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Fans of Supergirl Zhou Bichang swamp the street of downtown Shanghai on August 26, 2005 during the Supergirl competition. The Supergirl fans expressed not only the fact of a new collective individualization of the Chinese youth; they also signified that the condition for the production of societal power has radically changed. The Supergirl fans were the “carriers” of a new type of power of which the government had no simple counter-measure.

The Supergirl competition in 2005 brought by Hunan satellite television station and abandoned by the government as “vulgar” and “degraded,” was in retrospect an element in a broader complex of processes, which has characterize China’s cultural scene during the pressure of its socio-economic development. The Supergirl was both an expression and a forewarning about giant structural forces on its way to change China’s media structure for ever. These forces of change was not only inherent in China’s own internal socio-economic development, they were also part of a global agenda of cultural diffusion. The opening of China, a totalitarian society, has been one of the great events in human history; yet the way China are approaching modernity contains a great contradiction; a gap between society and its archaic political system established an increased tension between ideology and cultural realities; it was in this contradictory gap that the symbolic significance of the Supergirl show unfolded.

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Millions of Li Yuchun fans – and other fans and well-wishers of the Supergirls – do not only express the frontier of a new socio-cultural reality; they represent an economic power of gigantic proportions. This power is already active in the presence and it will become even more titanic in the future.

One of the important aspects of the Supergirl show was that it established a rally-point for the new generation. As a rally point it was a mirror of a new Chinese generation, which used the Supergirl show as a self-defining moment; a moment where the cultural system and the social system bounced through the creation of super-symbols for the normative integration of society and, hence, for the future of China as a socializing enterprise. It established legitimate order in a society, where the government and its institutions have no legitimate mandate. Not only did the government lack a mandate but the reaction of the former Minister of Culture Liu Zhongde to the Supergirl phenomenon as he calling it “a disgrace for art,” revealed beyond any doubt how far the government’s cultural views are from the sentiments and realities of young Chinese today. There is a huge gulf between the governmental institutions and the cultural realities of young teens in modern China. It is a gulf of a schizophrenic society, where the governmental system no longer expressed the values of a society increasingly aimed at an open, differentiated cultural matrix. It is a gulf between different historical time-sequences of the cultural system, which increasingly represent a structure of parallel imperatives, not an organically organized one. It is a tale of a society unable to digest its own history.

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A fan of Zhou Bichang cries hysterically after the end of the Super Girl Voice Concert held in Beijing, Oktober 9, 2005.

Zhou Bichang or “bibi” as she is called by her fans became number 2 in the Supergirl competition in 2005. At the final and decisive night in August 2005, she got 3.27 million votes but felt short of Li Yuchun with approximately 260,000 votes. Zhou Bichang had a very huge and devoted fan-group and there was hardly that major city in China during the Supergirl competition where her fans had not rallied in huge numbers. When she lost the competition many fans broke down and cried in despair.

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Li Yuchun fans in Ghangzhou in the Southern part of China agitating in the streets for public support for their idol during the Supergirl competition, August 21, 2005.

One of the important elements of the Supergirl success was its historical timing. The Supergirl show could for various reasons not have happen 10-15 years before. At that time China was neither mentality, socially or technically ready for such an event. As far as the technical element is concerned, then China in 2005 had become a country clustered with televisions nationwide. Even the poorest hut in China would most likely have a television. That was not the case 15 years before. By the same token in 2005 China was clustered with computers, internet and mobile phones, especially in the large urban areas. Mobiles phones in 2005 was extremely widespread among young girls in urban areas in 2005, not only statistics tell us so but almost all pictures available from the event shows constantly young teens with mobile phones in their hands. This meant that the teens and their helpers: mothers, grandmothers and men had a supreme technological mobilizing tool in their hand; they could rally information, support, supply, logistics, ideas and express opinions with an intensify, speed, penetration and flexibility, which made the German Army’s communication equipment during its campaign in France in the Second World War look like a relic from the Middle Ages. To say modern technology empowers people and grass-root movements is not an empty catch-phase, it is very real.

