October 21, 2008
Chinese TV viewers used to be content with whatever was thrown at them, but with the growth of video-sharing websites, more and more people are just saying no to CCTV.
Today’s Chengdu Evening News reported on a remake of the Chinese literature classic Dream of the Red Mansions that has been circulating on the Internet and cheered by Internet viewers.
Compared to Beijing TV’s big budget dramatization of the Dream of the Red Mansions which many have found disappointing for one reason or another even though it has not yet been screened, the unpolished, home-made Internet Dream of the Red Mansions seems more successful.
The article says that the maker of the video, who identifies himself as “Shushan Shaoxia” (蜀山少侠) made two episodes of the Dream of the Red Mansions when family got together during the Spring Festival earlier this year. All it took was a script ripped from a high school text book, a digital camera and the family’s shared passion for the Chinese literature classic.
In his blog, the maker of video talked about how he did it:
“It was the Chinese New Year’s Eve. My two cousins came to my home, and we were going to spend the Spring Festival with our grandma. Everyone thought that the CCTV Spring Festival gala was boring, and none of us like the looks of the cast of the latest Dream of the Red Mansions, so I proposed to make our own remake. My mother was the most supportive. She found some silk sheets which were used as the costumes. We also bought some cheap lipsticks and rouge…”
Another video which probably owes some of its popularity to to people’s dissatisfaction with the pap on broadcast TV in China is From Jingkong Shame to Fengbo Pavilion (从靖康耻到风波亭) by Han Jiangxue (韩江雪).
The video follows the style of CCTV’s Lecture Room, a program about Chinese history and traditional culture. Mr Han said that he had applied to talk on the Lecture Room three times but every time he was rejected because he does not have an academic title or specialist qualifications.
He made his video in the parking garage of his apartment building, at a cost of about 30,000 yuan for renting equipment and hiring a cameraman and editor.
On September 18, Han uploaded the video to his blog, but it was only after a guest-host of CCTV’s Lecture Room, historian Yan Chongnian, got slapped for his supposed pro-Qing views that the video began to draw attention. But unlike Yan who was blamed for paying too much compliment to the Manchu emperors, Han’s program pay tribute to Yue Fei (岳飞), a Han Chinese general who beat the invading Jurchens (who later adopted the name of Manchu) in the Song Dynasty.
Han is now looking for a sponsor who can finance his video project and make his novel Trilogy of Yue Fei onto the TV screen.
You can watch both videos at the links below.
- Ku6 (Chinese video): Internet Dream of the Red Mansions
- Sina (Chinese video): Grassroots Roots Challenge the Scholars
- Chengdu Evening News via Sohu (Chinese): Grass roots scholar seeks fame by challenging CCTV Lecture Room
- Chengdu Evening News via hnce.com.cn (Chinese): Red Chamber Dream knock-off.
made by Sichuan netizen went popular on the Internet
- Danwei: Finding occupants for the Red Mansions (about BTV drama)
- Danwei: Red Mansions to show Hu Mei the door? (about BTV drama)