Voting for the Next Super Girl and Political Talk

Abstract

In the first analytical chapter, Wu focuses on the case of Super Girl, a reality-based singing contest show, largely modeled off of American Idol, and spirited debates about political thoughts as a result of viewers’ passionate participation in Super Girl. Initially thanks to its nationwide voting element, the show garnered great success and invited much political comparison as Chinese voters cannot vote in the political sphere. As Super Girl became more popular and more politically provoking, China’s state regulators put a ban on voting. Wu closely studies public discourses in the mainstream newspapers as well as in online discussion forums, in the first season (Season 4, 2009) produced after the ban. As Super Girl producers painstakingly came up with alternative ways in which the viewers could channel their preferences and opinions to the development of the contests without direct voting, viewers frequently drew a connection between the show’s selection mechanism and political representation. They linked judges’ behaviors to broader competition in the general society and weaved discourses about Mainland China’s political culture. While newspaper contributors were more invested in the technicality of political processes, online discourses romanticized the power of the masses and harbored more explicit discussions about the political confines of Mainland China, such as the restraint on people’s freedom of speech, and the lack of systematic rules that treat all social members and situations consistently.