Fans of Supergirl Zhou Bichang rallying in the streets of Changsha during propaganda campaign for their idol, August 24, 2005. Note the girl with the mobile phone in her hands in the front of the picture.

In this way, the mass-participation surrounding the Supergirl event must be seen as manifestation of the new paradigm of digital communication, which particularly has emerged in China in the last 10 years. That television had spread nationwide imply that the nation could unite as a total community and react in an orchestra-like fashion to the same stimuli. Also, the internet and the mobile phone imply that the Supergirl event would literary flow on an ocean of information and that communication could spread with record-speed and reach very large segments of the population. In Urban areas personal computers would be very common among young people (especially males) and beside there were approximately 100,000 internet cafés in China.

This also meant that the Supergirl event turned into a much more information-sensitive event than the Elvis phenomenon in the US in the 1950s. For fans of Elvis in the 1950s, the established communication about the personality and actions of their hero would be comparatively “primitive,” segmented and limited by modern standards. Elvis fans would only see short, tightly edited news-reel film about their hero and they would have to rely on second-hands account about what the hero had said and done from glossy youth magazines and dusty newspaper articles. Beside televised concert appearance, and real-life concerts, the 1950s Elvis fans’ perception of their heroes would be very filtered and they would have problems in understanding the real personality of the idol and the idol identity would most of all be that of a giant over-coloured poster over their bed looking like a modern version of a Catholic saint.

The Supergirl event was extremely different in that regard. The Supergirl show flowed in a constant stream of information. Zealous fans could follow their heroes almost hours to hours, sometimes minutes for minutes not only on the scene but also behind the scene and wherever else the Supergirls happen to move. The Supergirl would not only be seen in their “formal” performance but when they were relaxing, exercising or joking behind the scene. Often within few hours or minutes, the recorded information would pop up on the internet or be featured in news and youth-programs as more and more TV-stations nationwide turned into the event. Indeed, not to report about the Supergirl would amount to suicide in ratings and ratings had become a mantra for the Chinese television stations. The central Supergirl would constantly be involved in a frenzy of handhold video-cameras, professional cameras, mobile phone cameras and what not. Their pictures would be shot or video-taped by professionals, scene-personal, fans, bystanders and everyone else in a flow of pictures and information that was all-absorbing and never-ending. Naturally, such an intensitivity of information flow to a nationwide audience would have been impossible just 10 years before.

See videos of the top five Supergirls during the training behind the scene and in other activities during the Supergirl events in 2005.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xl_Fil6g2kk&feature=related

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y5MVHyAzfE&feature=related

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OXBjW6an3PY&feature=related

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Y89Cc4cukGs&feature=related

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=MvDFEGmYM80&feature=related

Fans of Zhou Bichang take pictures of their idol in Wuhan on October 11, 2006 as a part of a fanclub meeting celebating Zhou’s first album.

In this way, the Chinese Supergirl fans were able to follow their heroes with an intensitivity, which made Elvis and the Beatles look like rather dole events information-wise. This basically means that the Supergirl fans were some of the most enlightened fans the world has seen so far. “Enlighten” in the sense that they were better directly informed about their idols’ actions, habits, gestures, style and character than any other fans before them. Since, the main Supergirl characters were so intensively bombarded with cameras and microphones, it was almost impossible that their “true character” would not reveal itself at some point. In this way, the Chinese fans of the Supergirl would be rather well informed about who their idols actually was and indeed, they would see Li Yuchun break down in tears, when He Jie had to leave the Supergirl competition because she had been voted out and they would also see Jane Zhang in tears during a scenario, where her mother was presented and she spoke from the audience. In this and other ways, the Chinese fans would come very close to their idol on an almost personal level. The fans would get a sense that they “knew” the idol almost as well as they could know a classmate or a next door friend.

Li Yuchun breaks down and howls, when He Jie is voted-out of the Supergirl competition in 2005.

