08.12.07

“I Love Health,” First Impressions

Posted in Me on TV at 3:40 am by Benjamin Ross

Several weeks ago I began taping for my new TV show with Fuzhou City TV. Before the actual show was to begin, there was the obligatory round of meetings and dinners with the producer. The producer is a Chinese guy named Jason, and he told me that he had wanted to put together a new TV show, and it was going to be called 我爱健康 or “I Love Health.” It was to be a 30 minute show broken down into 5 or 6 segments. I was to be the host of one segment which was called 我爱健康之健康冲浪 (I Love Health’s Health Surfing). The segment was to follow a format where I would pick out news from the Internet and then report it on TV. Jason’s idea was to have a foreigner host to give the show a little edge over the competition.

“This will be like a news show. If it goes well, hopefully we will do some ‘on the spot’ recording, where you might go to…say…a skin care center, get some service and then report live as you are getting it.”

Several days before the show was to begin, Jason gave me a call with some new information.

“We have been informed by the leaders of the TV station that they think it is best to have a Chinese host with you on the show.”

“That’s okay. Why?” I responded. It wasn’t that I minded sharing the program with another announcer, but more than anything was just curious why a decision like that had been made.

“I’m not really sure. You know how leaders are. Maybe they just weren’t ready to have a show completely hosted by a foreigner.”

Fortunately, having another host turned out making the show considerably more interesting as it allowed for dialogue and mutual joking between me and the other host, a young female announcer named Zheng Zheng who was also doing her first full-time TV program.

Zheng Zheng (wearing yellow this time) and Ben, Fuzhou’s latest and greatest TV duo.

On the first day of recording, Zheng Zheng, myself, and the production crew which at that point was at its peak of 5 people met for the first time. Our first meeting took place in a local coffee shop which was to be the background of the show. On this, my first meeting of my co-host, Zheng Zheng, showed up accurately depicted as “dressed up like a strawberry” by one of the cameramen. She was wearing a solid pink dress, pink earrings, a pink headband, and several layers of makeup. This of course was to be expected, as in China the archetypical male/female host duo consists of a girl who looks like a Barbie doll, and a guy with cheesy Chinese hipster button-down shirts and a goofy spiky haircut. Needless to say, I fit the male role to the tee.

All of the scripts are prepared by a girl named Ting Ting, who sends them to both Zheng Zheng and me a few days before the recording. She also directs us as we report. Each 5 minute segment is broken into 3 or 4 short dialogues. They all follow the same general pattern: Zheng Zheng or I begin by asking the other a random question. We then engage in a few sentences before Zheng Zheng relates an element from our dialogue into a news story from the Internet. I make comments or ask a question. Then Zheng Zheng replies. Usually at several points running jokes are included such as me telling Zheng Zheng that she has gotten fat or asking if she is pregnant. Zheng Zheng also takes her turn making fun of my beer gut or calling me old.

Here’s how one of our bits on fibromyalgia digressed.

English:

me: Zheng Zheng, have you ever heard of fibromylgia?

Zheng Zheng: Don’t ask me. Ask an expert student from Shanghai Medical University.

me: I already asked him. He says he doesn’t know. (at this point I give a big “thumbs down” gesture)

me: (on the phone) Is this the hospital rheumatism department?

Zheng Zheng: Oh, in the past, what happened to these people with this disease? (sighs, indicating results not wanting to be talked about)

Ben: That’s right. However last month the American FDA authorized a new drug called lyrica from the Huirui company. It works very well against fibromyalgia. You know Hurui company, right? They were the same company who developed Viagra.

Ben: (in a sly aside to the audience) Listen everybody. Who wants it? Just give me a quick call on my cell phone. I can get you some from the US. Just give me a little fee for my troubles.

This was about as far as we pushed the envelope on the first day. More to come…

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