Nowhere or Anywhere; Growing Pains in China's TV Industry

On July 29th, the arrival of the production crew of a variety show called Go Fighting (极限挑战) brought the traffic around several Nanjing historical sites to a standstill. The throng of people at the scene illustrates the exceeding popularity of the show in China at this moment. Broadcast on Dragon Television, part of Shanghai Media Group, and aired 14th June 2015, it is classified as a game-variety show; the six MCs, four renowned actors and two popular singers, complete missions at a landmark to win a race. Elaborate plots, diverse characters and loads of punch lines, have catapulted this reality show to the first place of ratings among all the variety shows on Sunday evenings, with viewers rating shooting up by 45 percent just between week one and two of the show being broadcast.

Yet, the popular show is mired in controversy. Some fans of a popular Korean variety show called Infinite Challenge (无限挑战) point out most of ideas and games of Go Fighting (GF) have been stolen from their favourite show. While it is common for Chinese broadcasters to purchase copyrights from Korea as was the case Running Man, Flower Sisters/Grandpas and We Get Married, yet shortly after launch, MBC—Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation, who distributed and syndicated Infinite Challenge (IC), alleged that this program plagiarized their original creation. In fact, they had already sold the copyright to CCTV, China central television, and not Dragon TV.

A Vague Reply

Comparative screen captures of the two programmes reveal that one episode of Go Fighting is compounded of contents from several different episodes of Infinite Challenge. Competitions such as experiencing harsh part-time jobs and taking turns to be the king of the game just resemble those in the Korean programme, while clips of tugging a plane, explosions of cars and a cottage look identical to the Korean original. The storyboards, number of participants and the positions of captions are like two peas in a pod. Even the Chinese title of the two programmes is almost exactly the same, only exchanging the word unlimited with extreme (无限挑战 vs. 极限挑战).

Miss Chen, a university student who belongs to the biggest Chinese Infinite Challenge fansub group, told us that even the inspiration of Go Fighting was almost identical to Infinite Challenge. In order to free men from the burden of work and family, and to present their courage, integrity, smartness and loyalty to brotherhood, Go Fighting seeks for five middle-aged men to be involved in large-scale and tough races. A sixth added character is a young Chinese man, who is part of EXO, in a bid to appeal to a young demographic. The motivation of the Korean show reads exactly the same; letting six below-average Korean men accomplish impossible missions.

Zhou Jie, the vice director of the Marketing and Promotion department at Dragon TV, argued against the criticisms of Go Fighting being “a pirate version”, stating the channel only borrowed a general concept from Korea. He admits that Infitinite Challenge was used as an inspiration with regards to the structure of their programme and their ambition to make each episode of the TV show as exciting as a movie but in practice and design, Go Fighting is totally distinctive. Zhou also added that their plot was very common in many variety shows from Korea, Europe and America.

Arguably, a fan of Go Fighting pointed out that Infinite Challenge had copied some ideas from Japanese shows as well; as they say, people in glass houses...

To make matters more complicated, evidence has been put forward of corporate espionage. It was revealed that a number of crewmembers of Chinese Go Fighting are in fact Korean, suggesting they might be former MBC staff. In addition, in a promotion ad of Dragon TV in March they said they would buy the copyright from Infinite Challenge, yet somehow the copyright ended up with CCTV. Considering how much money the Shanghai-based channel spent inviting six top-star cast members, a lack money to buy copyrights does not seem to be the issue. The mystery how the copyright ended up with its Northern rival continues.

Chinese Variety Show: Going Nowhere or Anywhere?

Since Hunan TV introduced MBC’s Dad, Where Are We Going? in 2013 caused a sensation and miracle ratings, a wave of imitating Korean shows has been kicked off in China. In fact, before the turn of the century most Korean shows were also adaptations from pre-existing formats.. After ten years studying and experimenting during the 1990s, the industry had finally matured enough to create original shows with brand new systems and idiosyncratic methods. The result is television that is culturally relevant throughout Asia and whose humour resonates with this side of the planet.

China is still trying to find its broadcasting feet in the modern age. However, contrary to Korea, it faces a unique set of challenges. As opposed to its smaller neighbor, China has the world’s largest potential audience, at the same time, the most diverse, speaking hundreds of dialects and living with totally different traditions and culture. Furthermore, a regulated TV industry means, Chinese producers and directors are restricted with more regulations and rules, in spite of the fact that Chinese media people are more and more excellent, open-minded and well equipped. Hence, their only option is to hire expensive Chinese mega-stars to give their show the edge. In turn, this is hampering the development of a specialized TV acting market. Professional talents in Korea might only work for TV and on more realistic wages, while Chinese artists tend to be high-profile film actors and singers.

Therefore, in the face of such difficulties, Go fighting at least succeeded in portraying strong characters, and injecting local culture into each section and game. The ratings don’t lie. It reaches the ultimate target of a variety show; to entertain its audience. Copyright is still an issue in China. However, in the case of broadcast television it might merely be a part of the maturing process.

In the meantime, MBC is attempting to sue Dragon TV for infringement. The question that remains is how much time is needed for the Middle Kingdom to move on to more original programming. As the Korean competition keep besting local programming and occupying the space for creativity, this begs the question if the destination of Chinese TV show is nowhere or anywhere.