CHINA: Time was when all you got on prime- time Chinese TV were dreary propaganda shows about the air force or ecstatic news bulletins about production targets being met and musings on the thoughts of Chairman Mao.
These days, just like everywhere else, the world's biggest television audience is going for reality shows in a big way. Now China's ancient Shaolin Temple, immortalised in the 1970s television show Kung Fu, is hosting a martial arts reality TV show which will search for a new Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee.
There may be no sign of Donald Trump, but oodles of capitalism with Chinese characteristics lie in store for viewers after state broadcaster CCTV announced plans to launch yet another take on the Donald Trump-hosted US programme The Apprentice. Producers insist any similarities to the reality programme are merely superficial.
Both programme-makers are trying to emulate the success of the Pop Idol-style singing contest Inner Mongolian Yoghurt Supergirl which drew an audience of more than 400 million of China's 1.3 billion people last August.
The show proved so popular that the government has introduced a number of restrictions on Supergirl to make sure it doesn't get out of hand and turn into a case of "I'm a Communist, get me out here".
Martial arts rival karaoke singing for popularity in China, which augurs well for the K-Star Global Chinese Kung Fu Star TV Competition, which will give 108 martial artists a chance to show their moves at the famous temple in the hills of central Henan province with the winners getting a shot at Hollywood stardom.
The 1,500-year-old Shaolin monastery features in scores of Hong Kong and mainland martial arts films, but outside China it is best known as the place where Kwai Chang Caine or Grasshopper in Kung Fu, played by David Carradine, learned self-defence. The martial arts enthusiasts will be ranked by virtue, kung fu ability and artistry - 108 is an auspicious number, referring to the 108 heroes of the classic text The Water Margin.
"The Shaolin temple is the cradle of kung fu which brings with it the great responsibility of promoting kung fu," said Abbot Shi Yongxin, who, as well as being a monk, has a reputation for canny financial dealings. So much so that he may even be in with a chance in the other big reality show set to dominate TV screens this year - the latest Chinese version of The Apprentice.
Win in China opens in May. Instead of Trump's autocratic rulings, viewers will decide who gets fired by voting electronically for their favourite, making for a much more "dramatic and interactive" show. Efforts to produce a Chinese version of The Apprentice with maverick Beijing property tycoon Pan Shiyi taking the Trump role, collapsed after Pan pulled out.
"I think The Apprentice is driven by money, which is hard to accept in Chinese culture," said Wang Lifen, the programme's executive producer. "What we're looking for is the talent of self-management and entrepreneurship." The programme may not be driven by hard cash, but it has rampant capitalism at its core.
The winner will be put in charge of a business with a registered capital of €1 million, while four other winners will get to run smaller firms. The start-ups are being funded by Asian and international venture capital firms and some viewers will be given stocks in the new companies. The Apprentice seems to have really captured people's imagination in China, which first embraced the free market within the last quarter-century or so.
