數(shù)百萬(wàn)的中國(guó)觀眾著迷西方電視劇

Laura Carmichael in Downton Abbey, which attractedan audience of 160 million viewers. Photograph: NickBriggs/AP

勞拉·卡爾邁克爾在唐頓莊園劇照，該劇吸引了一億六千萬(wàn)觀眾。

 

 

The fact that subtitled episodes of Downton Abbey are watched by160 million viewers showsjust what a love affair the Chinese have developed with foreign television shows and formatsremade for their market. With BigBrother and Educating Yorkshire the latest shows to be linedup for a Chinese makeover, it's boom time for those exporting hit western programmes to theworld's most populous nation.

《唐頓莊園》該加個(gè)副標(biāo)題，一億六千萬(wàn)收視的愛情劇，中國(guó)人已經(jīng)開始為發(fā)展海外劇場(chǎng)重置節(jié)目和格式?！独洗蟾纭泛汀都s克郡教育紀(jì)事》最近排上了中國(guó)人的改編名單，這是西方節(jié)目出口到世界人口大國(guó)激增的時(shí)代。

China is the fastest-growing market for the sale of Britishshows and formats, with growth of40% last year. While it is still relatively small in revenue terms, the opportunity is immense. "In the UK a top-rated TVshow may just get into double-digit millions (in audience size), butChina has1.4 billion people and gets easily double, triple or quadruple that," says PierreCheung,vice-president of greater China for BBC Worldwide. "The market is amassive opportunity."

中國(guó)是不列顛秀和記錄片銷售增長(zhǎng)最快的市場(chǎng)，去年高達(dá)百分之四十。雖然進(jìn)賬還不算高，但潛力巨大。在英國(guó)最好的秀收視率會(huì)達(dá)到千萬(wàn)級(jí)(在觀眾數(shù)量上)，而中國(guó)有14億人，收視會(huì)是雙倍、三倍甚至四倍。BBC全球中國(guó)區(qū)副總Pierre Cheung說(shuō)，這個(gè)市場(chǎng)潛力巨大。

China's Got Talent, a local versionof Simon Cowell's ITV hit, has seen viewers top 400 million anepisode. Locally produced versions of western franchises combine the sheen of the exoticwiththe familiarity of local aesthetics. Singing competitions are especially popular: China's GotTalent, The Voice of China and a version of The X Factor(China's Strongest Voice) have all beenmajor hits.

中國(guó)達(dá)人秀，ITV本土西門克威爾電視秀的中國(guó)版，每集收視高達(dá)4億。西方授權(quán)本土制作兼具異國(guó)情調(diào)和(中國(guó))當(dāng)?shù)貙徝馈８枨荣愵愑绕涫軞g迎：中國(guó)達(dá)人秀，中國(guó)好聲音和X音素(激情唱響)均已登陸(中國(guó)市場(chǎng))。

Last month the BBC unveiled China's take on Top Gear on national broadcaster ShanghaiDragon TV, featuring a double Olympic gold diving champion, the presenter of Chinese Idoland a pop star turned actor in place of British hostsJeremy Clarkson, James May and RichardHammond.

據(jù)上月BBC報(bào)道《top gear》再次被中國(guó)上海東方衛(wèi)視引進(jìn)，他們用一個(gè)奧運(yùn)會(huì)雙項(xiàng)冠軍，《中國(guó)偶像》主持人和一個(gè)流行歌手來(lái)代替大不列顛版的主持人Jeremy Clarkson, James May 和RichardHammond。

These shows are strikingly different from their western counterparts. The Voiceof China, themost popular show in 2013, began the nearly three-hour finale ofits third season on 7 Octoberwith a soaring shot of the Great Wall; avoiceover praised China's thousands of years of history.The show then cut to testimonials from fans and former contestants: an elderly man, a middle-classfamily, a farmer, a foreign tourist in Tiananmen square.

這些秀和他們西方原版完全不同。中國(guó)好聲音，2013年(中國(guó))最火的秀，9月7第三季近三小時(shí)的結(jié)局篇開頭拍了一堆長(zhǎng)城鏡頭，畫外音還贊美了中國(guó)幾千年的歷史。接著鏡頭切到了粉絲和前選手感言：一位老人，一戶中產(chǎn)階級(jí)家庭，一個(gè)農(nóng)民兄弟，一只逛天安門廣場(chǎng)的老外。

"The Voice of China lets all of us music lovers bravely pursue our dreams,"said a man carrying alute. Sentimental ballads are the order of the day.Judges are unwaveringly supportive.

