Introduction
Culture does not merely exist; it is there to benefit and serve a purpose. The celebrity construction culture is not neutral. Celebrities are not born. They are created to serve the needs of the people and the economy. Super Girl is a commodified machine where celebrities are constructed and girls are turned into products to financially and emotionally benefit numerous parties in society.
The celebrity construction machine serves the needs of capitalism. It is a commodified talent search that can be modified by larger machines to be acceptable and suitably sold to audiences all over the world. The cultures are tailored to meet the needs of mass society but at the same time can have strong influence on mainstream culture.
2005 Super Girl top contestants.
Background on Super Girl
Super Girl is a singing contest held annually from 2004 - 2006 by Hunan Satellite Television for aspiring female singers in China. The show primarily follows a similar format to those of the Idol franchise. Different to Idol, auditions for Super Girl were held in several large cities simultaneously. Contestants who make the auditions then go on to compete with others in the same city, with only the top three in each city going to Changsha for the national finals. The contestants are judged by well known Chinese singers and producers, as well as ‘audience judges’ selected from various social backgrounds. Voting was conducted via telephone and text message with each vote costing from 0.5 to 3 Chinese Yuan. Top ten winners of Super Girl in 2005 scored a managing contract with Tian Yu/Sky Entertainment (Luo, n.d.).
The show generated a craze among China’s youth with the 2005 audition of Super Girl attracting more than 120,000 applicants from all over China (Qing, 2005).
The finale of the 2005 Super Girl captured an audience of 400 million (Jakes, 2006), with some 8 million votes casted (Xinhua, 2005). The show is one of the most watched television programs in Chinese history and the top among all Idol format shows (Macartney, 2005).
Finalists awaits voting results at the 2005 Super Girl grand final.
The sponsor of Super Girl paid a reported 14 million Yuan, while five-second commercial slots in the grand final generated 48,000 Yuan and fifteen-second commercial slots were sold for 112,000 Yuan (Luo, n.d.).
Hunan Satellite Television Logo.
Despite the high popularity among the people, Liu Zhongde, China’s former vice-minister of Culture, described the show as ‘vulgar and degrading’ (Xinhua, 2007). The show was accused of ‘discouraging youngsters from living life practically’ (Xinhua, 2007) and having ‘preached the wrong concept of instant riches and fame’ (Xinhua, 2007).
Culture Commodification
Commodity, as described by Marx, is a ‘value in use’, that has the properties to be able to satisfy human needs or the properties are ‘the product of human labour’ (Marx, 1867). The process of commodification then is where ‘man, by his industry, changes the forms of the materials furnished by Nature, in such a way as to make them useful to him’ (Marx, 1867).
The Idol format reality shows are powerful commodification machines as they create an exchange value through both the creation of a celebrity as well as the celebrity created. Following Marx’s logic of commodification as turning wood into table, the wood in this instance can be seen as the talent quest process as well as the people in the talent quest.“There is a physical relation between physical things. But it is different with
commodities. There, the existence of the things qua commodities, and the
value-relation between the products of labour which stamps them as commodities,
have absolutely no connexion with their physical properties and with the
material relations arising therefrom” (Marx, 1867).
Idol type reality television firstly turns the show of talent (or lack of) and the process of seeking someone with celebrity potential into a television program that is packaged with fun, excitement along with sponsorships and advertisements to be sold to mass audiences. Secondly, the people going through the process of Idol are rapidly turned into celebrities. From a person walking down the street, they’ve become a star that shines with style and personality, and is sold to the mass society.
