promotional material for Listen to me. Photo: Weibo

A new all-women talk show, Listen to me, has stirred up anticipation among netizens after the remaining members of the cast were announced on Wednesday.  

Unlike similar programs that are gender balanced such as the popular Chinese talk show Rock & Roast, Listen to me will only invite women celebrities as guests, so they may express their opinions on hot social topics from a female perspective. In short, it is a show about women.  

The show boasts 18 stars in its full lineup. An announcement on Monday introduced 12 members of the cast, which includes stars such as Wang Ju, Shang Wenjie, Zhang Kaili, and Wang Ziwen, while Wednesday's announcement added six other celebrities including Huang Xiaolei and Kan Qingzi. This makes for an impressive cast made up of publicly recognized figures who represent women's voices in China today. For instance, Wang Ju has been a constant advocate for the fight against skin color and body shaming toward women, whereas Wang Ziwen recently became the center of public attention after boldly confirming rumors that she is a single mom to a young son she had out of wedlock. 

As a show that brings together celebrities of varying ages and personalities to speak about women, Listen to me has already become a hot topic on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo, although netizens have different reasons for their interest in the show. 

"I like the lineup. They give me the feeling that they are confident, experienced and have ways of dealing with complicated issues such as social and love relationships. I want to be inspired," a 20-year-old woman in Beijing told the Global Times on Wednesday. 

"I think there will be a lot of discussions or banter about the relationship between men and women. As a person who likes this type of show, I look forward to seeing more topics about men and women trend on Sina Weibo because of this show," Sarah, a 26-year-old woman in Beijing, told the Global Times on Wednesday. 

While some people expressed excitement at the thought that the show's feminine perspective might provide some hot takes about the two sexes, some expressed concern as well, saying that only hearing women's voices could create disharmony between men and women. 

"I hope it will not turn into another show that makes fun of men, and casting shadows on our dignity just to make people laugh. As a man, especially a man from Sichuan, I appreciate sassy and independent women, even though some of them can be short-tempered, but girls like Yang Li who always belittle men to win female viewers are not good and should not be liked," Cheng, a man living in Chengdu, told the Global Times on Wednesday. 

The show is being produced by Mango TV, a streaming platform where audiences can watch most of Hunan TV's series and variety shows including the very popular reality TV show Sisters Who Make Waves. No release date has been announced yet.