China's state broadcaster is interested in the Olympics but not Olympians, China's what matters
source: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/08/16/cctv_quickly_wears_out_its_wel.html
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If you want an idea of how China is watching its Games, forget the live venues. Only 40% of the tickets were available to the domestic public, with the other 60% kept back in order that various relatives of IOC dignitaries might shop, or take long lunches, or whatever it is they are doing that is keeping them from occupying the vast swaths of empty seats in every arena.
Much better to settle down with a remote control and the fine state broadcast service that is China Central Television - somewhat unfortunately abbreviated to CCTV. How to give you a flavour of its news values? Yesterday five protesters abseiled down the side of CCTV's head office - that breathtaking, Mobius strip-like glass structure in Beijing's financial district - unfurling a vast Free Tibet banner. Police spent up to an hour getting them down, yet the incident was not referred to, much less shown, on any of CCTV's 18 channels. In fairness it is always difficult when a story breaks as far as two feet from your watercooler, so let us assume it was simply unable to get any reporters or cameramen outside in time.
Then again it seems that every day is a good day to bury bad news here, what with CCTV having to meet its obligations to play the official Olympic song, Beijing Welcomes You, at least 987 times in any news cycle.
Beijing Welcomes You comes complete with a video comparable to the BBC's Perfect Day promo, with 100 of China's best-known celebrities positioned either at famous cultural landmarks, or Olympic venues, or engaged in traditional crafts. Each of them sings a couple of the song's lines, every one of which seems to be "Beijing welcomes you".
"Beijing welcomes you!" bellows Jackie Chan, flinging open his arms atop the Great Wall. "We've opened up our world to you!" Cut to a shot of Peking duck spinning round on a lazy Susan. "Beijing welcomes you!" sing a boyband, as if they have never meant a lyric more.
In duration it is slightly longer than the sort of experimental album track a self-indulgent prog-rock band might lay down at their most narcotically addled. This lot have not welcomed you to Beijing until you are lying down and begging for mercy. Hear it twice and it will never leave your internal jukebox.
It does, however, contrive to be less irksome than Beijing I Love You, which also comes around at least once an hour on every channel and features a torch-bearing singer accompanied by a cast of thousands. The lyrics are subtitled, presumably so the Chinese can join in the rapture from the comfort of their own sofa. Often one of these follows the other, giving the viewer a glimpse of what it would be like to pass eternity in China's most on-message choral society.
But what of the sport? The thing that strikes you most is that the state broadcaster is interested in Olympics but not Olympians. Not for CCTV the looks at individual athletes' backstories which are commonplace to those who watch sport in the west. The focus is heavily Chinese, of course - but then all nations ladle on the patriotism at the Olympics. However, whereas Brits will by now know an awful lot more about Nicole Cooke than they did a fortnight ago, the Chinese are not presented with the athlete's journey to gold. It is as if the only narrative that matters is that of China's. Hence endless focus on the medal table.
The approach would appear to tally with one of 21 edicts on Olympic coverage, issued by China's propaganda bureau, which decrees "don't overhype gold medals". Chinese athletes are celebrated but, typically, all together, in one giant Team China montage.
That said, they certainly get the airtime. Hell, they even get the dead airtime and so it is that the camera will focus on a Chinese gymnast waiting minutes for a score to come up, ignoring the competition continuing elsewhere.
Much better to settle down with a remote control and the fine state broadcast service that is China Central Television - somewhat unfortunately abbreviated to CCTV. How to give you a flavour of its news values? Yesterday five protesters abseiled down the side of CCTV's head office - that breathtaking, Mobius strip-like glass structure in Beijing's financial district - unfurling a vast Free Tibet banner. Police spent up to an hour getting them down, yet the incident was not referred to, much less shown, on any of CCTV's 18 channels. In fairness it is always difficult when a story breaks as far as two feet from your watercooler, so let us assume it was simply unable to get any reporters or cameramen outside in time.
Then again it seems that every day is a good day to bury bad news here, what with CCTV having to meet its obligations to play the official Olympic song, Beijing Welcomes You, at least 987 times in any news cycle.
Beijing Welcomes You comes complete with a video comparable to the BBC's Perfect Day promo, with 100 of China's best-known celebrities positioned either at famous cultural landmarks, or Olympic venues, or engaged in traditional crafts. Each of them sings a couple of the song's lines, every one of which seems to be "Beijing welcomes you".
"Beijing welcomes you!" bellows Jackie Chan, flinging open his arms atop the Great Wall. "We've opened up our world to you!" Cut to a shot of Peking duck spinning round on a lazy Susan. "Beijing welcomes you!" sing a boyband, as if they have never meant a lyric more.
In duration it is slightly longer than the sort of experimental album track a self-indulgent prog-rock band might lay down at their most narcotically addled. This lot have not welcomed you to Beijing until you are lying down and begging for mercy. Hear it twice and it will never leave your internal jukebox.
It does, however, contrive to be less irksome than Beijing I Love You, which also comes around at least once an hour on every channel and features a torch-bearing singer accompanied by a cast of thousands. The lyrics are subtitled, presumably so the Chinese can join in the rapture from the comfort of their own sofa. Often one of these follows the other, giving the viewer a glimpse of what it would be like to pass eternity in China's most on-message choral society.
But what of the sport? The thing that strikes you most is that the state broadcaster is interested in Olympics but not Olympians. Not for CCTV the looks at individual athletes' backstories which are commonplace to those who watch sport in the west. The focus is heavily Chinese, of course - but then all nations ladle on the patriotism at the Olympics. However, whereas Brits will by now know an awful lot more about Nicole Cooke than they did a fortnight ago, the Chinese are not presented with the athlete's journey to gold. It is as if the only narrative that matters is that of China's. Hence endless focus on the medal table.
The approach would appear to tally with one of 21 edicts on Olympic coverage, issued by China's propaganda bureau, which decrees "don't overhype gold medals". Chinese athletes are celebrated but, typically, all together, in one giant Team China montage.
That said, they certainly get the airtime. Hell, they even get the dead airtime and so it is that the camera will focus on a Chinese gymnast waiting minutes for a score to come up, ignoring the competition continuing elsewhere.