Commodification of Talent Quest
Many talent quests have developed all over the world pre-Idol. These searches for talents can be seen as a subculture that goes through a process of distortion, legitimization and integration (Ricoeur, 1986) to be commodified into the Idol model and sold all over the world. This involves altering reality (or what it used to be), normalizing reality, and incorporating the ideology with mass society.
l Distortion: The old talent quest model is modified to serve the needs of a wide range of audiences. The process of scouting of someone of celebrity potential has been turned into reality television that auditions a large amount of people, giving them mass exposure. The prizes of winning has also upgraded to record deals and/or monetary rewards.
l Legitimization: The Idol format has normalized the search for the next celebrity through reality shows. The show’s popularity in the UK has led to it being developed and sold to audiences all over the world, with many of them becoming an annual event. The fame of talent quests format reality shows has also led to development of other reality series such as Britain’s Got Talent.
l Integration: The ideologies that integrate Idol culture and mass society are the slogan of ‘everybody can become a star’, as well as the desire of ‘maybe I will be famous someday’. The parallel of ideology with mass society allows the Idol franchise to become a popular commodity that is widely accepted and bought by society.
The concept of a talent search post Idol is more than a quest for good talent. It is a culture industry where people are entertained, stars are made, and billions of dollars are profited all over the world. The commodification of this concept to such extent was achieved through repackaging and selling the Hollywood slogan of ‘everybody can become a star’ to involve the mass audience and be more accepted within different society machines across the globe.
Commodification of Humans
Celebrities are powerful commodities as they are famous and influential. They have large fan bases consisting of loyal consumers who love, idol, and want to be just like them. People who create celebrities are even more powerful. They choose and control these models in society.
The concept of idol fetishism is very significant as celebrities produce extremely strong consumers who blindly devote themselves to the idol.
In Super Girl, Li Yuchun, the winner of the 2005 season had an extremely organized and almost cult like fellowship. Fans created websites and chat forums dedicated to Li, vigorously protected her when rumours came out, spent all their pocket money on voting for her, and even flocked the streets in major cities to ask strangers/borrowed their mobile phones to vote for their idol. This strong fellowship resulted in Li’s winning with over 3.5 million votes (Xinhua, 2005). Journalist Miao Qing comments that ‘television has rapidly equipped them with the manner of true starts and driven hundred of thousands of people crazy for them’ (Qing, 2005).
“The whole world is made to pass through the filter of the culture industry”
(Adorno & Horkheimer, 1993).
What is shown on television is perceived as ‘normal’, and sets an influential example of behaviour.
Despite most contestants are affected by the Super Girl culture and willingly change to conform to the norms of mainstream culture and plead to be liked, there are contestants who beg to differ. These contestants with strong personalities and differences ultimately can affect the mainstream culture and become norm, as "real life is becoming indistinguishable from the movies" (Adorno & Horkheimer, 1993).
In the 2005 season of Super Girl, the top two contestants are very different to other girls in the
show in terms of their voices and style. They do not follow what has become the guideline of being a beautiful girl, such as growing nice long hair, using make up, wearing pretty dresses etc. These girls have short hair and dress similar to boys. Through this disinformation on the way a girl should dress, new opportunities arise as a new commodity culture is created (or a small subculture commodified and brought to mainstream). With the wide broadcast of the show, the trend of girls dressing boys has developed and affected many Chinese youth’s fashion style.
2005 Super Girl runner up Zhou Bichang.
2005 Super Girl winner Li Yuchun.
2006 Super Girl Li Na.
Culture Modification: Localization of Idol to Super Girl
The Idol franchise has commodified the term ‘talent search’ across the globe. The Idol format reality shows profits billions through selling the Hollywood culture of ‘everyone can become a star’. Super Girl is a machine that spun-off and works similarly to the Idol machine. These are created cultures that act as star developing machines that commodify the process and desire of achieve celebrity status.
“Everywhere it is machines – real ones, not figurative ones: machines driving other machines, machines being driven by other machines, with all the necessary couplings and connections… Something is produced: the effect of a machine, not mere metaphors.” (Deleuze & Guattari, 1983)
A machine, according to Guattari, is made up of regimes, pathways and subjects. In this instance, the Super Girl show is the regime, a system of rules in which competitors have to abide by and the way in which success is determined. The pathway in Super Girl is the set stages of the competition in which contestants have to travel through in order to win and how audiences keep their favourites in the show. The 120,000 contestants are the subjects in Super Girl, and are often modified while going through the pathways and regimes by being told of how to sing, act and/or dress.
