In the 21st century, capitalism is no longer "poison" in China. Instead, it is "good medicine" to help China escape from poverty. Public policy has been redefined to allow "bourgeois" entertainment to obtain certification as "politically correct." The gap between rich and poor continues to exist, but the pursuit of trendiness has become a mass movement. Raised during the "one-child family" era of the 1980s by doting parents who handled them with kid gloves, this generation's values have given them the courage to express their longing for popular entertainment.

My work unit is paying

Changes in China can be seen most clearly in spending on entertainment, particularly for concerts put on by pop stars. Typical ticket prices for concerts at venues such as Beijing's Capital Stadium and the Park Stadium range from 180 to 880 renminbi. Even though tickets for the much-idolized F4 group's concert in Shanghai were selling for a record 2000 renminbi, they were still in short supply.

"For a salaried employee, a sum of more than 800 renminbi is a sizeable amount of money. But there are plenty of people with money in China's large cities," says one Beijing concert agent who would only give his alias, Chen Shan. If you can't afford a ticket personally, then just use company funds. At any rate, the company can claim it as a tax deduction.

Demand for concerts is strong. In order to gain approval from the Ministry of Culture, big cities like Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou exploit all sorts of events, such as the Sprite Music Chart Awards and Channel V Chinese Music Chart Awards, to invite a host of Taiwanese and Hong Kong stars to perform. Other fast-growing cities besides these metropolises are also a major battleground for artists to earn a few bucks and make a name for themselves.

The market for old favorites is also considerable thanks to a big potential audience. Tunes popularized in the 1980s such as "Love Song 1980" and "Zhi Hu Zhe Ye" can still drive demand for Luo Ta-you's one-man concerts every year in Beijing and Shanghai. Singer Tsai Chin held several concerts in Shanghai in 2002, winning audience applause and rekindling nostalgia for prewar Shanghai song and dance.

Mini-dish fad

Besides such live performances, satellite TV, overseas broadcasts, and pirated CDs are the key media by which mainland Chinese can access information about Taiwanese trends.

Since satellite TV can reach virtually anywhere, it is hard to estimate just how many residents along the major cities of the eastern coast of China have installed their own mini-dishes for satellite TV reception. Meanwhile, Taiwanese programs broadcast in their common language, Mandarin, have become a favorite of the masses on the mainland. Vocalist Da Zhang-wei of the mainland band Flower makes no secret of his adulation for Taiwan Satellite TV entertainment newscaster Tao Ching-ying.

"Seems as soon as you move into a new place, your letterbox will be crammed full of brochures advertising satellite-dish installation services," says Li Ming, the alias of an experienced Shanghai media professional. But this is simply common knowledge. Despite the fact that after the 2001 APEC meeting, the China Broadcasting Bureau issued a "red-header" document to ten cities banning the unauthorized installation of satellite TV antennas, and threatening those individuals found in violation with a 5000 renminbi fine, and groups and firms with a 50,000 renminbi fine. "I've never heard of anyone getting caught. Every family has one, and no one informs on them. And anyway, you just cover your "dish" for protection, and it doesn't impact reception," says Li Ming, underlining the popularity of satellite TV in China.

China's electronic broadcasting market now offers a variety of programming, including music, news, business, traditional performing arts, etc. For those young rural residents who cannot receive satellite TV, Taiwanese radio programs made especially for overseas audiences and broadcast from the other side of Taiwan Strait are the speediest channel for keeping up to date with trends.

"Even when static virtually covers the original sound, they keep on listening energetically. They save half a year's pocket money to buy a stamp to take part in a CD drawing, and think nothing of going to a faraway city's cyber cafe with broadband where they can hear broadcasts more clearly. These are typical listeners in China," says Wu Yen, presenter for the China network at Taiwan's Voice of Han Broadcasting Station. "Incoming letters as numerous as snowflakes"-this presenter's dream-is no rare event for the China network. And the huge crowds that greet presenters from Taiwan's Central Broadcasting System when they hold meet-the-fans sessions in China are by no means inferior to those held by idolized singers.

Knock-off DVDs for the bourgeoisie

Entertainment content also achieves popularity in the strictly censored mainland via pirated DVDs. "DVDs for the bourgeoisie is a new social phenomena that has cropped up over the last two years. Even the poorest quality visuals can be decoded by China-made DVD players. Each pirated disk goes for just ten renminbi. Plenty of people have collections of 1000-plus DVDs featuring US, European, Japanese, Taiwanese, and Hong Kong films and TV series," says Chen Shan.

As the cold wind blows, a student surnamed Sun is selecting CDs on a street in Shanghai. At 5 renminbi apiece, she can buy four with her pocket money, and her fellow students often buy them too. "The lyrics are printed just like those in legal copies, and they often give you a few extra old songs, so they're a better value than the originals," she says. The only drawback is that when "star-chasing" you can't hand it over for an autograph for fear of being criticized.

The Internet is also a key channel through which news of Taiwanese trends are communicated to the mainland. Last year prior to the Sixteenth Congress of the Communist Party of China, except for major Taiwanese news sites such as the China Times and the United Daily News, search sites in traditional Chinese characters, such as Yahoo!Kimo, Sina.com, and Yam.com could generally be accessed from China.

"The Web best reflects the sometimes relaxed, sometimes strict control the Chinese authorities keep over the flow of information about trends outside the country," says Li Ming. Higher-ups often consider that "refusing to loosen control" is the safest approach. So during the year before and after the congress, all media people know that when accepting an interview from Hong Kong or Taiwanese media, even if it involves expressing an opinion about popular mainland culture, the only way to be safe is to use an alias.

The impression of inconsistency as regards the mainland's attitude toward popular Taiwanese entertainment is not restricted to politics. Broadcast of the star-studded Meteor Garden TV series was banned in China in 2002, thanks to the intervention of the education authorities who were responding to parents who had indicated that the "bourgeois values" of the series would "distort" the growth of the young.

An open society's longing for leisure entertainment moves forward in fits and spurts, but to describe it as a "cultural invasion" is probably overstating it. The likes of idols such as Vicki Zhao and Lu Yi have stolen the hearts of many young Taiwanese girls and boys. In the midst of a busy life during one's youth, committing an occasional "excess" is a seemingly modest desire. Perhaps in the future if mainland China adopts democracy and opens its society, the exchange of popular entertainment on both sides of the straits will achieve a greater balance.

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Japan's V6 meets the press (2002): They chose Eastern Broadcasting's Shanghai studio in the hopes of raising name recognition via satellite TV rebroadcast.

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Taiwan's Coco Lee does Suzhou: Young fans take advantage of the chance to see her up close in action at this concert sponsored by Eastern Broadcasting. (Photo courtesy of Eastern Broadcasting Company Ltd.)