The Beijinger Blog - TV

The Decline in Standards at CCTV

thebeijinger — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:00:15 +0800

If you watch the video below you’ll see a veteran presenter of CCTV 1’s flagship 7pm news broadcast involuntarily letting out a small burp while reading the news on Monday evening. The rapid spread of the trivial footage across the web is testament to both the eagle-eyes of the media-watching public and also their new found ability to shine a light on embarassing mistakes by uploading clips to various video sharing sites. Zhang Hongmin's burp is the latest in a long line of gaffes from CCTV presenters and below we’ve gathered together clips and images of some recent on-air bloopers that have led many to bemoan the decline in standards over at CCTV.

Return of the Dragon: CCTV’s Bruce Lee TV Series

thebeijinger — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:00:36 +0800

Last night CCTV 1 broadcast the first two episodes of a new 50-episode TV drama called The Legend of Bruce Lee (李小龙传奇 Li Xiaolong Chuanqi). Hong Kong actor Danny Chan (Chan Kwok Kwun) attempts to fill the big pair of martial arts shoes and he’s joined by actors from more than 30 countries including a couple of Hollywood actors; Ray Park and Tim Storms. While waiting for another enthralling episode of Yang Rui’s Dialogue to start on CCTV 9, I managed to catch a glimpse of the first episode last night. Bruce was standing up to the school bully but not getting much support from his teachers or parents. It was pretty slow going， but I was happy to learn the slightly formal Chinese expression for “kicking someone in the balls” – (踢他的睾丸 Ti tade Gaowan) which got quite a lot of use after Bruce went and did just that.

Video of the Week: Chinese speaking contest for foreign students on CCTV 4

thebeijinger — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:30:34 +0800

Want to see how your Chinese measures up to that of other foreigners learning the language? You might want to catch an episode of Haier's Foreign Students in China Chinese Competition which is being screened all week from 10-11pm on CCTV 4. The show concludes with a grand final this Friday evening. We read about the contest over at Truth from Facts, where you can also find more details about the show and a translation of one Chinese blogger's reaction to hearing laowai mangling his mother tongue.

What's going on tonight? Sexy Beijing on a Boat, A Chinoiserie out of the Old West and Cypher Dynasty

thebeijinger — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:00:42 +0800

We failed to get two of them into last week's issue of 7 Days, but there are three great events taking place this evening and a thin thread connects all three of them.

At 5pm, New York artist Patty Chang will give a talk over at Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in 798. Chang, a 2008 finalist for the Hugo Boss Prize, was also recently featured in the MOMA New Directors series for her work Flotsam Jetsam. According to the Ullen's website, the artist will

give an overview of her work but will primarily introduce A Chinoiserie out of the Old West, the project she is currently working on here in China. Based on a 1928 text written by Walter Benjamin about the Asian American film starlet Anna May Wong, this work will take the form of several short film pieces that deal with representation, translation, mistranslation, and crossed meanings. Chang is in Beijing to film the first segment, which will be shown in late July at the Arrow Factory, Beijing.

NBA rejected by CCTV

thebeijinger — Thu, 29 May 2008 18:30:27 +0800

There are lots of basketball fans in China – it's been estimated that there are as many NBA fans here as there are in the US and that viewing figures for each NBA game are somewhere around the 100 million mark. So it hasn't gone unnoticed that live broadcasts of the Playoffs – the climax of the NBA season – have stopped being aired on free-to-air television stations in China. To add insult to injury, fans haven't been given a valid reason as to why the games are no longer being broadcast. Instead they have to make do with questionable excuses. "These games are not in accordance with the atmosphere of the nation after the devastation of the earthquake. They are too entertaining," Jiang Heping, director of CCTV sports, told Reuters.

So what can sports fans watch during these sad times? Well, for one, a repeat of the NBA game they would have otherwise watched live the previous day – repeats of the games it seems are far more acceptable. Meanwhile, the French Tennis Open, the Chinese University Basketball Association (CUBA) league games and the 2008 International Table Tennis Professional Tournament are all considered so un-entertaining that they can still be broadcast live. Not to mention that Chinese viewers have simply replaced their TV screens for computer monitors and continue to watch live feeds of the games via major web portals such as Sina and Sohu.

Video of the Week – CCTV News anchor caught putting on makeup during broadcast

thebeijinger — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:00:21 +0800

this video is no longer available - you can take a look at this one instead.

At about 10.20 last night, during the international news section of the Evening News (晚间新间) on CCTV 1, the screen suddenly switched from the prepared footage to anchor He Hongmei powdering her face. By the "caught in the spotlight" look on her face, we assume she was aware that the camera had just switched back to her.

Lost (Season 4) in Beijing

thebeijinger — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 13:00:49 +0800

Occasionally, in the interest of better understanding our readers, that's Beijing will organize for a research company to conduct surveys that attempt to reveal the habits and interests of the city's English-magazine-reading public. One of the rather depressing, but unsurprising, results of a recent survey into how readers spend their leisure time revealed that Beijing's foreign population enjoys nothing more than veging out in front of the TV watching a DVD. Given the price of DVDs and boxed sets of popular American TV shows, not to mention that a lot of the films available are yet to be released in a lot of countries, this is not a particularly surprising result. Add sub-zero temperatures and a traditional festival that a lot of foreigners have difficulty connecting to (The Spring Festival TV Gala anyone?), to the equation and we're guessing that any expats remaining in Beijing over the holidays will be spending a large chunk of their time wallowing in the warm glow of the TV or computer screen.

Given this fact, and in spite of our strong recommendation to all to get out amongst it all (see this week's issue of 7 Days for some ideas of what to do), we're cautiously going to announce that the fourth season of the popular American TV series Lost has just started screening in the States.