Why is Everyone Going Nuts Over the Chopstick Brothers?

Last Sunday the 42nd American Music Awards were held in LA, with the biggest awards going to UK boyband One Direction and American pop sensation Taylor Swift.

But it's the Chinese pop duo the Chopstick Brothers who are getting press over here, after taking home the “International Song Award” with their song "Little Apple" (小苹果 xiao pingguo).

While music awards have never really been known as anything but incestuous pats on the back by industry insiders (after all, these are the awards that gave Artist of the Year accolades to folks like Rascal Flatts, Kelly Clarkson and Kenny Chesney over 50 CentUsher and Beyoncé), it is remarkable that China got itself onto the winner's list not once but twice this year.

Not only did the Chopstick Brothers pick up an award and perform at the ceremony, pop singer Zhang Jie took home the International Artist Award, an on-again, off-again category only ever previously won by English-speaking acts. That ostensibly puts Zhang in the same league with Michael Jackson (1993); Madonna (1993) Rod Stewart (1994); Led Zeppelin (1995); Bee Gees (1997); Beyonce (2007) and Whitney Houston (2009).

China would love to claim this is a sign of the ascendance of China's soft power worldwide, but not only is it unlikely that the Chopstick Brothers and Zhang Jie have any following outside of China and isolated pockets of overseas Chinese, even in China the awards are generating little buzz except for mockery. In fact, the Chinese segments were not part of the US television broadcast at all.

Chinese press reports the following day immediately accused both acts of buying the awards, while the Chopstick Brothers were mercilessly mocked for their bad lip-syncing at the show.

According to China Daily, by winning the award the Chopstick Brothers earned the distinction of being the first Chinese pop duo to have "performed at and won an award at an established international music award ceremony." Whoo hoo!

One blog stated with regards to Little Apple's popularity that “unless you have been living under a rock for the last few months in China, you’ve probably heard the song a million times.” I personally had not heard the song (and hence I must admit that I actually have been living under a rock for a few months), the song’s popularity appears to be real, if view counts are to be believed.

Data indicates the song's music video has been viewed more than 823 million times. The song was also used by China’s Ministry of National Defense for their People’s Liberation Army recruitment campaign video, though one wonders how an association with this video does the military any good:

Little Apple and its kitschy music video comes off as the product of some record company focus group hastily gathered to mimic the success of Korean artist Psy's 2012 international breakthrough hit "Gangnam Style," which remains one of the few non-English songs to see chart-topping action in pop music meccas such as the US and the UK (not to mention a dozen other countries).

Accusations of bribery come from QQ news, which reported that the Chopstick Brothers's AMA performance was engineered by the Chinese video site Youku, which owns the copyright to the song Little Apple. The act is heard thanking Youku at the end of their tacky performance.

Meanwhile, netizens were quick to point out that Zhang, who first rose to prominence on TV singing competitions, isn't even the most popular singer in China, so it seems hard to believe he could legitimately lay claim to any international award.

As would be fitting for a virtual unknown in the US, Zhang's acceptance speech at the AMAs featured him trying to explain to the confused audience just who he was (and then him breaking into an imitation of his hero, Michael Jackson).

The same post also revealed that according to one source, the International Artist Award can be given to any singer as long as they cough up USD 1 million in sponsorship, and suggested that's exactly how Zhang got the award. Both the Chopstick Brothers and Zhang denied that they or their related companies used bribery to receive and attend the awards.

Truth be told, the AMAs could be just as guilty in the pandering department, as they likely figure that getting the attention of a few million Chinese could boost their ratings. In fact, the whole thing reeks of a "let's get the AMAs on China's radar screens" publicity stunt.

Rolling Stone put it this way in their wrap-up of the show:

"During the show's third hour, the AMAs dedicated two commercial breaks to filming content specifically tailored for broadcast in China — meaning that the in-person audience saw segments that weren't broadcast in the United States. First was the Chopstick Boys doing a performance of their single "Little Apple," which was touted as an international hit on par with Psy's "Gangnam Style." They recreated elements of its video, including the dancers in striped red pajamas and the bearded mermaids. Then Pitbull gave an award to Jason Zhang (a.k.a. Zhang Jie) for "Best International Artist" — an honor that is nowhere to be found, by the way, on the show's official list of winners on their website. The L.A. audience seemed perplexed by Zhang's presence, but he won them over with a speech in English, confessing to being jetlagged, seeming genuinely thrilled, and beautifully singing part of Michael Jackson's "Heal the World."

Those two segments prompted a host of other questions: Do the American Music Awards have a deal in China that requires goosing the broadcast with Sinophilic content? Were there any other nominees for "Best International Artist," or did the show just find the biggest Chinese star who was willing to get on a plane to accept an award? Did Zhang know the award wasn't being broadcast in the United States, and if so, why did he accept it in English? Was he trying to impress his fans back in China, or the industry crowd in the Nokia Theater?"

Image: Youku