A few days ago, Youku fell into a storm, in Youku announced the list of variety films, "The Victory of the Squid", both in terms of name and poster, is like the recently popular "Squid Game" around the world.
Although Youku later responded that "the first draft of the design of the new comprehensive "Victory of the Game" has been 'killed' was used at the scene of the China Merchants Association", netizens still did not buy it, feeling that Youku was humiliated and lost abroad.
In fact, Youku is not the only platform caught up in the storm of variety show plagiarism, or that almost none of the satellite TV and network platforms that produce variety shows today can escape the controversy of plagiarism.
Instead of asking which internal entertainment variety shows have been involved in plagiarism controversy, it is better to ask which programs do not have plagiarism controversy. Because almost every popular variety show can find the corresponding "template" abroad.
Some netizens have made a comparison chart: In addition to news programs, there are always several variety shows on major television stations and video websites, and there are unclear and unclear "life problems".
The copy program mode is the basic disk too:
If you like to watch the scene of rappers fighting in "China Has Hip Hop", then you must find the same excitement in the Korean show "Show Me the Money". After all, these two shows, from the logo to the format, from the stage set to the lights, and even the ritual of throwing the golden chain into the brazier when the contestants are eliminated are exactly the same.
Talent show, the contestants are definitely different, how can the model be called plagiarism no matter how similar? The show's producers will insist that this is just a "reference."
As a result, the idol talent show "Idol Trainee" produced by iQiyi also moved to South Korea's "Produce 101" almost unchanged, and even invited several Chinese players who had previously participated in "pd101" in South Korea.
The slow variety genre has not escaped the "claws", and "Longing for Life", which has been broadcast for six seasons, is a model in which two MCs return to pastoral self-sufficiency, and the Korean variety show "Three Hours and Three Meals" can be described as a ten out of ten. But the main creator Huang Lei said: This is a few of our good friends who came up with it themselves - how can Chinese can't have the idea of picking chrysanthemums under the eastern fence?
Oriental Satellite TV's ace program "Extreme Challenge" has even copied three-quarters of the name, and the Korean longevity variety show "Infinite Challenge", only a word difference, at first glance I thought it was a pair of exotic twins. With the audience base of the original program, it is more conducive to publicity.
The same problem is "Yin Restaurant" and "Chinese Restaurant", the star group to operate restaurants overseas, the difference is that one makes Korean food and the other does Chinese food. However, there is some controversy on the Internet about whether "Chinese Restaurant" copied "Yin Restaurant", some people believe that "Yin Restaurant" copied Japan's "Seagull Canteen", and "Chinese Restaurant" was also inspired by "Seagull Canteen".
The "borrowing" model is enough, and sometimes the domestic producer really does not want to produce a little labor.
Tencent once planned to launch a variety show "There is a wind blowing through the hour of light", and even the promotional poster used the original Korean program "Little Forest", but the above text was replaced by Chinese.
There are also some programs with all copies of the characters, storyboards, plots, and post-production characters.
Some netizens have compared: there are hundreds of variety shows that have been plagiarized in China. Sometimes there is even the absurdity of a show being copied by two producers.
In this context, only one thing becomes simple - to do variety shows. As long as you can watch foreign variety shows, you can also press ctrl c+ctrl v.
In "learning" excellent variety shows from other countries, Hunan Satellite TV and iQiyi are two major handles.
Hunan Satellite TV, which has strong production ability, has "learned" from Japan: the youth variety show "Teenager Says" launched last year comes from a Japanese program "Roof Confession Conference"; "learned" from the United States: the self-made variety show "How Do You Look So Good" is inspired by the variety show "Pink Bear Raiders"; "learned" a lot of Korean: "My Boy", "Dear Inn", "Real Man", "I want to sing with you", "Magical Child"... You can find the original program in Korea.
Even the two ace programs "Happy Base Camp" and "Every Day Upward" have games that are strikingly similar to the settings in Japanese and Korean programs. It can be said that only you can't think of it, and they can't copy it without it.
The "Happy Base Camp" game has been accused of plagiarizing Korean variety shows
It is a shame to say that the most copied is indeed South Korea, a major entertainment country.
There are also many realistic considerations behind this: the scale of variety shows in Europe and the United States is too large, and the polar challenges, naked blind dates, and green hat tests, which are popular in Europe and the United States, are placed in China, not to mention the acceptance of the audience, and even whether they can be broadcast is a problem. And Japanese variety shows, although the domestic audience is more accepted, but there is a certain degree of difficulty in copying, such as "Can You Go to Your Home", a Japanese evergreen variety show, which actually tests the ability of the production team in selecting ordinary people.
An industry insider once said that the original program needs to do too much preparatory work, the risk is high, not as easy as direct Koreanization, and South Korea's variety show production level is first-class, the same East Asian culture is more acceptable to domestic audiences, naturally become the domestic producers scramble to "learn" the object.
But all the programs that have a small popularity in South Korea will almost be moved to a Chinese version in China, which makes people wonder whether the major producers have special groups to "wait for rabbits".
Because there are too many plagiarisms, the South Korean side has also accumulated a lot of dissatisfaction with it. MNET, MBC and other South Korean television stations on plagiarism warnings and complaints have also been issued many times, a well-known South Korean program producer Luo Yingxi also said: Copyright is not expensive, I hope that the Chinese side can buy genuine products. However, it is already difficult for the cultural industry to protect rights, and it is even more difficult to protect transnational rights.
In 2018, South Korea even introduced relevant laws, and the South Korean Parliament passed the "Prohibition of Foreign Plagiarism of Cultural Products and Music" bill, which is actually proposed for the plagiarism of domestic variety shows.
At that time, it also made the domestic people, yes, the domestic masses rejoiced: Hey, can you finally stop plagiarism?
Not really. Last year, Hunan Satellite TV launched a show "Hey! What are you doing" program, which was bombed and copied Han Zong's "What Are You Doing Idle", also in the mode of recording by the guests themselves.
Domestic audiences accuse of plagiarizing variety shows, and there are some meanings that hate iron and steel: no matter how you argue, but the degree of similarity is placed here, and the appearance of death does not admit it, how is it not smearing the national culture and image?
In the face of accusations, the producers of variety shows have incarnated as Kong Yiji in the new era, saying: How can the affairs of readers be called stealing? We're just creatively similar
But not every plagiarism can succeed. For example, the observation variety show "Dear, Come to Dinner", the original version of "Please Give a Meal" aims to observe the life of ordinary families, and has once again become a star in China to disturb the lives of ordinary people in order to complete tasks.
And Mango TV's self-made variety show "How Do You Look So Good" - known as the cottage version of "Pink Hero Rescue Soldier", but there is no copycat to the essence. Not only was it torn off by the guests of the original program, but it was also attacked by domestic netizens for objectifying women.
Although the large-scale speed dating love variety show in Europe and the United States is difficult to copy due to radio and television requirements, there is a saying that once the restrictions are released one day, I believe we will immediately see the Chinese version on the screen.
Whenever a domestic variety show is pointed out to be plagiarized and imitated, it will always cause a scolding on the Internet, and what everyone can't understand is why they would rather bear the insult of plagiarism than seriously do an original variety show?
In fact, if you simply review the development history of variety shows in China, it is not difficult to find that the growth of domestic variety shows is accompanied by reference all the way, rather than a new phenomenon that has emerged in recent years.
In the early 1990s, CCTV's "Chia Tai Variety" opened up the climax of variety shows, but this show actually referenced Taiwan's "Running Around the Earth" program model; "Happy Base Camp", which was launched in 1997, was a fusion product of Taiwan's variety show "Super Sunday" and Hong Kong variety show "Variety Show 60 Minutes".
Since 2005, talent shows have opened up a new world of domestic variety shows, but the originator of the domestic talent show, "Super Girl", was accused of infringement by its original "American Idol" production company after the fire.
Since 2010, with the improvement of domestic copyright awareness, programs such as "China's Got Talent" have begun to purchase variety show copyrights from abroad, and more and more "justified" imported variety shows have appeared in front of the audience.
Despite this, the introduction has not curbed the plagiarism of domestic variety shows. A satellite TV purchased the copyright of a foreign variety show, and after the domestic production and broadcast, there will soon be many domestic reproduction versions, almost copy is not out of shape - but these domestic "second-handers" do not need to bear high copyright fees, and the profit income is higher.
The mutual plagiarism of domestic variety production platforms is not only the introduction of overseas programs, but even the domestic original variety shows are also facing endless plagiarists.
In 2016, Chinese cultural programs broke out, and programs such as "Chinese Poetry Conference", "See words as faces", "Chinese idiom conference", "Readers" and other programs were acclaimed and popular, but soon after, local satellite television immediately emerged "Upward! Poetry", "Reading beauty", "Little Masters of Chinese Studies", "Chinese Characters Wind and Cloud Society" and other silly imitators.
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Back to this question, whether it is plagiarizing overseas programs or domestic original variety shows, why have variety show producers chosen not to be original for so many years, or at least buy copyright to avoid disputes?
The reason behind this may be far from being clear in the four words of "originality is not easy". At the same time, it is difficult to blame the late development of China's variety shows, after all, Israel, which also has a short development period of variety shows, has become one of the major exporters of international variety shows.
As mentioned above, some domestic satellite TVs have purchased overseas copyrights, but they are often copied by domestic counterparts for free. In China, it is difficult to resolve copyright disputes in variety shows through laws, because the Copyright Law can protect the intellectual property rights of specific details such as stage designs and lines, but it is difficult to define the boundaries of "plagiarism" in the creativity, main purpose and ideas of variety shows.
