Is there anything they won’t copy?

August 21, 2005 @ 10:52 pm | Comment

More crap imported to China, that is just what the Chinese needs now. *Sigh*.

August 21, 2005 @ 11:03 pm | Comment

Trump – just go to China, grab “YOUR” money and leave like everyone else.

August 21, 2005 @ 11:07 pm | Comment

Gordon, apparently there already is a Chinese copy of the Trump show. This, unfortunately, is the real thing!

CQ, China TV wouldn’t be buying it if they didn’t think they could sell more advertising with it. It’s not a case of Trump forcing people to buy his show.

Still, ugh. Trump should not be allowed to spread!

August 21, 2005 @ 11:18 pm | Comment

This is actually a lot more Machiavellian.

Hong Kong property tycoon Vincent Lo recently launched an Apprentice imitator in China.

Meanwhile, Trump is currently suing Lo for US$1 billion in New York, accusing Lo of breach of fiduciary duties and fraud in connection with a real estate partnership between Lo and Trump.

Trump is now launching a licensed version of the Apprentice in China (mainland property tycoon Pan Shiyi will star, not Trump) in an effort to embarrass and annoy Lo.

August 21, 2005 @ 11:52 pm | Comment

It just cracks me up. Do they not have any original ideas of their own?

They have copied Friends, American Idol, Who wants to be a millionaire, several other shows and now Trump.

blah…

August 21, 2005 @ 11:54 pm | Comment

You’re right Gordon. Britain’s ITV sold the rights to broadcast the show to dozens of national television stations including America and Hong Kong. Chinese TV, however, just stole it. Another example of way China demands international respect but behaves in a way that doesn’t deserve any.

I had a conversation about Who Wants To Be a Millionaire with a work colleague once, his reply to every one of my points was: “But this is China”. Like trying to teach mathematics to a fish….

August 22, 2005 @ 12:07 am | Comment

Oh god. Conrad, that is priceless.

August 22, 2005 @ 12:20 am | Comment

Pan Shiyi: China’s champion, numero-uno media-whore. I quake with anticipation.

I think “The Apprentice” would have been much more interesting if the shallow greed-heads voted off the show each week were shot. Enough of these wimpy reality shows. Let’s have some consequences, dammit.

August 22, 2005 @ 1:43 am | Comment

Okay, Will, I just snorted my cheap Italian Pinot Nero through my nose. Thanks for that…

August 22, 2005 @ 1:46 am | Comment

“Apprentice” may appear crap to you guys. But I know a lot of business people like that show. Introducing “Apprentice” into China is positive and is just another sign of globalization at work.

Your response on this news explains why You guys are a bunch of losers who can not find a job in your own country and then hate everything in you host country.

August 22, 2005 @ 8:41 am | Comment

steve, you sound like a two-year-old throwing a tantrum in Tescos. All I’m seeing on this thread is general distaste of the US version of the show, a note that this is one of the first overseas shows legally bought by China and a couple of jokes at the show’s expense.

For your info, most people on this thread do not work in China which, my little friend, suddenly makes you sound a bit losery, oh, and wrong.

By the way, the “globalization at work” comment was a classic. Thanks for that and keep up the good work.

August 22, 2005 @ 9:08 am | Comment

Steve, I just got a promotion here in Los Angeles. Sorry to bust your bubble.

August 22, 2005 @ 10:14 am | Comment

“steve, you sound like a two-year-old throwing a tantrum in Tescos. ”

Haha, no hard feelings. The technique I used is just learned from you guys, i.e., throw a nasty accusation with some truth in it.

Is it fun to be in the other shoe?

August 22, 2005 @ 10:47 am | Comment

I think you mean, ‘the shoe is on the other foot’ or something of that sort.

Honestly, Steve – I posted this because it’s bad enough we have to have “the Apprentice” here in the States. I feel bad that you’re going to get it in China too…

Perhaps you will escape the Martha Stewart spin-off version…

August 22, 2005 @ 11:24 am | Comment

Other Lisa,

Thanks for correcting me. I do not intend to be rude. My comments are mainly responding to Gordon’s comments.

