calin dan on Sat, 10 Jun 2000 14:50:19 +0200 (CEST) |
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[Nettime-bold] Bill Gates joins Stalin |
>> Wall Street Journal, May 26, 2000 >> >> Ukrainian Thespian Saminin Becomes The Toast of Shenyang in Pavel Show >> >> By LESLIE CHANG >> Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL >> >> SHENYANG, China-Backstage at the taping of a television variety show in >> this northern steel town, Andrei Saminin sneaks out for a cigarette. >> Someone shouts "It's Pavel!" and suddenly teenagers, old couples, even >> the studio's security guards are clamoring for autographs of the >> Ukrainian actor who plays Pavel Korchagin, the fictional hero of a TV >> series running here (and dubbed into Chinese) called "How Steel Is >Forged." >> "People told me I was popular in China, but I never imagined it would be >> like this," says a bemused Mr. Saminin, whose wavy locks and soulful >> eyes make him a sort of East bloc Shaun Cassidy. >> Meet China's latest media phenom: Pavel Korchagin, a mythical Soviet >> railway worker who has been brought back by propagandists to preach >> struggle and sacrifice to a new generation. In an age of media overload, >> Pavel enjoys enviable recognition: 97% of young people are aware of him, >> according to a recent poll, and Chinese President Jiang Zemin is said to >> be a fan. The 26-year-old Mr. Saminin-who back home in Kiev is an >> obscure theater actor-has been mobbed at every stop of a two-week >> national tour to promote his series. He once had to be evacuated from a >> sidewalk crush by security guards fearful for his safety. >> A propaganda victory? Not exactly. China's state-run media have indeed >> worked overtime to promote the railway worker who labored so devotedly >> in service of the Russian Revolution. Working through the Ukrainian >> winter, the story goes, he contracted typhus, was shot in the head, went >> blind and became paralyzed. But for a young audience fixated on >> consumerism and celebrity, Pavel has morphed into the newest star on >> China's variety-show circuit, where the man who portrays him does >> interviews, plays the guitar, sings and dances. >> "We should all learn from the Pavel spirit," says Yi Mi, a 17-year-old >> in suede platform shoes who has come to the TV studio to add the star's >> autograph to her collection. Asked to elaborate, she ponders for a while >> and says, "We learned it in the seventh grade, but we've already >> forgotten it. But Pavel is so handsome, don't you think?" >> How did Pavel get so far off-message? For China's older generation, many >> of them Soviet-educated, veneration of the heroic Pavel is real enough >> and steeped in nostalgia for what they recall as a simpler time. >> Generations of schoolchildren who grew up under Mao devoured the >> purportedly true Pavel tale in textbooks and comic-book versions. The >> author of the novel "How Steel Is Forged," Nikolai Ostrovsky, was feted >> by Josef Stalin and the book took off in China during the 1950s, when >> the two nations shared aspirations of spreading Communism around the >> globe. >> Now after a two-decade hiatus, Pavel is enjoying a second coming in >> China- never mind that worker unity is dead and poverty distinctly >> unfashionable. The 20-part "How Steel Is Forged" has aired twice on >> national TV and is now being unrolled on provincial stations across the >> country. A Beijing middle school plans to revive "Pavel classes" for >> elite students who exemplify the "Pavel Spirit." "To learn from Pavel >> and Bill Gates is no contradiction," intones a recent newspaper >editorial. >>"From Pavel we can understand the value of human life, and from Gates >a spirit of emphasizing science and technology," the editors concluded. >> "In today's materialistic society, we need spiritual heroes," says Han >> Gang, the show's director, sitting in a Beijing teahouse with his mobile >phone >> and his Mild Seven Japanese cigarettes on the table before him. >>Then he sighs and admits, >> "A lot of young people say to me, 'Pavel is so silly, he just thinks >> about struggle and doesn't worry about money.' " >> That has forced Pavel to navigate a surreal region that is part Marxist >> propaganda and part tacky game show. On the set of the variety show, >> Mr. Saminin sings Pavel's trademark paean to a dying Red Army soldier >> ("The heart of the Communist Youth League is beating, Tell my lover this >> sacrifice was for the workers") against a backdrop of flashing lights, >> eruptions of dry-ice fog, and a massive billboard urging viewers to >> drink Huishan Milk, a sponsor of the show. He joins a dance medley with >> young women in purple tutus, fends off questions from the show's hostess >> about a possible romance with his co-star, and spins a makeshift wheel >> of fortune to win "a platinum diamond ring worth 2,000 yuan!" The ring, >> in less exciting words, is worth about $240. >> Little lip service is paid to the Pavel myth. After Mr. Saminin delivers >> the hero's deathbed monologue about his great struggle to liberate >> mankind, host Wang Ping asks whether the show has aired in Ukraine yet. >> "It still needs Chinese approval," says Mr. Saminin. "Oh, then it's a >> question of money," jokes Mr. Wang. The series is entirely a Chinese >> production, with Chinese financing, though it was filmed in Ukraine with >> Ukrainian actors. >> Small wonder, then, that young people today are confused about what >> Pavel stands for. Stripped of his central goal of liberating the masses, >> the modern-day Pavel is a perfect stand-in for today's Chinese Communist >> Party, which continues to preach class struggle even as it promotes >> capitalism. >> Money has a lot to do with Pavel's latest reincarnation. The idea to >> remake "How Steel Is Forged"-which was made into three film versions in >> the former Soviet Union, most recently in the 1970s-came last year from >> an unlikely quarter: China Vanke Co., a property developer in the >> country's richest city, Shenzhen, which has a film-production unit. "The >> major Chinese emperors have all been done, but no one has done Pavel," >> explains Sun Jing, a Vanke executive. >> The Shenzhen propaganda bureau loved the idea, and in league with China >> Central Television lined up $1.3 million in investment. Profiting off >> Pavel has since run rampant. Organizers of the National Games for the >> Disabled got Mr. Saminin to appear at a Shanghai event earlier this >> month-after all, Pavel is paralyzed by the end of the novel. Publishing >> houses have issued competing editions of "How Steel Is Forged," >> including a version for children illustrated with scenes from the TV >> show. >> Yet if Pavel has gone Hollywood, that is largely by design. In the >> original book, Pavel's romance with Tonia, the beautiful daughter of a >> wealthy official, founders on the shoals of class conflict. As a child >> of capitalists, Tonia scorns Pavel's lowly worker status. He joins the >> Bolsheviks and defeats enemies of the revolution in stirring battle >> scenes. >> In the current TV version, the lovers are separated by war but meet up >> again at the end, where Tonia has named her young son Pavel. >> Translation: She has never stopped loving him, class-consciousness be >> damned. Pavel also rejects the violent tactics of his Red Army cohorts >> in putting down an uprising in Kiev, dealt with in passing in the novel >> but expanded to fill two TV episodes. And Pavel has taken up other >> modern issues, including the evils of smoking and sexual harassment. >> "We've watered down the class-consciousness and made him more of a >> human-rights figure that everyone can relate to," says director Mr. Han, >> who rewrote about two-thirds of the original book for the TV version. >> "We are at the end of the 20th century. You can't look at things in the >> old narrow way." >> Write to Leslie Chang at leslie.chang@wsj.com1 > Calin Dan Rozengracht 105/D4 NL-1016 LV Amsterdam T: + 31 (0)20 770 1432 F: + 31 (0)20 623 7760 e-mail: calin@euronet.nl http://www.v2.nl/v2-lab/hd _______________________________________________ Nettime-bold mailing list Nettime-bold@nettime.org http://www.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold