US political drama tells much about us

Brainwashed by soaps

You might say, "At least locals got some top-quality entertainment." No, these shows were invariably off-limits to the ticket-buying public. The audiences were bused in, some from the sponsoring businesses. They were rehearsed and orchestrated. Even their smiles and hand gestures were rehearsed, which meant that many in attendance logged participation as an overtime work shift rather than a day off for personal fun.

The mushrooming of such pomp and pageantry was not only bad for the economy but innately detrimental to the country's culture and entertainment. It drove the cost for performing arts through the roof, from rentals of venues and equipment to the hiring of talent and crews.

Then there was the insidious effect of homogeneity. Thousands of such events were produced each year, and they all had the same style, usually modeled on China Central Television's galas. Gradually, people who had never been exposed to quality performing arts would form the impression that all stage shows must be like this. Diversity, the lifeblood of culture, withered in an artificial abundance of singing and dancing.

The austerity crackdown reportedly wiped out at least 10,000 businesses that benefited from the craze. That is more than just squeezing the air out of the bubble; it is removing the leeches from the market.

Artists who once made a small fortune from a five-minute appearance must now think about doing complete concerts or operas. And television viewers are no longer bombarded by the same league of smiling faces popping up on every channel and lip-syncing the same numbers.

A ticket to a stage show is regaining some of its real value, commensurate with its cost and quality, because a swarm of complimentary tickets, some of which would have flowed into the market, no longer exists to distort the market need.

As performing arts organizations in Western countries plead for government money, China has finally sloughed off a form of government waste that threatened to choke its culture.

The author is a culture critic and columnist at China Daily.