To boost visitors to the struggling province, new television program pits city against city.
By Li Xueqing
Leaders in Shanxi province are taking to the small screen in a new talent show that’s part “The Voice,” part “America’s Got Talent,” and part town hall meeting.
The show, “Impressive Scenery of Shanxi,” features mayors and party secretaries from around Shanxi who face off against each other in a bid to convince audiences that their city is the best tourist destination.
A screenshot of Wang Zhenyu, deputy mayor of Linfen, giving a speech during an episode of the TV show ‘Impressive Scenery of Shanxi.’ From Shanxi Satellite TV’s official Youku channel.
Located in the north of China, Shanxi is famed for its many varieties of noodles and its huge coal deposits. In 2011, during the coal industry’s “golden decade,” coal was responsible for more than a third of the province’s GDP. But the market for coal has gone down, and Shanxi’s economic growth ranked last and second-to-last among Chinese provinces in 2014 and 2015.
It’s against this background that officials are embracing the chance to bring some fame — and tourists — to their corner of the province by competing on the show.
The winning city will host Shanxi’s second tourism development conference later this year.
The show made its debut on Shanxi Satellite TV on May 27 and will run every Friday evening until July 29. Each city’s presentation starts with a 90-second video showcasing local tourist attractions, followed by a five-minute speech by a mayor or party secretary.
The “performances” are then reviewed by four special guests, all of whom sit in giant red chairs — just like the ones on “The Voice,” except they don’t swivel. These guests — not “judges” — ask such probing questions as “How would you describe your city in one sentence?”
A screenshot from ‘Impressive Scenery of Shanxi’ shows the four special guests commenting on the mayors’ performances. From Shanxi Satellite TV’s official Youku channel.
In the show’s debut episode, the first leader to take the stage was Ren Yangang, deputy mayor of Yangquan, an industrial city in eastern Shanxi. In a passionate cadence as if reciting poetry, Ren described Yangquan as a town of history and heroes.
Afterwards, the studio audience — including 30 representatives from the tourism industry and the media — cast their votes. Viewers at home can also take part through messaging app WeChat, as more than 4.4 million people did as of Tuesday.
Tao Yixiao, channel director at Shanxi Satellite TV, told Sixth Tone that the show’s success so far is partly due to the participation of local politicians — a rarity in China. Tao added that another factor was Shanxi’s rich history.
Situated on the banks of the Yellow River, Shanxi province lies right in the historical heartland of China, and the area is seen as one of the birthplaces of Chinese civilization.
All three mayors in the first episode emphasized their city’s history. Li Haiyuan, mayor of Shuozhou, talked about the historical figures who were born in the city. Wang Zhenyu, deputy mayor of Linfen, turned his speech into a history lesson, going all the way back to 4,500-year-old Chinese writings discovered in his city.
So far, “Impressive Scenery of Shanxi” seems to have had the desired effect, drumming up online comments that have mostly been positive, with some users saying they would choose Shanxi for their next holiday destination.
Other net users called on their own provinces to do similar shows — a cue for leaders everywhere to start practicing their party pieces.
With contributions from Qi Yue.
(Header image: A screenshot from ‘Impressive Scenery of Shanxi’ shows the studio audience pressing buttons to score the mayors based on their performance. From Shanxi Satellite TV’s official Youku channel.)