In sum, one can say that the Supergirl fans by many measured had more “realistic” perceptions of their idols than many other fans in modern world history. In some sense the fans of the Supergirl was the fans of the knowledge-based society, which was a different type of fans responding to a new kind of digitalized societal reality, where the capacity to digest and edited information has become more central and imperative than ever.

The intense internet and mobile phone environment also meant that the fans were directly confronted with critique of their own standpoint to an extent which was much higher than before. The internet would be full of fans of other idols criticizing their beloved fans in all possible ways.

Therefore the Chinese fans of the Supergirl would not just have a simple innocent perception of their idols, in stead they would tend to become critical, self-conscious consumers, there was forced to defend and argue for their positions. By its own peculiar standards it became an educational event. In this way, not only would their defence of their idol only internalized the relation to their heroes but they would participate in a “democratic” dialogue and within this particular spectrum of Chinese reality construct what in reality was a mini civil society.

Fans of Li Yuchun in Beijing rally for public support during the Supergirl competition, August 24, 2005.

When the Supergirl show was banned in 2006, the state-controlled China Daily explained that it happen in part because “the program illustrated the perversion of unprepared democracy.” In this way, it became clear that the show was challenging the basic values and symbols, which at least at the time was perceived to be important for the political system’s legitimation. More generally, one can say that the show challenged the cultural politics of the Communist party. It was not only the show’s use of democratic voting, which was a torn in the eyes of authorities, in a more general sense, the show challenged the whole complex of patriarchic conservatism that lies immanent in the ruling party’s cultural values and general mental atmosphere, which also was reflected in the regime’s style of television programming. These values had broad support in some part of China’s academic environment marked by thousand years of Mandarin superciliousness and absolutist mentality. A professor at Beijing University, Xia Xueluan warned against the negative consequences of the show. According to Xia, fans of the Supergirl show could only be young people with a “weak character.” To participate or watch the Supergirl show, the professor warned, could lead to the loss of learning capacities among the young, stimulate a lack of responsibility, fill young people with useless illusions, stimulate “fickleness in society” and result in “speculative psychology” among the young. If Chinese entertainment became reduced to such silly shows, the professor declared, the cultural foundation of China was in danger. Other critics of the show, including the central authorities warned that the show was “a threat to social responsibility.” Other again condemned the show as a vehicle for Western cultural imperialism.

In this and in other ways the show challenged basic values among traditionalist conservative Chinese and among party bureaucrats. By this token the Supergirl show was a catalyst for anti-traditionalist and anti-systemic values and processes. Especially, it was a sign that Chinese youth was embracing global and western values, while looking for unique ways of self-expression. Supergirl was the largest media-event in modern Chinese history; although apolitical in its form, it was coded from top to bottom with political signals. Most of all Supergirl established a social realm, where the Communist party and its doctrine had no relevance. It became a place, where values from the lifeworld could flourish and where Communist Party slogans had no meaning. In some sense, the Supergirl show was an indication of the fact that China increasingly has become a parallel society, which is manifest by the way in which the political system increasingly has become detached from society. What happens in the political sphere, where people have no right to participation and what happen in people’s own social and private sphere become two independent systems with less and less in common. As the Communist party pretends that they have no people to which they are accountable; the people pretend that there exists no political system of their concern. In this way, China becomes increasingly a kind of schizophrenic, parallel-society, which has a weak interaction on the outskirt of the two systems yet systems, which up-to-a-point operates by their own logic and in their own sphere. This new type of split-society is also reflected in the opinion polls and in similar kind of measures. Hence, Jane Zhang’s name had the highest numbers of entrances in 2007 in Yahoo China, while few had any interests in entering the President’s name. The revenge against a political system which doesn’t want to recognize its citizens is ultimately citizens who don’t want to recognize their political system. As a young Chinese recently formulated it, “there’s nothing we can do about politics. So there’s no point in talking about it or getting involved.”

Although originally claimed by the authorities to be “vulgar” and “degraded,” Li Yuchun and other Supergirls are now featured in endless talk shows and personal documentaries by CCTV and other Chinese television stations. The picture is from an interview with Li Yuchun by a Chinese TV station on April 27, 2007.

