But Wang Ping, 40, is representative of a slew of new faces among Party delegates, who now include everyone from sports stars to entrepreneurs.

Wang is the mastermind behind the American Idol-style “Super Girl” singing contest, which became one of the most successful TV shows in China’s history after it hit the airwaves in 2004 but also earned the wrath of old-guard propaganda czars.

“There were quite a lot of negative opinions against ‘Super Girl’,” Wang told a small group of reporters on the sidelines of the Congress, which closes on Sunday.

Wang, general director of the show produced by Hunan Satellite TV, was undaunted by the criticism.

“After China’s development all these years, the independence and diversity in our audience’s thinking are set to become greater,” said Wang, looking youthful in a sharp suit.

“Super Girl” tapped into that trend, becoming a smash hit whose record ratings unnerved China’s state television and spurred copycat shows.

Teenage girls flocked to compete in the contest and viewers sent millions of text messages to vote for their favorites.

“‘Super Girl’ offered many ordinary people a singing stage and opportunities to realize their dreams. That’s the very reason people liked it,” Wang said.

But the show’s emphasis on individual success and its open commercial orientation drew tirades from a former Minister of Culture, who accused it of vulgarity and advocating bourgeois ideas of instant fame and money worship.

Wang shrugged off the criticisms, and said she finds little difficulty in reconciling her job with her 20-year membership in the Communist Party.

“I myself directed a Party themed gala night last year. There is no conflict between the two. They are actually mutually complementary, just like you need both vegetable and meat for food,” Wang said.

Wang said she was honored to be elected as a delegate to the Party Congress for the first time, a position that will allow her to vote for the 200-strong Central Committee, the Party’s inner circle, on Sunday.

In a country where citizens have no direct say in choosing their leaders, some have hailed “Super Girl” for giving people a taste of democracy with its mass text message voting.

But Wang disagrees with such political interpretations.

“For me the show is just entertainment. It’s that simple,” she said.

Wang also shied away from criticizing the national broadcasting watchdog for its recent ban on talent shows in prime time, a move that has dampened Hunan TV’s hopes of staging another successful season of “Super Girl” or its spin-off, “Happy Boy”, next year.

She said there was still enough room for colleagues in the industry to continue to break ground for a “culturally prosperous” China.

“It is time for us to do things,” Wang said. “I feel a really strong mission.”

Subscribe to The China Post and save.  Click hereSharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 800 characters max

Receive China Post promos

Respond to this email