Taiwan drama revolutionized the life of Taiwan entertainment

Author|Weinika

Editor|Li Chunhui

If the top melon in internal entertainment that lasted for two weeks is a suspense drama, there is an always useful silent public relations, an unexpected "flashback" ending, a confusing true and false revelation, a counter-plot and Wei Wei to save Zhao, because it has not yet been continued, so it is difficult to judge what kind of plan, what person, and what subdivision type film this is;

Then Taiwan Entertainment's longer "Me too" turn "You too" (the "You and I are rotten" movement set off by Huang Ziling) is a crime comedy that was once popular stars in the 90s, with sex, lies and videotapes, heterosexuality and homosexuality, smelly fish and rotten shrimp and high-class bigwigs, media, and crime - according to Taiwan media reports on July 3, Yan Yalun was accused of forcing minors to have sex and secretly filming indecent videos, and prosecutors ordered Yan Yalun to be insured by NT$500,000 and restricted him from leaving the country.

Compared with the silent "big male protagonist" of internal entertainment, all rely on side descriptions, the advantage of Taiwan entertainment is that everyone actively speaks in the noisy group opera. Taiwan entertainment parties not only came out quickly to respond, but also always involved more people in the response.

For example, Huang Ziling, who was sexually harassed, quickly started a live broadcast 10 hours after the accuser posted, admitted his mistakes and broke a series of fierce materials from his peers, including large and small S melons - unlike some people, wasting a week of melon-eating people is not enough, yesterday (July 3) wasted a whole lunch break. One person wastes an hour with you, how much the whole network wastes, you count!

But the silence and sinking of internal entertainment is clearly very practical. To say that there have been many melons in entertainment in recent years, but it has never been like Taiwan Entertainment to "pull out the radish and bring out the mud". Where the fire is extinguished, even this piece of turf is directly shoveled after extinguishing, and there is no worry about the plain at all. And the dominoes of Taiwan Entertainment collapsed like this, I don't know who will be spared.

The series revolutionized the life of the "old society"

Looking back at this "Taiwan Entertainment Earthquake", which originated from the Me too movement, the scope of celebrities involved and the impact can be said to be unprecedented. From politicians from all walks of life in Baodao to the great poet Zheng Chooyu in the literary world ("Error" was selected as a cross-strait textbook), so that Yan Yalun, Huang Ziling, Chen Jianzhou, etc. in the entertainment industry because we have long had psychological expectations, not a reversal, but just surprised that they are actually worse than they thought. At present, the latest development is that the whole network is guessing who the artist surnamed W who was sexually assaulted is, forcing the artists Wu Kangren and Wang Jianmin at the beginning of W to speak out one after another.

As we all know, the golden age of Taiwan entertainment has long passed, and the focus of the melon-eating masses in domestic entertainment is almost only "Wang Xiaofei's family affairs". If it were not for this "Taiwan entertainment earthquake", which incidentally triggered the tide of Taiwan entertainment archaeology, many young audiences might not know them at all. So, what happened to Taiwan Entertainment that has been "old" for so many years to accumulate such a big earthquake?

It is generally believed that the trigger for Taiwan's Metoo movement is a Taiwanese drama by Netflix. The play, which was launched at the end of April this year, is about a series of Taiwanese political scandals. Although there are currently no relevant entries in domestic entertainment, the plot involving sexual assault and sexual harassment in the political arena in the play has triggered widespread discussion in Taiwanese society, and then set off the Metoo movement from the political arena to the literary arena, sports circle, and entertainment industry.

There is also a saying that first, a sex scandal broke out in the political arena of Wanwan, echoing the sexual assault and sexual harassment plots of the TV series of the same period, thus triggering large-scale public opinion in Baodao. In early June, victims who are considered to be the prototype of the series' stories came forward to reveal the sexual harassment incident in 2020, and the mentioned failed politicians subsequently apologized and were punished.

Perhaps inspired by this incident, Taiwan's Metoo movement is on the verge of eruption. From the political arena to academia, media, sports, and entertainment circles, more and more people have come out to accuse all kinds of celebrities of sexual assault and harassment. This campaign lasted for half a month in Taiwan, until the "old artists" Yan Yalun, Huang Ziling, Chen Jianzhou and others in the entertainment industry were accused, and we in the entertainment melon-eating masses paid attention to the "big earthquake" in Taiwan.

Although many of the accused celebrities have issued lawyers' statements denying it, the domestic entertainment viewers who chased the early years of Taiwan Entertainment seem to have tacitly chosen to stand on the side of the victims, believing that these Taiwan entertainment hosts do have a sanctimonious side. Now recall the Taiwan complex clips such as "Kangxi is Coming" and "Black Crush", the pompous hosting style and bold remarks of the host bosses such as Huang Ziling and Chen Jianzhou are not obscene jokes full of sexual innuendo and sexual harassment.

In the past, for simple audiences who were not deeply involved in the world, they could also cover everything with free entertainment spirits such as "dare to say" and "have terriers". But now we also understand it, and the power structure of Taiwan Entertainment is far from being entertained and covered up by laughter and scolding in variety shows.

At the end of 1992, Zhao Lirong visited Baodao with the Chinese film delegation and left the famous phrase: "Taiwan's entertainment industry, the whole is an old society." Combined with the context before and after, it is not difficult to understand what she described as the Taiwanese entertainment industry she saw was similar to the hierarchy of the feudal era, not the kind of freedom and openness we imagined.

While opening up, while feudal, it is also the current situation of Taiwan entertainment. In the past two years, because of the foreign investment in streaming media represented by Netflix in Taiwan, Taiwanese dramas have undergone earth-shaking changes, and various types of large-scale dramas have constantly refreshed the audience's cognition of Taiwanese dramas. More than ten years after the disappearance of Taiwan puppet dramas, Taiwan dramas have returned to the vision of domestic entertainment audiences with a new attitude. From 2019's "Our Distance from Evil" and "Want to See You" to the recent "The First Lights" and "Imitators", Taiwanese dramas increasingly involve social issues.

Even idol dramas like "Want to See You" will add social problems of teenagers' self-identification. Moreover, more and more dramas have begun to revolve around women's issues, and last year's high-scoring drama "She and Her She" told a Fang Siqi-style story in the narrative mode of a suspense drama.

At no time can we underestimate the enlightening and shouting role of literary and artistic works. It can be said that it was this cultural product innovation that began with the drama that finally "revolutionized" the life of Taiwan Entertainment.

Under the impact of streaming media, the old forces have gone

In this Metoo movement, many people have raised a puzzle: why did the victims not mention a word back then? It took more than ten years to dare to say.

It is not difficult to see from Daya's accusations against Chen Jianzhou that the reason why she did not dare to speak out in the face of Chen Jianzhou's sexual harassment was that she was afraid of the other party's power, and she had been "refrigerated" by Chen Jianzhou and lost her job.

This involves the power relationship in Taiwan's entertainment industry in the early years. The solid interest structure of the black and white capital behind the TV station and the popular host bosses firmly controls the important resources of the entertainment industry. The most well-known examples are the two important figures who became popular big and small S - the film and television tycoon Yang Dengkui and the "godfather of Taiwan's variety show" Wang Weizhong.

Before the internal entertainment audience was also curious about why every heavy gossip of Taiwan Entertainment could not bypass Chen Jianzhou. But in fact, it is impossible to avoid the big and small S who are closely related to Chen Jianzhou. No one dares to come out and openly confront their superiors, they must be afraid of the power relationship behind it, that is, the old forces behind the "old society" described by our teacher Zhao Lirong, which are too powerful.

The Metoo movement can develop in the entertainment industry of various countries, all with a similar background of the times - the decline of old forces and the impact of new forces. When Hollywood movie tycoon Weinstein was accused of sexual assault and harassment in late 2017, it was the time node for Netflix to consolidate its global position, its market value exceeded 100 billion, and it strongly impacted the Emmy Awards and Oscars.

At that time, under the strong impact of streaming media, Hollywood giants suddenly woke up to do their own streaming media, but in fact, the general trend has passed. Netflix not only snatched the head film and television resources, but also made large-scale stories that provoked the old forces of Hollywood. For example, all kinds of "Hollywood Past" that expose the adulterous behavior of the bigwigs.

