ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on media entertainment to see how increased communicative capacity might affect social change. It focuses on two immensely popular Chinese TV shows, Super Girl and Let’s Go! Oriental Angel. China’s broadcasting system is divided into geographical levels, including national, provincial and municipal. In 2004, Hunan Satellite Television (HSTV) repackaged its offering as Super Girl in an effort to better capture the national audience. Super Girl was a sensation in China, a fresh and modern entertainment programme that instantly attracted huge viewing numbers and made it one of the most successful shows of all time in China. Super Girl offered viewers a vote to select their favourite contestant. In 2009, Shanghai’s Dragon TV station produced Let’s Go! Oriental Angel, a standard replica of the HSTV Super Girl following the ‘talent search’ configuration: contestants appearing and singing live on TV in order to compete for the viewers’ votes, which could be phoned or texted into the program.
