Reflections on my Chinese TV experience

Hi guys, as you know, I have not been blogging of late because I have been busy working on the Chinese TV programme 宝里宝气 - it is a Chinese version of a reality TV programme that has already been running for many years in the UK. Well, the format is the same, they are using the same framework for the programme, we visited many of the same locations in London but it is recorded in Mandarin, with a mostly Chinese cast and the presentation style and content has been adapted for a China-based (rather than international) audience. I had worked with a Chinese team last year; it is always a bit of a culture shock and learning experience for me each time I have the opportunity to do

Filming in Chinatown, London

In the land of the blind... 

I think my Mandarin is good, well, I had to pass a difficult Chinese oral exam during the audition before I was given the part. The oral exam involved a cold reading from a script as well as an improvisation exercise where I had to bargain for an item without using a word of English (ironically my examiner was the first one to slip and use an English word, I didn't throughout). Clearly, I must have outperformed all the other people they had auditioned to get the job but good grief, I still struggled. Very little of what we did was scripted - it involved running around various London locations, shopping with these two Chinese celebrities and we were expected to do 'witty banter' in a modern xiangsheng-style. Now I was paired up with a very popular TV presenter 佘雅静 and this is what she does for a living: banter in Mandarin with guests on her TV show and there I was, thinking in English and trying to respond to her funny comments in Mandarin. She was brilliant - on the other hand, I could not keep up with her, but thanks to the power of television, they will probably edit the best bits from the whole day's filming to make me look as good as her.

Thankfully, there were some parts in English where I came into my element, which was when we interacted with English shopkeepers and there was some bargaining involved. Now we were allowed to do all that in English and phew, that was when the tables were turned and I was in my element. However, I do think that 雅静's English is still probably better than my Mandarin and most of all, there was no expectation of her to be totally fluent in English whilst I was expected to keep up with her on camera when it came to our 'witty banter' in Mandarin. Let me give you an example of how I struggled: we were supposed to talk about eating asparagus and I just stopped mid-sentence because I didn't know the word in Mandarin for asparagus and I had to be told it is '芦笋' before we could continue that scene. I love asparagus, I eat it all the time - I just never had to talk about asparagus in Mandarin before! If this was shot in China or Singapore, they would have cast someone a lot more fluent in Mandarin than me, someone who would be genuinely speak Mandarin as a first language - but hey, in the land of the blind, the one eye man is king.

My Mandarin is okay... I think?

Time for some 'aegyo-kawaii' overload...

I found some of the presentation style just a bit over the top, cheesy - but then again, that's just the cultural difference between the Far East and the West. 雅静 is an absolutely brilliant person but she does this 'aegyo/kawaii' thing on camera which clearly part of her TV persona - she turns it on for the camera and clearly, that endears her to her audience. Now, I don't think 'aegyo' would work in the West, we just don't have the concept of 'aegyo' in the West but hey, this programme is not for broadcast in the UK. Heck even the other celebrity 阚晓君 did this thing which I wouldn't quite describe as 'aegyo' per se but it was like a male version of aegyo that I would associate with the cheesiest of K-pop boy bands. I actually consume far more Korean media than Chinese media, so I was aware that this 'aegyo' style is very popular in Korea and Japan, but hey - fair enough, now I know it is equally applicable in the Chinese market!

I think I am supposed to be starstruck...

Well, working with 雅静 and 晓君 this week has been awesome, but to be totally honest, I spent of my time trying very hard to keep up with them in my Mandarin. I was so worried about my Mandarin pronunciation being bad (or too Singaporean) that it consumed most of my energy, making sure every sentence I uttered on camera sounded good (and believe you me, I made quite a few mistakes). We did shoot a scene in London Chinatown and that was when, some Chinese fans recognized 雅静 and 晓君 as a celebrity couple from China. Well that caused quite a stir when Chinese fans started taking photos of them excitedly as word got round that Chinese celebrities were filming in Chinatown. People started taking photos of not just them but of me as well, I suppose they assumed that because I was filming and working with these celebs, that somehow I must be important or famous too. It was only at that moment that I realized 雅静 and 晓君 are actually extremely famous in China and I'm actually working with them, wow!

On set with 晓君, Yennis and 雅静

Max's Mandarin is better than mine. 

We had a presenter for the programme Max who is English but speaks Mandarin fluently. Now I've met quite a few white people who do speak Mandarin fluently but they always struggle with the tones at the best of times. Max actually nails the tones perfectly and if I were to close my eyes, he sounds like a native Mandarin speaker from China. I run to him for help when I can't read my script. Of course, everyone was very impressed and admittedly, I was a bit like, hey, one of the assistant producers is French and our sound engineer is Italian, I am speaking French and Italian with them, not English. My Chinese colleagues were quite impressed with the fact that I am French and Italian speaking, but my white colleagues kinda took it for granted like, oh Alex lives in London not China, so yeah sure he speaks some European languages. Double standards methinks? Like how many English people speak Mandarin, French and Italian? I hope to interview Max for my vlog, so look out for that in November - akan datang.

