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BEIJING - Shivering from the damp and chilly air in the Beijing
underway crossing, Xiao Mei shyly promotes her stock of pirated
books displayed on a piece of cloth in front of her.
"Buy a copy of Meteor Garden, the script of the Taiwanese TV series
that was banned the other month. I have also the sequel - Meteor
Rain, both books just for 35 yuan" (US$4.20), she says.
Passers-by coming in from the rain outside promptly pay and walk
away with their books, wary of being spotted by the occasional
policeman.
Not only are the books illegally printed, their content has been
deemed offensive enough by Chinese censors to ban the TV show from
being aired on Chinese television. The topsy-turvy love stories of
Taiwanese youngsters in an elite high school, where the girls flash
Gucci bags while the boys drive gleaming BMWs, have provoked a
storm of angry letters from parents throughout mainland
China.
That forced the communist censors to step in and ban the program.
Meteor Garden, introduced by Harbin Television Station, is
prohibited from broadcast because of "its tendency to mislead
teenagers", read the order issued by the State Administration of
Radio, Film and Television and quoted by the Beijing Youth Daily in
mid-March.
Nevertheless, just weeks after the ban, the script of the
television series has been printed into a paperback in China's
depressed north and has quickly become a hot property in the
capital. However, these books aren't as hot as the pirated video
compact discs (VCDs) that are being sold secretly under the counter
or on street corners in Beijing - glaring proof of how defiant of
state propaganda popular tastes here have become.
Even the state-sanctioned media have joined in the spontaneous
gesture of defiance. Despite the ban, the Southern Weekend weekly -
one of China's most daring newspapers - commissioned a poll of
public opinion on the television series and bravely published the
results.
Some 78 percent of those surveyed in China's three biggest cities -
Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou - disagreed with the assertion that
the television series promoted "decadently luxurious life" and
advocated "money worship". More than 40 percent thought the ban was
"unnecessary" and another 30 percent of those interviewed said the
ban on the show has made them even "more willing" to watch
it.
"We've sold more than 50 sets of the series just in a week after
the ban," says Li Xia, a 23-year-old salesperson in a small VCD
shop downtown. "I myself have watched it three times."
Throngs of swooning schoolgirls have done exactly the same thing.
The four slick boys from the television series' F4 (short for
"Flower Four", alluding to their pretty-boy looks) have shot to
instant fame among the mainland's youth. Indeed, a genre has been
born.
While Meteor Garden is not the first popular drama of the genre
described by Chinese critics as an "idol opera" to be shown in the
country, it is by far the one that has caused most controversy.
When it opened in China in March, Meteor Garden had already become
a hit throughout Southeast Asia, transforming its four male actors
from total unknowns to super-idols. Their debut album, called
Meteor Rain and released last August, has already gone platinum,
selling more than 200,000 copies in Taiwan alone.
But while the mere mention of the "Flower Four" can drive teenage
girls to transports of ecstacy, their parents find Meteor Garden
characters too rich, spoiled and devoid of spiritual values to be
regarded as real "idols".
The opulent lives of Taiwan's high class depicted in the series has
only added salt to the wound. "I found the series horrific, like
some electronic Halloween," complains one mother whose 16-year-old
daughter has been losing sleep over the show. "After watching them,
my daughter said it was normal for a girl to have more than one
partner or lover at the same time. Isn't that incredible?"
"Meteor Garden is a beautiful garden filled with temptations that
are hard to resist. It's just too nice to be true. Longing for nice
things is the nature of human beings. But we cannot live in a world
of fantasy," explains a visitor to www.sina.com, one of China's
most popular websites.
The story itself makes little effort to be more that just a modern
version of Cinderella. A poor but lovely girl wins over her prince,
who first strikes her as being impudent and spoiled but is later
revealed to be warm-hearted and passionate.
Adapted from manga or Japanese comics, christened Hana Yori Dango
(meaning "Boys Prettier Than Flowers") and made in Taiwan, Meteor
Garden is also disliked by some educators for the "cultural
imperialism" it brings to China. "It is enough that our children
watch Japanese cartoons all day long, but now even the teenagers
are mad about Japanese pop culture," says a teacher of Chinese
language at the Beijing Economics and Trade University, who gave
her name as Liu.
Some 45 percent of the young viewers surveyed by Southern Weekend
said their parents prevented them from watching the series, fearing
that the excessive lifestyle of Taiwanese youth might build up
unrealistic expectations with youngsters in mainland China.
"Life without longing is tedious," Ming Leifu, a researcher from
the Beijing Education Institute, told the English-language China
Daily newspaper. "But it's impractical to live all the time in
dreams which cannot come true."
(Inter Press Service)
Meteor Garden was banned and so was "Devil Besides You" 
