatal fall from a skyscraper - bloodied body sprawled on a concrete floor,
- young tigers in a tiger park chasing chickens - sort of a training for the real life, should they ever be released into the wild,
- and a beauty pageant - not that graphic but equally weird.
The whole thing (these four scenes presented to me at the same time) was strange, to say the least. It was like Chinese TV condensed.
Another thing is that most channels repeat the same programs, if not a few times in the same day - it happens, believe me, than at least a few times a week.
Advertisements - same thing. During commercial breaks in Formula 1 race coverage, it's quite normal to see the same advertisement played three times in a row...
Speaking of. During the last Football World Cup, for one commercial break I was served with: ads of three fast-food chains, of two beer labels, and of one whisky label... Sport, eh?
Investigative reporting seems to occupy a lot of time on some channels, mostly featuring a crew with hidden microphones and cameras harassing innocent people who are trying to make a living, perhaps bending the rules a little.
That said, the TV is not all bad here.
I like Formula 1 race programs (at least they are free here) that I watch on one of the channels. I can even live with the Chinese approximations of the drivers’ names - Coo-ta-ha-da (Coulthard), Xu-ma-ke (Schumacher), Ba-lee-tche-lo (Barichello). I cannot understand, however, how come the commentators call all the drivers, team owners, etc., by their family names, and only Kimi Raikonnen gets called ‘Kimi.’
I like the weather forecast too.
07.2006