The Oprah of the Orient tunes in

• Source: Global Times
• [09:26 July 30 2010]
• Comments

Bai Wanqing (left) with a guest on The Bai Wanqing Talk Show. Photo: Courtesy of Cheng Qi

By Huang Xi

For some time television talk show hostesses in China have been competing to be the local answer to Oprah Winfrey, the world-famous talk show queen of the US.

Now a 60-something Shanghai woman named Bai Wanqing has rolled up her sleeves and joined the competition.

Earlier this month the Entertainment Channel of Radio and Television Shanghai (RTS) launched a new talk show The Bai Wanqing Talk Show which has attracted a large audience and provoked the producers to make the extravagant claim that Bai Wanqing will be China's own Oprah.

Her show is divided into two major sections: a commentary on social events or local news and a segment where she gives advice on family matters. Maintaining Bai's previous style (Bai is regarded as the "New Uncle" or family matters adviser by many Shanghainese), the show is pretty much a combination of existing program formats on the same channel.

Yin Qingyi, the producer of the show, doesn't agree with this "combination" suggestion and says: "We borrowed the format of Oprah's talk show but we think of it as a desk. Bai's desk has several drawers which can contain news, commentaries, confessions or celebrity interviews."

"Every week it has a new look depending on which of the drawers are opened," he added.

The first part of the show is where Bai and her think tank select a series of controversial subjects that locals have been arguing about and adds her own idiosyncratic comments to these.

"We choose different events, things that have happened in China or elsewhere in the world, but mostly relating to daily life, which appeal to our audience," said Yin.

This commentary on controversy marks the opening of the show, which sees Bai, a basic talk show hostess, acting more like a female "Zhou Libo," the Shanghainese stand-up comedian famous for his sharp comments on social events.

But then the show becomes a clone of another popular show - The New Uncle Show and its question-and-answer segment The Bai Wanqing Hotline. This has been the pacemaker for the channel with its highest rating reaching 12 percent.

"In The Bai Wanqing Talk Show we have set up a confession segment so that people who make mistakes have a chance to apologize for them in public. The New Uncle Show aimed to resolve specific family problems immediately for audiences with The Bai Wanqing Hotline," said Yin.

High ratings

Although it still feels like a reworking of the other show, the Talk Show is enjoying high ratings: 6.3 percent on the launch day and rising to 7.9 percent last week. And ratings, now, are crucial for a show to survive in China.

Having produced television talk shows for more than 10 years, Yin has his own ideas of how to make this kind of show successful - he has been behind many acclaimed shows like The New Uncle Show.

"We worked well with Bai in The New Uncle Show where she became famous as a great adviser on family matters. We thought we would enhance her role by making a completely new talk show for her," Yin said.

Bai has proved to be the selling point, especially for middle-aged audiences. "We planned this show last year. Part of the project was to create a show for Bai and the other part aimed to create a talk show around daily life," Yin said.

Yin thinks that Bai and Winfrey have a lot in common: both are older women, not over glamorous and lacking formal qualifications. "There are many hostesses in China who want to be the Chinese 'Winfrey' but Bai is the closest because of her down-to-earth background," he said.

This show is far away from the "Entertainment" label the channel boasts, which should target young people. According to an analysis of the viewers, most of the audience is made up of middle-aged people, especially retired women.

"Before 2008 the channel was a major local news and entertainment channel in the city and enjoyed a mainly middle-aged audience. The new label means the channel is aimed at entertaining audiences of different ages, from the younger generation to their parents," said Yin.

High-profile shows

Other than the very local talk shows, there are some other high-profile talk shows in the Shanghai-based channels: Culture Matters on the International Channel Shanghai (ICS) and Fengyan-fengyu on the Documentary Channel.

Hosted by the experienced talk show host Sammy Yang, Culture Matters, has a target audience of well-educated Chinese and foreigners living in Shanghai. It presents insights comparing and con-trasting various aspects of Eastern and Western cultures.

Fengyanfengyu is popular among white-collar workers in the city. This weekday Chinese talk show invites two guests, such as media critics, writers, professors or experts, to discuss current affairs.