2005 Super Girl finalists in depictions of Red Army uniforms.
2005 Super Girl group performance of old, well-known, Chinese song, 'Qing Chun Wu Qu' (Youth Song).
2005 Super Girl group performance of traditional style Chinese song dressed in semi-traditional Chinese clothing (Qi Pao).
The Super Girl machine operates within the larger machine of Chinese culture. In order to make the Super Girl machine a successful commodity and more ‘real’ to Chinese locals, local values and customs are respected and freely expressed through showing auditions by people of all ethnics, and using folk music and choreography. Unlike American Idol’s judges, the Chinese judges do not have such distinct personalities and are often more reserved and less harsh when commenting on the contestants’ performances.
Other machines that have direct influence to the Super Girl culture include the Hunan Satellite TV machine, the Tian Yu (Sky Entertainment) machine and the Chinese government machine.
The Hunan Satellite TV machine and the Tian Yu (Sky Entertainment) machine are the larger machines that work with and have power over the Super Girl machine. These corporations manufacture celebrities through producing reality shows to draw audiences into their Chinese reality entertainment machine while obtaining numerous benefits. The Hunan Satellite TV machine and the Tian Yu (Sky Entertainment) machine created a capitalist commodity industry through reality shows that did not used to exist in China. The culture of reality television they have developed has resulted in billions of dollars in profits as well as drew large numbers of Chinese audiences.
The Chinese government machine is another powerful influence over the Super Girl machine. The Chinese Governments is authoritarian and collectivist. Due to the popularity generated for the created culture of Super Girls, and its democratic voting system, the Government may feel threatened of a culture revolution as the democratic culture of the Super Girl machine may affect the behaviour of the shared subjects within the Chinese government machine and the Super Girl machine (Jakes, 2006). In protection of the regime in which China as a country operates, Super Girl was heavily criticised by the Government. Therefore the ‘revolution’ has failed as "the old forms and structures of organization [took] power" (Guattari, 1984).
The Chinese Government.
Capitalism of Super Girl Culture
The Super Girl series can be described as an "Institution of capitalism that are the consequences of human behaviour that will come back to structure our future behaviour" (Wolff, 2003). Super Girl as a capitalist exploits the contestants, profiting billions through their free performances. Similarly, the girls exploit the reality series to show off their talent and gain as much awareness as possible in order to achieve stardom.
In order to achieve the goal of the created Super Girl culture, as the machinic progression moves forward, both the machine and its subjects need to further exploit each other.
To obtain large amounts of audiences, Super Girl exploits its contestants’ abilities as well as feelings to make the show interesting and exciting. The contestants’ are manipulated and altered. Through the regime and pathway of the Super Girl machine, by the end of the show, contestants are no longer who they were in terms of the way they look, dress, act and sing.
2005 Super Girl top 5 He Jie at the very beginning of the contest.
2005 Super Girl top 5 He Jie at the beginning of the contest.
2005 Super Girl top 5 He Jie after the contest.
On the other hand, the contestants use the Super Girl platform to try and convince audiences of their ‘true self’. As the most favoured contestant win, the girls in Super Girl willing changes themselves and say/do things they don’t necessarily agree to in a mere attempt to be liked by the audiences.
Conclusion
Culture is anything but neutral. They are commodities that are created, modified and manipulated to serve the needs of its creator/s. The mass televised talent quest is a created machine that is commodified and sold to audiences worldwide. The Super Girl machine is similar to the Idol machine but modified to fall within the regime of Chinese culture. The show and its contestants are all commodified machines that capitalistically operate together to achieve success through awareness as well as finance.
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