Still, the conflict between ideology and reality is slippery and contradictory in a country as large and complex as China. The condemnation of the Supergirl show from the Chinese authorities is part of a tactical game, which does not reflect the reel processes taking part in China’s media industry in these years. The reality is that China’s media and entertainment industry step by step is moving toward greater and greater commercialization, toward a greater scope for artistic expressions and toward more audience-oriented television. Supergirl reflected these tendencies and in the end of the day, the power of Supergirl magic was more powerful than the condemnation from the authorities and CCTV. Indeed, also CCTV are concerned with ratings, and the popularly of girls supported by 400 millions fans and well-wishers, is a power no one can ignore.

See “We-love-you-Jane” fan video that is a tribute to Jane Zhang. The fan club there is singing is Jane’s fan club in Heilongjiang province, which is the provinces that lies in the most north-eastern corner of China (bordering on Russia and Inner Mongolia). The fan club is celebrating its two years anniversary and is using the opportunity to send Jane their love and good greetings. The video is apparently produced November 11, 2007. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2g9IRz1C1Is&feature=related

The irony is that Supergirl Li Yuchun and many of the other Supergirls are now featured at talk shows and major entertainment events, entertainment specials, youth programs, pop music programs, in special documentaries, interviews and so on. They were also invited to participate in the latest great event, which was the creation of the “We Are Ready” song which marked the one-year countdown for the Olympics. Also, Li Yuchun has been asked to play the role in several prominent TV dramas and entertainment program hosts stand in line to get a chance to having her and the other Supergirl to appear in their shows.

Li Yuchun participates in a popular Chinese Entertainment program.

See Li Yuchun during a talk show in Chinese TV:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5dQ1JDIUoVU&feature=related

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=KbbB-0Cz7UA&feature=related

See Zhou Bichang during a talk show in Chinese TV:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=t4ONAi43kaI&feature=related

See Jane Zhang during a talk show in Chinese TV:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qWZ2AIG0q6w&feature=related

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zFkCwiuOb5Y&feature=related

See He Jie and Li Yuchun together at a talk show in 2006.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fONraEFWxyg&feature=related

Also Jane Zhang was asked to sing the theme-song for one of CCTV’s greatest prestige projects, a television drama called “The return of the Condor Heroes.”

Poster of the CCTV prestige TV drama, “Return of the Condor Heroes. The drama consisted of 41 episodes and was broadcasted the first time on March 17, 2006. Supergirl Jane Zhang was asked to sing the theme-song of the drama, “Tian Xia Wu Shuang.”

See, Jane Zhang sing the theme song “Tian Xia Wu Shuang” of the TV drama “Return of the Condor Heroes on a CCTV television show:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7yf6jqahNyw&feature=related

See Jane Zhang sing “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina” and other songs on CCTV 6:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=93My7dFrZYk&feature=related

See Jane Zhang receive rewards at the 7^th Global Chinese Music Award Presentation in Hong Kong in October 2007. During the ceremony, Jane was nominated with no less than 4 rewards. Jane returned the favour by singing “Tian Xia Wu Shuang” for the 7.000 spectators gathered at the reward ceremony.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=UEZ9PJT6ufM&feature=related

Moreover, media-gurus from the Chinese CCTV and other television stations are said to populate the VIP-chair in cohorts under Jane Zhang’s major concerts, while ticket prices to Jane’s concerts hit the highest recorded ticket prices in Chinese entertainment history. Indeed, Party-style rhetoric is one thing, China’s entertainment realities quite another. Those girls who were supposed to represent what was “vulgar” and “degrading” is now featured by CCTV and other shows as uttermost examples for Chinese youth. In this way, the power of government slogans does not last for long in a society which is radically developing its societal complexity and therefore also pressing the frontline of expressive symbolism all the time. This might be a development, which conservative Party-bureaucrats might dislike and even “forbid” but which they in reality can do very little about. The gene is out of the bottle and the name of the gene is Supergirl.