a sexy boy band of their own
While we're
on the subject of China, check out this WaPo article on
the popularity of a Taiwanese boy band and their TV show:
The explosion of F4's popularity among young people in a space of several months ignited a commercial battle for profits, challenged the authority of government censors, revealed the breadth of a black market in popular culture, set agencies of the Communist Party against each other and led authorities to call out 5,000 riot police -- all before the group sang a single note on Chinese soil.
Like never before in China's history, the phenomenon showed, commercial interests and popular demand are competing directly with party orthodoxy -- and increasingly bending the party to their will.
The article testifies to the power of even limited competition. When the government banned the show, China's thriving piracy industry supplied it on video. The state-run newspapers, in competition for youthful readers, made fun of the ban. Thanks to the controversy, private company Legend signed up the band as spokespeople.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out, but perhaps this can be built into a broader anti-totalitarian strategy. Maybe we should give the normally-despicable
Lou Pearlman the job of supplying the Islamist world with a sexy boy band of their own.