The confident, affluent, successful new Chinese generation

Unfortunately, PRCs do have a very bad reputation in Singapore based on some incidents that have gone viral. However, this week, I was working with a group of affluent, successful Chinese professionals who are very well traveled, English-speaking and have quite an air of quiet confidence about their place in the world. After all, the population of China is currently 1.4 billion. Amongst that 1.4 billion are 40% who are considered middle class - rich enough to enjoy a standard of living on par with their counterparts in countries like Singapore, America and the UK. That's 560 million relatively rich Chinese people, that's a figure bigger than the entire population of America (325 million). Now with those numbers in mind, that still leaves nearly a million poor Chinese people in China, but these poorer Chinese people are unlikely to leave China to travel to places like London, New York and Paris. My experience with these middle-class, successful Chinese professionals has been very pleasant and I enjoyed working with them.

I do remember last year on the Mr Bean-Snickers project, where they brought over some of the best stuntmen from China for the filming in London, I found a much bigger cultural gap between them and myself - stuntmen tend not to be particularly well educated and they certainly don't speak any English at all. However, when dealing with highly educated, English-speaking professionals from China, I found it a lot easier to find common ground, to make small talk with them whilst hanging around set. One of the producers was headed to Iceland after we finish the shoot and I chatted with her about my experiences in Iceland. One of the other producers was fascinated with the culture of street food in Europe and I gave him my recommendations for the best street food markets in London. I chatted with them mostly in Mandarin, but sometimes I would switch to English if there was a non-Mandarin speaking person around and we wouldn't want anyone to feel excluded (and of course, my Chinese colleagues all speak English confidently).

Mandarin + English = - 你 getter 到吗?

We're not even talking about Chinglish here and please, it is not Singlish, okay? It is quite different indeed! I am talking about Mandarin heavily peppered with English loan words. The best example of this is the phrase "你 get 到吗?" This was a phrase I heard a lot during the planning meeting - the producers would be explaining a concept for the programme and just to make sure the others understood the concept, they would ask, "你 get 到吗?" That is a literal translation of "do you get it?" or "do you understand it?" I found it strange as I would simply say, "你了解 / 明白 吗?" I could certainly ask that question without resorting to use a loan word from English - I would only use a loan word if I didn't know the word in Mandarin. I did a double take when I first heard that phrase because they tended to pronounce it as "你 getter 到吗?" Somehow, they inserted an extra 'ter' after the 'get' in that phrase. It is a Chinese thing, to over-pronounce the T in 'get' - so for example when a colleague asked me, "你有没有那里的 post code?" I actually heard her say, "你有没有那里的 poster code?" Huh, what poster? Sorry, which poster? Here are some other examples:

With my presenter colleague Max who speaks Mandarin fluently

这里非常有feel 啊! (There is a great atmosphere here.)

这一个非常 cool 啊! (This is really cool.) 

你 O不OK呢? (Are you OK?)

你 getter 到节目的 formater 吗? (Do you understand the format of the programme?) 

这样子不会 maker senser to 观众们啊! (It doesn't make sense to the audience like that.) 

You get the idea. Singlish is so different because it is creole created when Singaporeans try to create sentences in English without having a good grasp of the language - hence they use loanwords from Hokkien, Mandarin, Malay etc to express ideas when they don't have the requisite vocabulary in English and they often use Chinese or Malay grammar instead of proper English grammar. This kind of Chinglish however, tends to be more a product of well-educated, English-speaking Chinese people who think it is cool to pepper their Mandarin with English-loanwords to demonstrate that they are cosmopolitan, well-traveled and well-educated.  Ironically, my colleagues can speak grammatically perfect English and Mandarin if they want to - but the two languages end up mixed up in casual speech and if you are a Chinese person who doesn't understand these English words, you will not understand these conversations at all. They like to use English loanwords because they think English is cool, not because they don't know the equivalent in Mandarin. Once I got used to it, I found myself blending in as well. During our dinner party after we had finally wrapped, my colleague challenged us with a brain teaser and I said, "我 getter不到啊!" (I don't get it.) 

On set in Mayfair, London

All in all, I had a brilliant time working on his project and undoubtedly, my Mandarin has improved a lot this week. I feel very lucky to have had this wonderful experience. If I was working in a Mandarin speaking environment all the time like that, boy, I would be so totally fluent in Mandarin! Have you worked with Chinese people before? What are your experiences working with Chinese people? Let me know your thoughts please, many thanks for reading! 谢谢你!