Happy Boy Voices, Yang Er Che Namu and Zheng Jun
Honestly, I have no idea what odds put these three together. Happy Boys Voice (快乐男声) is a new mimick franchise program of the smash hit "American Idol" following "Super Girls Voice". Amateur or professional singers perform on TV and the audience votes for their favorite contestants via phone or SMS. I'm usually not much of a TV fan, but the participation of this tribal woman, Yang Er Che Namu, has once again caught my attention.

I have never liked her, and I have completely no idea how this lousy, lying, pretentious tribal woman is getting so much attention in Chinese media right now. Her story of running away from a matriarchal society might be interesting at the beginning, but really, don't people get tired after hearing it over and over again? And rumours had it her own tribal folks actually think she twisted Muoso culture. Not to mention her narcissistic writings are just utterly disgusting. As someone who claims to value Chinese culture and tradition, and criticizes Chinese people for taking English names, why does she put “American” on every single one of her book covers under her name? Why does she need to squeeze out one or two English words or phrases every time she speaks (in fact her English is not as great as she thinks) in order to remind all of us that she used to live in the States and digs western men? She’s never spoken a few Muoso words, which is supposed to be her native language. Anyhow, besides all that, her recent appearance under the spotlight (ok, she might have been hot in her 20s) as a middle-aged plumpy woman dressed in over-exposed clothes is a bit turn off.

If not mistaken, I remember reading negative reports of her involvement as a judge on Happy Boy Voices. The audience soon crowned her the "Red Flower Hierarch" (红花教主)because everytime you saw her, she always had a huge flower attached to her hair and never forgot to mention the flower when filming the program. Some people are also not happy with her overly mean criticism for the contestants, such as "If you stand at my door like this, I will use a broom to sweep you out." Over 10,000 people signed a petition wanting her off the board.

Zheng Jun, on the other hand, a hardcore Chinese rock singer from Xi'an, is way beyond Yang’s level. I remember when my friends and I dearly loved Zheng in the late ‘90s, his signature song Naked (赤裸裸)heard constantly on the radio. He was the first Chinese singer to be included in Billboard back in 1997, during which time Yang was probably swinging with different men. Zheng's popularity seems to be based on his low-key and down-to-earth personality, and he is seldom featured in tabloids.

Having said all that, maybe I'm not surprised to hear about the squabble between Namu and Zheng Jun. The two fought in Happy Boys Voice over whether talanted guitar-player Yang Mu deserved a passcard, which has ignited a huge debate online.

Of course I'm taking Zheng's side. From the video here, (http://dv.ce.cn/video.bo?videoid=76407), one can easily figure out what's going on. Zheng, as a senior musician, obviously appreciated Yang Mu's talents. But Yang was giving some lame excuse about how Yang Mu apparently couldn’t sing without a guitar and wasn’t handsome enough to be a star. That got Zheng’s blood boiling, and he left the site. Yang continued to pour our her shameless slander in an interview, calling Zheng an uneducated “low-level” person. Please, Zheng is gentleman enough not to have given you a bitch-slap on the spot! And his only response to Yang's words was that he is not very comfortable with Yang speaking English to Chinese people. He will also not appear on the show as long as Yang is there. Kudos to that! Zheng's honesty and straightforwardness obviously won a landslide in this debate.

But I'm sure the biggest winner after all, is the organizer of Happy Boys Voice. The drama has just drawn more attention the show, just like the scandals involving Super Girls. Chaozuo (creating a buzz) is surely magic.