In other words, even if the same program idea is adopted, but some changes are made in the form of expression, it is difficult to be legally judged to be plagiarized. From this point of view, spending a lot of money to buy copyright from abroad is like a wrongdoing, after all, direct copying can not only be unconstrained by the rules and regulations of the original program team, but also save costs.
Cost saving is an important reason for domestic variety shows to choose plagiarism.
The production of original variety shows, the early stage needs to spend a lot of research and development costs and talent resources, trial and error costs are extremely high, and the risk is extremely high, no one can be sure whether this program will be accepted by the audience - in contrast, overseas broadcast variety shows have used audience feedback to prove the acceptance of the market, in general, after the introduction of domestic will be successful.
Because they do not want to bear the high cost of trial and error, the financiers who invest in variety shows are also more inclined to imitate overseas programs that have been tested by the market.
Entertainment self-media "Luo Serious" once interviewed a television industry practitioner Mr. A, according to him, according to him, according to the successful model of the program planning case is commercially easier to pass, "a lot of bosses, gold lords, do not understand your program itself so much, when the producer comes up with a program planning case, how can the boss and the financial lord have confidence in the program?" ...... You tell the boss and the owner how popular this show is abroad, they will say good, then we reproduce one like this, they feel that they have a bottom in their hearts, they are willing to give you money, and they will not question you everywhere. ”
Yi Hua, an employee who left Shenzhen Satellite TV, also said publicly, "If you are holding the original model, in front of the satellite TV director of Rili Wanji, it is too difficult to grab his heart in just 10 minutes." ”
On the other hand, even if the owner is willing to invest money in original programs, the funds that can actually be used for program development in the end are pitifully small.
Song Binghua, senior director of Alibaba Culture and Entertainment Group and Dayouku Business Group Entertainment Center, once described the current situation of domestic variety show production at the "China Original Variety Forum", "The funds, time and manpower invested in research and development in the entire industry chain are the lowest in the entire chain, and the funds obtained by the R&D department or R&D team in a company are not as high as the artist reception costs of the art department." ”
In addition, there is a big gap in the screenwriter talents that play an important role in the originality of the program in China, and almost no colleges and universities have opened special variety show screenwriting majors. However, because the overall environment does not attach importance to originality, in the chain of the entire variety industry, the screenwriter is always at the bottom.
We have interviewed many variety show screenwriters, and one of the chief screenwriters shared his own experience with us, a few years ago, he once led the team to report the program plan to a boss and communicate the intention of attracting business. The big boss was on a business trip at the time, and Zhang Junping and several core members flew to the local area and waited for several hours in the hotel conference room before waiting until the big boss who was late and still had a "peripheral woman" with him.
When he projected the PPT of the plan onto the LCD screen and explained the mode and content of the program to the other party in detail, the boss patted the shoulder of the "peripheral woman" and laughed: Go on my behalf to give advice to the screenwriters. Several screenwriters present could not hide their surprise, but the woman dressed in revealing clothes stood up generously and commented on the screenwriters' plans one by one.
Although the domestic variety show plagiarism trend still has no momentum to weaken, more and more variety shows have achieved overseas exports.
In 2018, Youku's "This! "It's a Slam Dunk" that was bought by Fox Group at the Cannes Television Festival. It is also the original "This! "Street Dance" was bought by Jiang Guangyingke for overseas broadcast rights, and will meet with audiences in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and other countries.
In 2020, the first season of Oriental Satellite TV's "Our Song" debuted at the Cannes Autumn TV Festival, and within half a year, it signed a model cooperation agreement with Herve Hubert SAS in France and Sony Pictures (Germany), and then made a French version and a German version to be broadcast overseas.
In fact, in the past two years, more and more domestic original variety shows are on the overseas platform. This year, Six variety shows of Oriental Satellite TV's "Our Song", "Where is the Magic Company", "Brother Chasing the Light Bar", Tencent Video's "Actors Please Take Place", "Talk Show Conference", and Hunan Satellite TV's "One Key" were listed on the "Wisdom in China" link of the Cannes TV Festival, waiting for overseas buyers who are interested in them.
This is a good momentum, but for a market with 1.4 billion people who can digest the number of variety shows far beyond other countries, it is just a young beginning.
References:
<h1 toutiao-origin="h1" > Wu Yiyi: A Brief History of "Plagiarism" of Domestic Variety Shows</h1>
Procuratorial Daily: How to define the "plagiarism" and "borrowing" of variety shows?
Cultural Industry Review: Lying flat can not lie to win, the inner volume is doomed to lose twice, these variety shows turned around and exported overseas
Entertainment Hard Candy: Do Foreigners Watch Chinese Variety Shows?
Beijing Youth Daily: Original TV Variety: More important than the blockbuster is the Chinese connotation
Han Xiaoxiao: Research on the development of domestic original variety shows
Author: Leslie, tt
Edit: Leslie
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