一只琵琶哥說(shuō)“中國(guó)好聲音給所有的音樂(lè)愛好者提供了追求夢(mèng)想滴機(jī)會(huì)。”凄美悲涼的情歌扎堆，而評(píng)委們都毫不動(dòng)搖地支持。

Next up are remakes of documentary Educating Yorkshire and the potentially tricky prospectof a Chinese Big Brother. The sometimes risqué content that comes with Big Brother territoryfrequently lands the show in hot water with UK watchdog Of com – which has nothing onChina's all-powerful State Administrationof Radio, Film and Television, a notoriously twitchyregulator that acts as acultural guardian.

再下來(lái)是重制的中國(guó)版記錄片《約克郡教育紀(jì)事》和潛力無(wú)限的《老大哥》.有時(shí)為了拯救收視老大哥頻繁涉黃，這會(huì)招惹到英國(guó)通信監(jiān)管部——比起天朝的廣電總局的權(quán)限他很小兒科，僅僅是守護(hù)文化的調(diào)節(jié)器。

It has pulled shows at the first hint of attitudes or depictions that show China or its people in apoor light. In 2011 it banned X Factor-style talentshow Super Girl, which has attractedaudiences of up to 400 million, and announced last autumn it would stop satellite TV stationsfrom broadcasting more than one foreign-format show a year. Stations have replaced theseprogrammes with others the government deems more acceptable, such asdocumentariesabout Communist party history. The problem is that nobody wantsto watch them.

給中國(guó)觀眾的節(jié)目展示做的不怎么好。2011年，一個(gè)類似X音素模式叫做超級(jí)女聲的秀被禁，它有4億觀眾，去年秋天衛(wèi)星廣播電視宣布停播了至少一個(gè)外國(guó)秀。電視臺(tái)用諸如共黨史記錄片這類可能被接受的節(jié)目填補(bǔ)砍掉的秀。問(wèn)題是壓根沒人看。

 

 

Fans of the talent show Super Girl in 2005. The hugely popular programme was banned byChina's broadcasting regulator in 2011. Photograph:China Photos/Getty Images.

2005年超級(jí)女聲秀粉，這具有龐大收視率的節(jié)目在2011年被中國(guó)電視臺(tái)砍了。

There have been reports that the BBC's Sherlock, with Benedict Cumberbatch, was bannedfrom major channels. However the BBC's Cheung denies this, saying itjust took time for theshow to move from airing on a Chinese video site to being broadcast on China's statebroadcaster CCTV.

有報(bào)道說(shuō)BBC家卷福的夏洛克在(中國(guó))主要電視臺(tái)被禁止。不過(guò)BBC的張否認(rèn)了這點(diǎn)，解釋說(shuō)節(jié)目從國(guó)家視頻站挪到中國(guó)國(guó)家廣播電臺(tái)CCTV后換了時(shí)間段。

Martha Brass, chief operating officer at Big Brother producer Endemol, says carefulcollaboration with its partner Youku Tudou – China's answer to YouTube – willsee a sanitisedversion make it past the censor. "In any country you obviously have to look at the cultural andregulatory environment, and we are well awareof that in relation to China," she says. "BigBrother is actually a veryflexible format. In the Philippines it is very much a family show, andinAustralia we have run it in different time slots for different audiences. We feel confidentabout our ability to address the particular TV regulations inChina."

瑪莎布拉斯，《老大哥》首席運(yùn)營(yíng)官說(shuō)，跟優(yōu)酷土豆——中國(guó)的油土鱉合作要小心翼翼——(中國(guó))為營(yíng)造一個(gè)干凈的環(huán)境正在各種審查。“去任何國(guó)家，你都要注意它的文化和監(jiān)管環(huán)境，我們跟中國(guó)相處的還不賴。”她說(shuō)，“老大哥其實(shí)可以很靈活，在菲律賓他是個(gè)很棒的家庭秀;在澳大利亞，不同時(shí)間段我們滿足不同觀眾。在中國(guó)的電視廣播規(guī)則下我們也很有信心。”

The rise of Chinese video services such as Sohu TV, Tencent and iQiyi hasopened a huge newpotential market for foreign programme rights ownersl.The third series of Sherlock hasnotched up more than 70 million views online,while US show The Big Bang Theory, the mostpopular foreign show in China, has been viewed more than 1.4bn times on video sites."Newmedia platforms are just starting to get into deals for more and more foreign shows," says PaulSandler, managing director of Objective Productions."That could have a massive impact onthe market for content."