In the Netflix drama "Hollywood", the gas station in Los Angeles is recognized as a bustard shop, staffed by young actors waiting for the top, waiting for a big man who can appreciate him.

Golden age actresses like Marilyn Monroe have mentioned the past of sexual assault in their memoirs. But Hollywood giants have stood for a hundred years and have never been set off by any big winds and waves, and it was not until 2018 that they were shaken down by the Me too movement.

It is precisely because in the era of streaming media that the big manufacturers and the former bigwigs are no longer the only resource controllers. That is to say, the victim has a bargaining chip to dare to say. At least not like back then, when resistance would be unworkable, and even hurt friends.

The Metoo movement has swept across Asia in the past two years, and it is also a time node in time for the strong reshuffle of the film and television industries in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. In the past, in Japanese entertainment, artists did not dare to terminate the contract with the firm casually, because once they terminated the contract, they might be banned by the firm's joint TV station.

Now because of the channel of online dramas, artists can continue to act after canceling their contracts. The decline of old forces and the rise of new forces have naturally given many people the confidence to dare to speak.

Why doesn't internal entertainment earthquake?

Although watching the fire from the other side can also be comforting, the domestic entertainment audience has always almost felt a sense of presence and participation. The same "earthquake" will not occur in domestic entertainment, which is a fact that everyone defaults.

Although similar incidents have occurred intermittently in the academic circle and entertainment industry in recent years, and they have been solved happily, there has been no coherent Me too movement in China. In the Wu Yifan incident two years ago, many victimized girls came forward to help girls, but when they turned their heads, the fire was quickly extinguished.

At the beginning of this year, the literary and art circles also began a new round of movement on a small scale, starting from the screenwriter and Internet celebrity Shihang incident, to Qian Xiaohua, the founder of the pioneer bookstore, but in the end, they were all gone. Why is there such a big difference in public opinion?

First of all, it is necessary to acknowledge the fact that the supervision of internal entertainment is still relatively strict.

The history of the rise and fall from "Happy Camp" to "Hello, Saturday" is almost a true portrayal of the development of internal entertainment over the years. No matter how strong the upstream interest chain develops, it will eventually not escape the hands of supervision. In China, "entertainment first" is a social ecology that is not allowed and not respected. In recent years, under the rectification of "Qinglang", variety shows have collectively paid attention to public welfare and positive energy, and we all understand this truth.

I still remember the speech made by teacher Zhao Lirong after visiting Taiwan, in addition to that famous sentence, he also said that New China called artists "soul engineers" in those years.

Secondly, for domestic entertainment artists, there is no middle ground at all now. Once the virus breaks out, it is self-extinguishing, so how can we talk about contagion?

6 years ago, Xue Zhiqian's uproar of derailment, I am afraid it is difficult to turn over now. Today's domestic entertainment artists need to devote more energy and funds to public relations, because once they are exposed, they need to pay a greater price.

Hard Candy Jun also mentioned in "Internal Entertainment Paparazzi Floating and Sinking" that the disappearance of Zhuo Wei, the first paparazzi in internal entertainment, and now young paparazzi are always thunderous and rainy, which is related to changes in the internal entertainment environment. Internal entertainment seems to have been calm, and once the top melons burst out, most of them are directly legal coffee.

Even if it is not a legal coffee, it is difficult for other artistic ethics issues to have a chance to turn over. For example, Luo Zhixiang, who was blown up by Zhou Yangqing's hammer and had a chaotic private life, has since been banned by internal entertainment, Meng Meiqi, who was exposed to "junior", plummeted, and the metaphor of THE9's debut was coded on CCTV because of indecent remarks in his early years. At the moment, Cai Xukun, who has been silent for a long time, responded to clarify his dealings with Ms. C, and was still removed from all his videos by CCTV. Although it was not blocked, this behavior of the official media basically announced the "fall" of the top Cai Xukun. On the Taiwan entertainment side, Huang Ziling, who clearly admitted sexual harassment, announced that he would be able to return to work next month. The legal coffee Ke Zhendong, who was previously banned by internal entertainment, can continue to play a big male lead in Taiwan. The story of Taiwan Entertainment is never finished, and it lives forever in the earthquake zone.