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Q: Couple Trouble - Reconcile or Battle?
Got a question regarding the cultures West vs. Asian.
I've watched short clips of an American reality show (don't remember its name) whereby the host would invite troubled couples - husband and wife, boyfriend and girlfriend, and sometimes their friend, dad or mom - who feels being cheated on, and the identity of a baby what not.
Ok, I know American doesn't represent all Western but...
Sometimes I was taken aback by how much drama and heated the show gets, like I can't help guessing whether a mom will get back to a normal relationship to her daughter, who accuses the mom for being flirty to her boyfriend, even though the lie detector tells a false accusation. OMG what a mess.
Meanwhile Chinese shows have similar themes and elements but focus more on thinking on the big and reconciling.
I guess there's a cultural difference here, and also know that the American show could have had a bit of drama element to spice it up.
What's your take on this?
2 years 50 weeks ago in Relationships - China
A lot of those shows are attention seeking idiots looking for their 15 minutes of fame by going on a show where they're encouraged by an audience of idiots to be bigger idiots, it seems that people love to watch tacky dramas unfold, especially if the people start fighting on tv.
I saw a thing in the news some time ago... there was a mother took her teenaged daughter on some TV show hoping to somehow cure her of being a car stealing delinquent loser, I think the audience heckled the girl or something and she yelled 'catch me outside,how bout that' except she was a moron so it sounded like 'cash me ousside, how bout dah'.
It made her famous, she sued someone for using her cash me line - intellectual property rights of all things - and she went on to become a rapper / social media type and I think she also ended up doing a reality show of her own, all based on her being a f**kwit on TV.
What does that say about culture and society? I have no idea but nothing good.
WangNan2020:
Ah so that explains. So the shows are being dramatized in order to get popular, something we also do here in China but not as dramatized. Looks like we need to eat more cheese and beef to get up to that energy level!
Thanks for the comment.
Stiggs:
I'm not so sure about that.
If you've ever seen a couple of people screaming at each other over some stupid disagreement in a market or community area, where one will theatrically pretend to faint (when both are trying to be the aggrieved victim I think the winner is one who pretends to faint first) while the crowd of onlookers act shocked - you'd find that Chinese people also do drama very well, even without the beef and cheese.
WangNan2020:
Yes we get drama in public places over little things and make a big scene. The fake faint is usually the older generation tactics, and the youngsters just engage in full-on fist fights.
I don't watch such shows, butT ... I sent an email to Xi about this part:
"Meanwhile Chinese shows have similar themes and elements but focus more on thinking on the big and reconciling."
He promised, he'll have a look at it ..., i.e. ban on the teli is in progress ...
WangNan2020:
Man why do you have so much energy typing away indirect even unrelated answers to questions here? You musta be living by this website.
Anyway when Xi replied, did he include the cizhi line in the signature?
icnif77:
Of course, not! It isn't up to him to decide that! ... the cizhi ...
"You should know dat! ...", Up-standing Committee replied ...
 
I hope you are aware, when you often determine something unrelated, it is really about the size of yer brain, i.e. anything can be out of the topic once you fail to find a connection ... 
A lot of those shows are attention seeking idiots looking for their 15 minutes of fame by going on a show where they're encouraged by an audience of idiots to be bigger idiots, it seems that people love to watch tacky dramas unfold, especially if the people start fighting on tv.
I saw a thing in the news some time ago... there was a mother took her teenaged daughter on some TV show hoping to somehow cure her of being a car stealing delinquent loser, I think the audience heckled the girl or something and she yelled 'catch me outside,how bout that' except she was a moron so it sounded like 'cash me ousside, how bout dah'.
It made her famous, she sued someone for using her cash me line - intellectual property rights of all things - and she went on to become a rapper / social media type and I think she also ended up doing a reality show of her own, all based on her being a f**kwit on TV.
What does that say about culture and society? I have no idea but nothing good.
WangNan2020:
Ah so that explains. So the shows are being dramatized in order to get popular, something we also do here in China but not as dramatized. Looks like we need to eat more cheese and beef to get up to that energy level!
Thanks for the comment.
Stiggs:
I'm not so sure about that.
If you've ever seen a couple of people screaming at each other over some stupid disagreement in a market or community area, where one will theatrically pretend to faint (when both are trying to be the aggrieved victim I think the winner is one who pretends to faint first) while the crowd of onlookers act shocked - you'd find that Chinese people also do drama very well, even without the beef and cheese.
WangNan2020:
Yes we get drama in public places over little things and make a big scene. The fake faint is usually the older generation tactics, and the youngsters just engage in full-on fist fights.
all television is 'entertainment' to some degree - ALL television (news programmes included)
the aim of tv is to get 'bums on seats'', sell advertising space AND propaganda.
the more often a message is played/repeated, the more people believe it as 'real' - this is a very basic form of manipulation (see Pavlov's Dog)
all programmes are designed to suck the viewer in and play on people's emotions as an emotional person is less likely to think logically and rationally, and less likely to ask difficult questions or challenge authority.
drama and emotive situations engage people most easily.
the viewer is a commodity to be sucked in to the most addictive programmes and hyped up tv programmes engage with the most basic part of the brain,
if you follow how the quality of tv programming has dropped through the floor over the last 30+ years, people's ability to concentrate and think for themselves seems to have run in parallel.
for example, back in the early 1970's the BBC had 26 part / 50 minute dramatisations of novels such as War and Peace.
probably few people now would have the ability to watch a story unfold over 26 weeks without binge-watching !
seeing 'rednecks' enagage in fist-fights is along the lines of 'bread and circuses':
This could be how some people believe programmes such as 'sex and the city' actually reflect real life and behaviour in 'western' countries.
icnif77:
One can avoid such things by watching cycles on the washing machine instead of the teli ...
What you are seeing on your screen is entirely staged. This is true in the U.S., China, and every other country where "reality" shows are aired. The so-called "couples" you are reffering to on these reality talk shows are paid to come on these shows and "perform" for the gulible viewers like you who watch these shows thinking they are real. Their "drama" is fabricated for the puropse of entertaining the audience. The more drama they can manufacture the better. Get educated and you will not be so gulible.