Writing in Sunday's Legal Mirror, Li Yu performs a postmortem on the "Supergirl" (the "Mengniu Sour Yogurt Super Voice Girl" American-Idol-style TV show) phenomenon:

What is "Supergirl"?

"Supergirl" is a money game. Income from mobile phone SMS topped 30 million yuan (US$3.7 million); naming rights took 1.4 million yuan (US$173,000); the seven commercial spots during the finals pushed 20 million (US$2.47 million); and printing pictures of "supergirls" on T-shirts, accessories, toys and other items had immense potential - production ended up somewhere north of several million yuan. Experts have calculated that the "Supergirl" brand by itself is worth at least 100 million yuan (US$12.3 million). When a "Super Voice Girl" can bring in this sort of cash, how can we not submit?

"Supergirl" is Dream of the Red Chamber. Lu Xun said, "Dream of the Red Chamber is a book that many people in China know, or at least they know its name. The author and the readers I'll not discuss here, but the meaning of the novel varies according to the viewpoint of the reader. Classicists see the Book of Changes, Daoists see excess and indulgence, young scholars see sentiment, revolutionaries see anti-Manchu thinking, gossips see the secrets behind palace walls..." So for this simple entertainment program, why can't viewers with different perspectives see fun, high culture, vulgarity, openness, transparency, back-room dealings, games, and education in "Supergirl"?

"Supergirl" is fashion. Whether you've seen the program or not isn't important. But if you don't know what "rice dumplings" are (they're people who insinuate themselves into groups of fans to sow chaos and misdirection), or strange uses of words like "cold jelly" or "corn" or "box lunch" or "chalk" [see Danwei's earlier post on "Supergirl" for an explanation], then you're really out of it - the only thing to tell you is to catch up, quick!

"Supergirl" is a classroom. In the afternoon of 19 August, a "mysterious individual" came to a China Mobile kiosk in Changsha, slapped down 500,000 yuan (US$61,700) on the counter and took away 10,000 telephone cards to use in voting for Li Yuchun. "Mom, my new glasses look like Bibi's [Zhou Bichang]! Let's not fight, and don't hide the phone, ok? I voted for Chunchun 15 times, so I need to vote for Bibi 15 times, too, ok?" Seeing is believing, and apparently the mythical "vote exchange" is really done like this. [Since the system limited the number of votes any single phone could submit, groups of fans were reported to have traded votes to push up the totals.]

"Supergirl" is a smiling thief. Out of an initial group of 150,000 contestants, Li Yuchun clear all the hurdles and ended up with 3,528,308 votes for the win, Zhou Bichang had 3,270,840 for second place, and Zhang Liangying had 1,353,906 for third. And these are only the totals for the final round - how much money did these SMSs take from the fans?

"Supergirl" is a game of the "rich." What is "Sing as you like"? Nothing but a tease. Everyone is aware that from the first cut through the selection of the top 10, all fees - including transportation, accomodation, telephone, and clothing - were paid by the contestants. This is no small sum for a girl in her teens.

"Supergirl" is a "planter." Some people have said that Chinese people have poured their enthusiasm for voting into "Super Voice Girl." Commentaries with titles like The Civic Awareness in the "Supergirl" Selection Process, Super Voice Girl and Civil Society, Super Voice Girl and the Construction of a Democratic System, and Rays of Idealism in the Super Voice Girl Selection Process have poured forth. "Super Voice Girl" has become "the dawn of civic society." But can "Super Voice Girl" really carry such a large burden?

"Supergirl" is...

For more articles on the "Super Voice Girl" phenomenon, see ESWN's roundup of commentaries, Super Girls and Democracy.