Front Page of the Day

Zhao Benshan's Spring Festival MDMA

JDM090317jingjiangs.jpg
Jingjiang Evening News
March 17, 2009

The controversy surrounding "Not Short of Cash," (不差钱), Zhao Benshan's skit at the 2009 Spring Festival Gala, shows no signs of abating.

The skit, set at a Scotland-themed restaurant, involved Zhao's efforts to convince a TV host to use his granddaughter in a variety show, and was the Gala debut of Xiao Shenyang, an errenzhuan actor who played an effeminate waiter bribed into helping Zhao keep the cost of the banquet to an absolute minimum. Xiao Shenyang was a hit, but the skit was criticized by Zhao's fans for relegating him to a supporting role.

Perhaps because of Xiao Shenyang's visibility in the weeks following the Gala, the skit soon came under fire for a variety of other offenses:

  • Vulgarity: Was Xiao Shenyang's performance indecent? And if so, did the program really belong on the airwaves? In a web chat, SARFT head Liu Binjie informed netizens that while Xiao Shenyang's act may be "popular" (通俗), it did not descend to a "vulgar" (低俗) level.
  • Bigotry: Zhao's character refers to Xiao Shenyang's effeminate waiter as a "butt demon" (屁精). Was this just a play on "ass-kisser" (马屁精), or was it an anti-gay slur, as Li Yinhe and others suggested? Should Zhao have known about various regional uses of 屁精? Was Li too wrapped up in her crusade for political correctness to appreciate the value of a good joke?
  • Moral bankruptcy: Asked to comment on the skit, dramatist Wei Minglun (魏明伦) called it "Not short of cash, but short of morals."

Today's Jingjiang Evening News reports that Wei elaborated on his evaluation in a lecture at Sichuan University, where he has just accepted a part-time position in the College of Literature and Journalism. "Artistic ecstasy" is his new assessment of the skit:

Zhao quickly responded to Wei criticism of the moral deficiencies in "Not Short of Cash" by calling it "none of his business." He said, "you need to have the spirit of entertainment to deal with entertainment." However, this year's legislative sessions brought a gradual expansion of criticism targeting "Not Short of Cash." NPC member and Huangmei Opera performer Han Zaifen said, "We do not demand that entertainment shoulder too many educational burdens, but there's a bottom line. You can't find amusement in pointlessness, much less turn swindlers' techniques into the elements of entertainment. Scheming should not be flaunted as wisdom." CPPCC member and Nanjing University physics professor Xing Dingyu criticized Zhao's skit for spreading chicanery and leading integrity education astray.

Wei Minglun said that as a vice-president of the China Theater Association, he had the responsibility to express his opinions of skits, so he was not getting involved where he didn't belong. He said that he has always considered Zhao Benshan an outstanding artist and bears him no ill will; his disagreement is with the skit "Not Short of Cash" itself.

Wei took issue with Zhao's "entertainment theory," saying that the major problem with "Not Short of Cash" was its lowbrow tone: "Entertainment ought to contain meaning. You can't simply glorify fraud, ugliness, and evil. So skits cannot be merely for fun. Some people think looking at sexy pictures is fun, some people think taking ecstasy is fun. Are we going to let our own works become 'artistic ecstasy'?"

Links and Sources
There are currently 6 Comments for Zhao Benshan's Spring Festival MDMA.

Comments on Zhao Benshan's Spring Festival MDMA

Hey Wei Minlun, it's none of your business. The reason why Zhao's skit won the prize was merely because of the support of the audience. Zhao and his skits have been popularly welcomed in Asia, what makes you so jealous?

It is only a joke,we can get something funny from the perfomance, it is okay. We do not have to draw a moral lesson from such things.

Interesting controversy. I re-watched the skit on Youtube, and I really can't see what's all that immoral about this compared to other skits.

Maybe the gender-bender humor of Xiao Shenyang was the real issue, and not "turning swindlers' techniques into the elements of entertainment". Or, it could also be, when the guy is saying that he'll pay for the meal, Zhao's character says something to the effect of "no need, we farmers are much richer now", but the hint to the audience, perhaps, is that that official rhetoric is not quite accurate. Of course, that's just a minor point in the skit, but I guess in some senses the skit doesn't completely follow the "Party/Gov are making things better" narrative that tends to dominate the Gala, nor the education through proper model behavior element.

"Some people think looking at sexy pictures is fun, some people think taking ecstasy is fun."

Since when did looking at "sexy pictures" (I assume he/she means porn?) become equivalent in depravity to taking psychedelic drugs?

Wei Minglun, you can proclaim all day long that libido = immorality, but when you wake up tomorrow, it's still going to be there whether you like it or not.

Wei is referring to "sexy photos-gate" (艳照门), the Edison Chen scandal from last year. Why, I can't say.

It's a Ukranian-themed restaurant...

Post a comment

All comments are moderated and subject to review by Danwei contributors and editors, but well-grounded and articulate comments will be published regardless of which way they lean. Because comments published on any website ultimately contribute to the character of that website, we may decline to publish comments that are irrelevant, redundant, or that do not adhere to generally accepted standards of courtesy; if you are looking for a fight, there are plenty of other venues available online.


Some useful html: <b>bold</b>, <i>italic</i>,
<a href="http://www.danwei.org">link</a>

Media Partners
Visit these sites for the latest China news
090609guardian2.png 090609CNN3.png
China Media Timeline
Major media events over the last three decades
Danwei Model Workers
laomo2008fpA.jpg
Recommended blogs and new media
Books on China
AXL091030storiesforthcoming.jpg
Princess Der Ling: Two Years in the Forbidden City: Two years in the Forbidden City is largely a reminiscence of the minutiae of life for one of history's most powerful women, by one of her court attendants, a Manchu noble's daughter by the name of Der Ling.
Carl Crow's The Long Road Back to China: In 1939 Carl Crow - an American journalist, advertising executive and author who had lived in Shanghai for 25 years until forced out by the Japanese - travelled up the Burma Road from Rangoon to Chongqing on assignment for Liberty magazine - 'the most interesting assignment I have ever been given'.
Front Page of the Day
A different newspaper every weekday
From the Vault
Classic Danwei posts
+ The 'national' in National Day (2006.10): Xiao Feng writes about China's national flavor, national curse, national bird, national car, and so forth, Dongfang Yu writes on the true meaning of China's National Day in the age of angry youth.
+ Don't ask so laowai don't have to tell (2008.07): An essay was written by Geremie Barmé, scholar, filmmaker and author of the new book The Forbidden City.
+ Religion and government in an uneasy mix (2008.03): Phoenix Weekly (凤凰周刊) article from October, 2007, on government influence on religious practice in Tibet.
Danwei Archives
Danwei Feeds
Via Feedsky rsschiclet2.png (on the mainland)
or Feedburner rsschiclet.gif (blocked in China)
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Main feed: Main posts (FB has top links)
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Top Links: Links from the top bar
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Danwei Jobs: Want ads
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Danwei Digest: Updated daily, 19:30