The Economist - USA (2020-08-08)

22 China The EconomistAugust 8th 2020

2 and film production and moved the new

satellite tvstation there. The area, Malan-

shan, has since grown into a cultural

powerhouse, drawing media giants such as

iQiyi and Tencent. In 2017 eight of the ten

most-streamed variety shows on the Chi-

nese internet were hatched there.

Hunan tvwas the first network in Chi-

na to try broadcasting for profit. That led it

to focus on entertainment, a priority which

helped it avoid political mistakes, as Wu

Changchang of East China Normal Univer-

sity has noted. According to Mr Wu, Hunan

tvstruck a delicate balance between win-

ning the love of viewers and approval from

the Communist Party, which is a “prerequi-

site” of commercial success in China.

The government has occasionally

winced. In 2011 it took “Happy Girls”, a fan-

tastically popular singing contest, off air.

The official explanation was that the show

was too racy for its prime-time slot, but

many wondered whether its huge excitable

fan base worried the party. In 2004 a fore-

runner of the show, “Super Girls”, had let

spectators vote for contestants by text mes-

sage—a first in China. That smacked too

much of democracy for the government.

After a few years Hunan tvlimited voting

mainly to a studio audience. These days the

network strives even harder to please the

party. In 2017 it launched a series about ide-

ology called “Socialism is Kind of Cool”. It

included a quiz show on the life and works

of Xi Jinping, China’s leader.

Yet Hunan’s stations still have “political

space to explore new things”, in the view of

a manager at Mango tv. The government

wants to get “closer to its audience”, he

says, in particular to the young who spend

hours glued to their smartphones. Internet

broadcasters such as Mango tv, with 18m

subscribers, help it to do so.

Hunan tv’s ability to experiment mat-

ters for the development of Chinese broad-

casting. Li Shuwan, a former presenter at

the station, says the province is a training

ground for much of the country’s televi-

sion talent. Industry insiders call Chang-

sha the “West Point” of China’s cultural-en-

tertainment industry, a reference to the

American army’s elite academy.

It is just as competitive. In 2013 Ms Li

was one of only two students from Hunan

University who were admitted to Hunan

tv’s graduate programme. This year some

30,000 people applied for 100 spots on

Mango tv’s trainee scheme. Mango tven-

courages young recruits to speak up and

suggest fresh ideas. They can receive fund-

ing to implement their proposals.

Yang Tianhao, a co-founder of Erka Me-

dia, which manages 600 social-media in-

fluencers from its offices in China (includ-

ing Changsha) and Los Angeles, says that

young people in Hunan’s capital are risk-

takers, with parents who are more willing

to let their children try their luck in a fickle

industrythancounterpartsinricherChi-

nesecities.WellbeforeHunan’s“Sisters”

filled smartphone screens, a Hunanese

womanwasmakingthem:ZhouQunfei,

thefounderofLensTechnology.Borntoa

poor, rural family, she was named the

world’srichestself-madewomanin2018.

PeopleinChinaliketopointtocharac-

tertraitswhichtheybelievearesharedby

nativesofa particularprovince.Theexecu-

tiveatMangotvdetects“aculturalgeneto

breaktherules”amongHunanese.Forevi-

dence,hepointstoMaoandLiuShaoqi,

whowasborninChangshaandservedas

Mao’sprimeminister.Hunan’sbroadcast-

erscertainlyhaveaninterestincultivating

thestereotype:anedgyfeeliscrucialtothe

successoftheirbrand.^7

U

nder china’snew civil code, adopted

in May, couples will have to wait 30

days between registering their intent to

split for good and actually doing so. Noth-

ing wrong with that, some might argue—

many other countries have similar “cool-

ing-off” requirements. On matters related

to marriage, Chinese law is still remarkably

liberal. Yet weeks after the restriction was

introduced (it will take effect in January),

many netizens remain furious. It will, they

say, imperil the lives of women.

The Communist Party sometimes al-

lows, or even encourages, debate about

laws before they are passed. But the pas-

sions this new requirement has aroused,

and their persistence well beyond the law’s

adoption by the country’s rubber-stamp

parliament, have been unusual. The hash-

tag “oppose cooling-off” has been viewed

over 40.6m times on Weibo, a Twitter-like

service. “I am 22 years old this year. I am

afraid of getting married after reading the

new marriage law,” was one comment.

The government’s motive is clear. It

sees happy families as the bedrock of social

stability. The country’s soaring divorce rate

must therefore be a threat, in its view.

Around 5% of divorces are done “rashly”,

Sun Xianzhong, a legislator, told state me-

dia. A cooling-off period would give

spouses a chance to “calm down”, he said.

It was not until after the Communist

Party seized control of China in 1949 that

women across the country gained the right

to divorce their husbands. But divorce did

not become common until after 2003,

when a month-long delay to allow “exami-

nation” of a divorcing couple’s motives by

local officials was no longer required.

Thereafter, straightforward uncouplings

could be processed in a single day. Between

2003 and 2018, divorces per 1,000 people

rose from just over one to 3.2, a similar rate

to America’s.

Couples who genuinely want to divorce

will not be dissuaded by a month of delay.

Rather, the cooling-off period will endan-

ger victims of violence, says Lu Pin, a femi-

nist activist who moved to New York after

the arrest of fellow campaigners in China

in 2015. It is mainly women who will be af-

fected by the new law—they initiate three-

quarters of divorces in China.

The legislation says no cooling off will

be needed if a spouse suffers abuse. But will

officials accept allegations of it? A study in

2017 by academics at Queen Mary Universi-

ty of London and Sichuan University found

that, while men in China were overall less

likely than those in Britain to get into fights

or beat up other people, they were twice as

likely to assault their partners. However, in

divorce cases that go to court, judges often

ignore accusations of abuse, especially

when raised by female plaintiffs.

Debate about the new law has been fu-

elled by news in July of a woman in Henan

province who jumped from a building to

escape her violent husband. She is now

paraplegic. She had filed for divorce, but

was required to attend mediation. State

media said her plight was no reason to wor-

ry about the cooling-off period—she had

simply failed to report the abuse quickly

enough. If she had not “put up with it”, per-

haps the “pain and hurt she endured” could

have been reduced, said Southern Metropo-

lis Daily. The cooling-off period may not be

a radical change. But, says Ms Lu, “if we had

other measures protecting women’s rights,

people might not be so angry.” 7

Weeks after a change in divorce law,

debate about it still rages

The civil code

Thirty more days

of hell