中國(guó)的視頻行業(yè)正在崛起，諸如搜狐、騰訊、愛奇藝已經(jīng)為外國(guó)節(jié)目版權(quán)開放了一個(gè)巨大潛力無(wú)限的市場(chǎng)。夏洛克第三季視頻點(diǎn)擊超過(guò)7億，而生活大爆炸作為中國(guó)最受歡迎的美劇，點(diǎn)擊次數(shù)超過(guò)14億。“新媒體平臺(tái)開始涉足并不斷擴(kuò)大外國(guó)節(jié)目交易量，”節(jié)目總監(jiān)Paul Sandler說(shuō)“這個(gè)市場(chǎng)的容量影響巨大。”

However the rise in online viewing, and the popularity of foreign shows has been seen as athreat by the state regulator. In April, video streaming websites were told to "clean up" andstop showing The Big Bang Theory as wellas US shows The Good Wife, NCIS and The Practice.Shows that might be thought much more likely to outrage the watchdog – The Walking Dead,House of Cards and Breaking Bad – were unaffected.As recently as three years ago China wasconsidered something of a "Wild East" for foreign production companies, replete with tales ofthe impossibility of doing deals and a culture of ripping off hit foreign formats without payingfor rights.

然而在線視屏地崛起，英美劇的流行也讓監(jiān)管部門感受到了威脅。今年4月，網(wǎng)絡(luò)視頻掀起“整頓風(fēng)”，生活大爆炸、傲骨賢妻、NCIS和律師本色被查辦。而那些很大可能被監(jiān)管部門認(rèn)為不適合的——行尸走肉，紙牌屋和絕命毒師——都沒事。三年前，中國(guó)還被某些外國(guó)公司認(rèn)做是沒有人權(quán)做不成事以及排斥外來(lái)文化的“野蠻的東方”。

"If China wants to be taken seriously in the international market they have totreat intellectualproperty with proper respect," says Sandler, who has donedeals for three series of a Chineseversion of gameshow The Cube. "There is awill from the government to have a proper IPprotection structure; it isnowhere near as bad as it was a few years ago."Sandler believes thatfor the Chinese TV industry the aim is to collaborate andlearn about how to develop hit showsthat they can export.China has some interesting homegrown hits, including a nationwidecompetitionin the vein of Great British Bake Off but based on calligraphy; roughly translated,its title is Idiom Hero. But there is some way to go to make internationally appealing shows.

“中國(guó)要想在國(guó)際市場(chǎng)受到重視，他們必須尊重知識(shí)產(chǎn)權(quán)，”剛同中方交易完三期游戲節(jié)目《魔方》版權(quán)的Sandler說(shuō)，“政府現(xiàn)在很有意愿構(gòu)造保護(hù)體制，遠(yuǎn)比幾年前好多了。”Sandler認(rèn)為中國(guó)電視業(yè)的合作目標(biāo)很清晰，那就是要學(xué)習(xí)如何發(fā)展并出口。中國(guó)有一些好玩的本土流行玩意，像不列顛烘焙大賽那樣的全國(guó)性競(jìng)賽，不過(guò)都是一些文字藝術(shù)，簡(jiǎn)單說(shuō)點(diǎn)就是成語(yǔ)英雄啦這類。用些方法包裝下也是有國(guó)際吸引力的節(jié)目。

"The truth is the real aim of all the broadcasters and government in China isto develophomegrown Chinese shows and export them," he says. "The same way as(they have) with cars,computers, white goods, you name it. We are trying to collaborate to come up with somegenuinely good formats."

“事實(shí)上中國(guó)電臺(tái)和政府的真實(shí)目的是發(fā)展中國(guó)本土秀并出口，”他說(shuō)，“同樣的事已經(jīng)有很多先例，汽車、電腦、你能想到的大個(gè)家用電器。我們正在努力合作并爭(zhēng)取多想出些好點(diǎn)子來(lái)。”

Not everyone is impressed. For a market of 1.4 billion people, a total of ￡17m in sales ofBritish programmes and formats in 2013 seems like a "long walk for a short drink", says onesenior UK TV executive. But Cheung counters that. He says it is a slow-burn culture aboutbuilding relationships, and the real cash will follow: "You have to get involved and engage thepartners personally; proper trust takes time. It is challenging but at same time exciting. If youcan crack China, it makes any other market easy."

當(dāng)然也不是每個(gè)人都印象深刻。2013年，不列顛在這個(gè)14億人口市場(chǎng)的節(jié)目和讀物銷售額總數(shù)是一千七百萬(wàn)英鎊，看上去“功倍事半”英國(guó)某資深電視管理層說(shuō)。但是張不同意他的看法。他說(shuō)文化交流的構(gòu)建是慢工細(xì)活，賺錢要循序漸進(jìn)：“你必須要跟合伙人兼容，相互信任需要時(shí)間。這不僅是挑戰(zhàn)同樣也令人振奮。如果你能打開中國(guó)市場(chǎng)，進(jìn)入其他市場(chǎng)會(huì)變得相當(dāng)容易。”