Making No More Waves
In 2020’s summer, a Chinese variety show called “乘风破浪的姐姐”(officially translated to “Sisters Who Make Waves”) made by MangoTV went viral in China. The main concept of this show is having 30 Chinese female stars who are over 30 years old compete for the final seven seats of debut again as a C-Pop group. The shows eaerned a lot of attention and praise for this idea of giving these middle-aged female stars who already debuted before a chance to show themselves and challenge themselves in an environment where women lost their stands as they grew older. These participants are called “sisters”, and the variety show features the performance of individual performances, group performances, and also the sisters’ dorm lives.The final debuted group includes singers, ex-member of Miss-A, actresses, and also rappers, which redefines what a C-Pop group can be like and exhibiting the female power of embracing new things and supporting each other.
At the beginning of 2021, the production team launched season two. While everybody expected it to continue the feminism discussion as it did in season one, it seems like it has failed no matter in terms of popularity or criticisms. The most significant factor that led to the fail of this season is the loss of the spirit of “乘风破浪”. This is a Chinese idiom that literally means riding the wind to make the way out through dangerous waves, and has always been refered to the bravery and strength of somebody overcoming difficulties. it means how females could reborn through hard work and through an exploration of their own maturity when they had been coming down from the top of their career. But this season, is not a story about bravery and elasticity, but about how to use this already successful topic to make one become popular again.
In the first episode, everything was all different. The program begins with a long list of Product Placement that nearly fulfilled the first five minutes of the show, and even electrical bicycle ads got their place, which seems to explain the reason why the production team wants to launch season two so quickly. In season one, all the participants devoted themselves to the preparation of their shows, as many of them have zero experience in dancing or singing. However, with the success of season one, the participants of season two naturally knew that there would be a lot of spotlight on them in the first episode, therefore even though they did not make it to the next round, they still had the chance to leave deep expression on the audience to achieve the goal of being popular again. As a result, there are a lot of performers who did not take the performance seriously at all. They were not well prepared, and endedup forgetting the lines or accompanying choreography. Among them, Na Ying, a very professional Chinese singer, even deliberately performs a hilarious dance that clearly shows zero devotion in preparation for this. Though this performance did appear on the most searched tag on Weibo(Chinese version of Twitter), it is nothing of appreciation of female power, but an object of guilty pleasure.
In the following performance, the production team fails to select songs and topics that are suitable for these females. In season one, the stages are quite different from what one would usually expect from other idol groups’ pop music. There are stages of sexy tango stage trying to convey the mood of the late Qing dynasty, and also a re-arranged version of Chinese traditional poetry “兰花草(orchid grass)”, which tells a story of how a wildflower proudly embraces its life in tough environments and weathers. However, the song choices in season two are just what you might expect from typical idols’ shows. They are safe choices, but definitely not the choices that can make the sisters shine.
Another disappointing aspect is the absence of the precious presentation of women supporting each other which was not written in the script deliberately but flows naturally. One most impressive stage is “Lover” when a member accidentally broke her right arm days before the performance. The team decided to change all the movements so that only the left arms would be in charge of major movements. This is the moment when a group of females really come together. They sacrifice their own time and energy to not make that member feel comfortable and to not blame herself. Unfortunately, this part is still missing so far in season two, instead, there are more scripts of conflicts and arguing for one part of the music. Though conflicts attract more attention from the media, this is definitely not what the audience really expects from this group of sisters.
Though a variety show should not take all the responsibility of promoting feminism and gender equality, it is still heartbreaking that the program has been going so far away from its original theme. It could be a continuation of the first season, but it gives up the chance of elaborating it and going for quick money. Again, it throws the cruel question back to the audience: what should we do next to help females out of age discrimination and stereotype again when an established platform has been ruined by itself?
