You’re stir-fried squid
That is, “you’re fired” in Chinese: officials meet “The Apprentice”
CHINA doesn’t have free elections. It has reality television instead. The latest such show even has the flavour of a political contest: the competitors are all high-ranking officials. It has been a big hit.
Since May the programme, “Sights of Shanxi”, has been airing live every Friday on a channel in the northern province of that name. In the show, local cities bid to play host to a tourism-development conference. The contestants have to tell four judges why their city is such a great place, in front of a studio audience of 100 people and a panel of experts. The judges grill the contestants, who advance or fail according to votes cast by the audience in the studio, the judges and internet users.
This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline "You’re stir-fried squid"
China June 18th 2016
From the June 18th 2016 edition
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