08.10.07
My Newest Job: TV Host
About a month ago I received a call from Xiao Xie in the barbershop.
“There is a customer who wants to meet you.” These kinds of calls happen a couple times a week. Usually the customer is either looking for a quick fix to their child’s poor English, or a green card to the US. Naturally, I am the one called in both situations.
This call was different. It was from one of the Fuzhou city television station (not the provincial ones I had appeared on before).
“I am a producer for Fuzhou TV. We are looking for a foreigner to be a broadcaster for a show about health, and it is in Chinese,” the man told me in English. “We would like to meet sometime and do a practice scene. Are you interested?”
I met with the producer the following day, and what came out of the meeting is that I was going be the newest host on Fuzhou TV.
This was almost a month ago, but for various reasons I didn’t get a chance to document it on this blog yet. Working for the TV station has been an interesting experience, and has given me some insight into how TV production works in China. I plan to retroactively blog about it for at least the next week or so. If anybody is interested in watching the show, you can see it on Fuzhou TV3 at 6:25 every day. It’s probably only available within Fujian province. I’d be curious if anybody in other provinces can pick up the channel as well.
Jeremy
said,
August 10, 2007 at 12:01 pm
Hey Ben,
Wish you the best of luck with your new job. Maybe some day we can say we ‘knew’ you back before you were a famous China TV star
Matt Schiavenza
said,
August 10, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Wow…very interesting…curious to hear more
chinaqanda
said,
August 10, 2007 at 12:31 pm
I’m interested to know why they need a foreigner. What can you do that a local can’t?
chriswaugh_bj
said,
August 10, 2007 at 1:41 pm
Wow, congratulations. That’s quite a step up from Wu Bai covers. Looking forward to hearing more.
Peter
said,
August 10, 2007 at 3:57 pm
Grats and good luck ben
Woaizhongguo
said,
August 10, 2007 at 6:29 pm
Hail the new Da Shan!
canrun
said,
August 10, 2007 at 7:34 pm
Are you gonna wear the wig?
Seriously…these things NEVER turn out to be “as advertised.” Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile EVERY time. Beware.
Alan
said,
August 10, 2007 at 9:10 pm
Wow, that’s going to be fun. Please share more later. I bet you speak better Mandarin than a lot of native Fuzhou ren. If you really want to make a connection with your Fuzhou viewers, you need to replace all the f consonant in Mandarin with h. I dare you to try that in your broadcast. Maybe you should come up with a signature greeting ot sign-off where you would replace all f’s with h’s.
Alan
said,
August 10, 2007 at 9:20 pm
Hey dude, I can’t believe you have sunk so low. If I remember correctly, Fuzhou TV3 is a porn channel. What kind of health program would you be talking about in TV3?
Jeremy Yeh
said,
August 10, 2007 at 10:24 pm
wow,awesome! whats the name of the show? is it in the mornin or at dusk?
China Law Blog
said,
August 10, 2007 at 10:34 pm
Da Shan, Jr.
Peter
said,
August 11, 2007 at 12:22 am
You (ahem…or someone) NEED to put the 1st episode on you tube, would love to see it!
joyce
said,
August 11, 2007 at 2:15 am
good luck~
Benjamin Ross
said,
August 11, 2007 at 10:53 am
@ Alan
Actually, in all my dealings with TV stations in Fuzhou I have never met an announcer who was actually from Fuzhou (or Fujian) for that very reason. Most people on Fuzhou TV are transplants from the North, brought down south on account of their more standard Mandarin pronunciation. Although they probably would find it quite entertaining for a laowai to have a Fuzhou (excuse me, Huzou) accent.
Alan
said,
August 12, 2007 at 4:42 am
Opps, my bad. TV3 isn’t a porn channel. My memory was wrong. TV4 is.
PEDRO PINTO
said,
September 4, 2007 at 9:20 am
Dear Sir,
I have a TV project that can make you international.
All my public anouncements of new projects where winer projects.
I am in Fuzhou till 8th September.