Opinion / Raymond Zhou
Beauty is in the eyes of beholder
By Raymond Zhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-07-28 07:04
The word is in: China's 50 most beautiful women have more brains than
bosom. And that is making a lot of netizens very unhappy.
A survey by 19 of the country's "mainstream media outlets", including The
Beijing News, joined hands to conduct a research project. It started with
an online poll, followed by an expert panel that sifted public opinion
and called the winning shots.
The top three contestants in Stage One were Li Yuchun, Shang Wenjie and
Zhao Wei. The first two were champions of the Supergirl television show
while the third is a popular actress who made her name from a runaway
television hit ten years ago.
The top three final winners are Yang Lan, a Columbia University-educated
television hostess; Annie Yi, a Taiwanese singer-actress who also dabbles
in writing; and Yu Dan, the Beijing professor whose
chicken-soup-for-the-soul interpretation of Confucius classics made her a
television superstar.
Personally, I favor the latter group even though they are by no means
Thelma and Louis or Madam Curie, and their talent has been blown up
infinitely by the tube.
What is really puzzling is the survey conductors' intent and methodology.
As we all know, beauty is subjective. What one considers beautiful may
draw sneers from another. To ask the public to nominate beautiful people
is ill-conceived at best and ignorant at worst. And to totally ignore the
result of the poll is a slap on one's own face.
Organizers should know that online polls invariably pin down popular
stars with loyal followings. That's the way of democracy - it goes for
the lowest common denominator. The higher you go on the intellectual
pyramid, the smaller the fan base.
To substitute a popular vote with an elitist tallying is intended to kill
two birds with one stone: Hey, our research is based on public opinion,
but actually we hold our noses at your selections, which are so much
below our taste. It is sheer hypocrisy.
This mentality is best captured in the old saying, "Master Ye's love for
the dragon". The proverbial Ye craves a dragon, but when it actually
descends on his abode, he flees in terror. The same goes for some of
China's intellectuals, who pray for democracy, but as soon as ordinary
people have a say in public affairs they feel their voice is diluted and
drowned out.
When it comes to setting standards for beauty, there is no need for the
two camps to unify their selections. Netizens, skewed towards the young
and impulsive, can pick their choices while media elites can dispense
their aesthetic wisdom. As a matter of fact, every demographic group can
chip in and announce its own prototype. And people will know that beauty
is multifaceted and ultimately in the eye of the beholder.
That said, I have a hunch why organizers decided to forgo the Supergirl
winners. They have such regimented fan clubs that they can make a much
bigger noise than their actual size suggests. In other words, they know
exactly how to exploit the loopholes of a democratic system to catapult
their picks onto the winning podium. From what I know, some of China's
fan clubs have such organizational sophistication that, were they
political groups, they'd all make the cover of Time magazine.
Now the question becomes complicated: Are these grassroots organizations
a legitimate representation of public opinion, or are they distorting
their demographics so much that everything has turned into a travesty?
Should the media organizers totally disregard their voice or incorporate
the reasonable part of it?
Theoretically, in the Internet age, public voices can be more easily
heard. But the dynamics are not as simple as people imagined.
Email: raymondzhou@chinadaily.com.cn
(China Daily 07/28/2007 page4)
Hot Talks
� Should Beida recruit more recommended students?
� Nude women and Peking Opera: pornography or art?
� War in Iraq lost?
� Costa Rica cut ties with Taiwan: Who's next?
� Will China follow USA "way of life"?
Most Commented/Read Stories in 48 Hours
Learn Chinese, Chinese Mandarin, Learning Materials, Mandarin audio lessons, Chinese writing lessons, Chinese vocabulary lists, About chinese characters, News in Chinese, Go to China, Travel to China, Study in China, Teach in China, Dictionaries, Learn Chinese Painting, Your name in Chinese, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese songs, Chinese proverbs, Chinese poetry, Chinese tattoo, Beijing 2008 Olympics, Mandarin Phrasebook, Chinese editor, Pinyin editor, China Travel, Travel to Beijing, Travel to Tibet
No comments:
Post a Comment