What’s on TV?

By Tang Yuankai

Lin Xi， a 44-year football fan in Beijing， watched the FIFA World Cup for the fi rst time in 1978 on a TV set in a college classroom. Forty years ago， TVs were rare in most Chinese households. Lin remembered it was late at night when his father dragged him to a big classroom at Peking University.

“The classroom was packed and everybody was staring at the black-and-white TV screen，” Lin said. “It was one of the first times I saw the outside world.” Lin recalled that what impressed him most was that men could have long hair.

The FIFA World Cup was held in Argentina that year and the China Central Television （CCTV） broadcast two matches in total： Brazil vs. Italy and the fi nal between Argentina and Holland. A little over a month before the FIFA World Cup， the Peking TV Station officially changed its name to CCTV after 20 years of operation.

Song Shixiong， the commentator for the broadcasting of the two matches， had little access to sports information. He didnt see any video clips of the players and could only recognize them by referring to photos provided by Xinhua News Agency.

The TV broadcasting of the matches had been initiated by late leader Deng Xiaoping， who is known as the chief architect of Chinas reform and opening up. But it wasnt until December of the same year when the historic Third Plenary Session of the 11th Communist Party of China Central Committee was held in Beijing that the reform and opening-up policy was officially adopted.

And even though， at the time， most people didnt hear the news on television， and TV sets were a symbol of a better material life， households were soon equipped with sets and television became an important source of learning about the outside world.

The changes

In the early years of Chinas TV industry， stations didnt broadcast for 24 hours. CCTV， for example， started its broadcast at 8 a.m. This changed on May 1， 1993， when a new program titled Oriental Horizon was launched at 7 a.m. with the slogan Tell the Stories of Ordinary People.

This news program awed its audiences with a brand new style—it covered more of the daily life of common people and brought audiences and the news program closer.

In 1994， the program Focus， a spinoff of Oriental Horizon， began its broadcast right after Xinwen Lianbo， a news program of CCTV that has dominated the primetime slot from 7：00 to 7：30 p.m. for more than 40 years. As an investigative journalism program， Focus soon created a buzz among audiences.

The news program Xinwen Lianbo has two parts， national news and world news. Early on， when access to international news was difficult， the world news could hardly be considered new since it was sometimes over half a month old. Things got better in September 1979 and by 1990， CCTV started its broadcast to the outside world via international satellites.

Local television stations were also part of reform. In January 2002， the Jiangsu TV Station in east Chinas Jiangsu Province decided to change its daily news program to a 60-minute live broadcast program， focusing on news about peoples livelihood， naming it Zero Distance.

The host of the program， Meng Fei， was discovered during open auditions. Meng， with a masters degree in philosophy， used to be a factory worker， photographer and journalist. Different from the typical hosts with suits and solemn tones， Meng wore ordinary clothes and talked about news in a casual way， commenting with a unique humorous style. This style won the applause of audiences， who called the TV station en masse saying that they had never seen such a host before.

Nine months after its broadcast， Zero Distance was ranked first on the top rating list in Nanjing， capital city of Jiangsu， and stayed on that list for a long time. The highest peak rating for the show hit 17.7 percent. In early 2004， Meng was selected as one of the top 10 hosts in China， with the other nine all from CCTV.

Television， through the years， has played many roles. On March 27， 2008， at least 200，000 households and more than 1 million people in Nanjing watched for the fi rst time the live broadcast of 16 candidates running for four bureau director positions. More than 200 audience members voted on the spot.

In recent years， variety shows have gained popularity in China， resulting in homogeneous production and large investments swarming in. Some programs are imported from foreign countries but localized in China.

In January 2010， Meng became the host of a match-making program titled You Are the Only One， adapted from the Australian TV program Taken Out. This program made him a national household name in China. The program has now been broadcast for more than eight years and has been exported to many other countries for production.

The dramas

TV dramas are no doubt the focus of Chinese television. Forty years ago， however， there were few domestically-produced TV dramas. The offi cial Flying Apsaras Awards for television were specifi cally set up to encourage TV stations in China to produce dramas. In the beginning， the threshol d for this award was set very low： Any TV station that produced more than 12 episodes annually could win.

Even so， national production couldnt meet demand and foreign TV dramas thus were introduced. In 1980， quite a few U.S. dramas were broadcast by CCTV， regarded as a landmark event of opening up in the television industry.

In the mid-1980s， domestic TV drama production found its new entry point： Chinese history. Journey to the West and The Dream of Red Mansions， both adapted from Chinas four classic novels， were launched in 1986 and 1987， respectively， and became audience favorites. Journey to the West is still broadcast during summer vacations and has been replayed more than 3，000 times by various TV stations.

The Story of Three Kingdoms， adapted from another classic novel， was launched in 1994. Its highest rating hit 46.7 percent， which means about 467 million people in China were watching.

In 1990， the launch of a 50-episode drama Ke Wang， featuring the love stories of two couples， made a phenomenal mark on Chinas TV drama history by gluing audiences to the TV screen where they were mesmerized sometimes until midnight. The TV drama even received the praise of the public security department as the crime rate dropped significantly during its broadcast.

Today， many people may think the plot of this drama was not so true to life. But after this drama， many others followed suit showing the ordinary life of Chinese people.

“Good TV dramas can be compared to a thread that strings together social changes from different times，” Li Chunwu， a literary and art critic， once said. “Stories told by these dramas can reflect the ideas and life details of people in a specifi c period and they can also infl uence the audience in an unconscious way.”