One country, two telethons

Two telethons for the Sichuan earthquake were on last night, one in Beijing and the other, across the Taiwan Strait and a socio-political gulf, in Taipei. On one show on China’s CCTV Faye Wong was going to come out of de facto retirement to sing just one song, on the other on Taiwan’s CTV Jay Chou was going to come on anytime now and at my end I was having an anxious, tedious time channel-hopping. Yes, tedious. Because CCTV’s telethon was about state power (the motherland will help you, dear victims) and CTV’s, star power (dear viewers, you can help Jay, Jolin Tsai and Ma Ying-jeou help the victims) and both were, in the end, boring.

On CCTV’s show there were kingly leading men bellowing away, reciting from big red books (they were big and they were red, really) verses of how China would rise to the challenge of the earthquake…there were three children of Sichuan, tearfully swearing to soldier on and take their exams come hell or high water…there was a elderly man bawling away, saying he felt for the victims, the People’s Liberation Army and most of all the central leadership comrades. It was painful for him and for me too. I would hop to CCTV in the hope of seeing Faye, then flee to CTV in under five minutes.

Away from the high-flown pain on CCTV, CTV’s low-key show was a relief. Somewhat. Where CCTV had well-dressed comrades CTV had dressed-down celebs, from pop kings to drama queens to the top idol du jour, presidential pin-up Ma. Where CCTV had stirring songs CTV had next to none. The drama was all in the stars actually appearing, actually answering donors’ phone calls, or rather, it was all in the assumption that the more the stars and the more the calls, the more the drama. A star would appear, say something sappy or stupid about the earthquake and attempt to answer a donor’s call as a host tried to contribute comments like, “Do you know you are talking on the phone with Jolin Tsai? Jolin Tsai, did you tell her she was talking on the phone with you?”

Amid such starry and starstruck senselessness Jay’s was a rare voice of reason. He didn’t (and doesn’t) do sappy or stupid. When he appeared he said simply that there should be concern not only for the short-term work of relief but also for the long-term work of reconstruction. When he was answering the phone in place of Mr Ma and a host tried to dramatise the situation – “Do you know who sat in your seat?” – he signed that he was busy. Admirably and adorably he wouldn’t play the game.

Likewise Faye wouldn’t play the game on CCTV. When she did come on, almost as an afterthought to the propaganda, she didn’t say a word. All the things she could have said were in the way she sang, too briefly, the song May We Live Long; she had never sounded warmer to me.