Apprentice is somewhat an example of Darwinism society, which describes china society more or less. My take is that Chinese will like that show, though I do understand it is a matter of persernal taste.

August 22, 2005 @ 11:58 am | Comment

Steve, I think you’re probably right…

Ah well. I hope we all come to a kinder, less Darwinian society some day…

August 22, 2005 @ 12:14 pm | Comment

Martyn,

>Another example of way China demands international respect but behaves in a way that doesn’t deserve any.

How do your assertion here related to the “Apprentice” in China? I did not watch the shows in the Us; but if many Chinese people like this type of western pop culture for whatever reason (as Lisa rightly pointed out, the money), then it is OK. You don’t like to the old China which was closed, but what’s your problem with the China which is more opened to the ideas from outside. Yes, they often borrow ideas from the West, either bad or good, but what’s wrong with that? You are in China, you need to learn to be respectful to your host.

August 22, 2005 @ 1:16 pm | Comment

Well Steve, why not direct your comments at me then?

I had no problems finding a job in my own country. In fact, I left a job at one of the worlds largest multi-national corporations so that I could come to China and study the language in more depth.

It must really bug you that I (and other foreigners) can come to your country and make more money in a week than you do in a month? Or does it bother you most when we come here and marry your women?

Damn! I did that too!

August 23, 2005 @ 12:10 am | Comment

Whoah…watch it with that “your women” stuff, Gordon. I bet your wife would spank you for that!

Seriously, guys, in the interest of promoting social harmony, let’s all of us (and this means you too, Steve) try to play nice. And I’ll agree with Gordon on this – if you have disagreements with a specific commenter, please address that person directly. In a socially harmonious way, if at all possible…

August 23, 2005 @ 12:43 am | Comment

Na, my wife wouldn’t say anything. I was just throwing another issue out there to nibble on.

I’m sure there are several other commenters here on TPD with Chinese wives/girlfriends that can testify to the dirty and downright hateful looks we get from Chinese men when we are out walking hand-in-hand with our other half and it really upsets my wife sometimes.

We were in a pub late last year when some jerk came over and introduced himself to me as though he were trying to be friendly, but then he turned to my wife and said in Chinese “little sister, what are you doing with this foreign monkey? There are many good Chinese men available”.

With exception to that incident (which turned physical), I usually return their dirty looks with a smile because I know they’re just jealous.

August 23, 2005 @ 1:11 am | Comment

And I gather if a Chinese man is with a Western woman, it’s a whole different story…

I don’t know, my thoughts on this are a little complicated, I guess. I get tired of women always being seen in this framework of “ours” and “yours” and “their.” Of course that’s the reality in a lot of cultures, unfortunately. But basically, I ain’t anybody’s property, you know?

That said, I figure, love is hard to find, alienation is abundant, and any time two people manage to find each other to love in this world, it’s a good thing. And people who don’t like that for whatever reason need to get the ef’ over it…

August 23, 2005 @ 1:45 am | Comment

Okay Lisa, I wasn’t really thinking about it in that sense. However, I have heard a lot of black women say the same thing in reference to white girls taking all their “good men”.

As for the Asian man with a white girl, it just so happens that one of my best friends is engaged to an Asian guy from Thailand. I’ve never asked about it, but I’m sure they draw a little bit of attention to themselves as well – though I doubt it’s as malicious as what I find here.

Of course, that might also depend on where you’re at in the US. Hell, my aunt (a black woman) and I walk around with our arms around each other in public all the time just because we get a kick out of people looking at us. They look, but they don’t burn holes through us with their beady eyes.

August 23, 2005 @ 2:03 am | Comment

Yeah, Gordon, I hear you, and point taken. I think all of us are to some degree engaged in some weird struggle between tribalism and individualism.

Like I said, I root for people finding each other in a hostile world…I guess I am a romantic at heart!

August 23, 2005 @ 2:08 am | Comment

“little sister, what are you doing with this foreign monkey? There are many good Chinese men available”.>

No need to get physical Gordon, just tell him its because of your enormous yangguizi pen1s.

August 23, 2005 @ 3:32 am | Comment

hahaha! Conrad, I probably wouldn’t have gotten physical if it hadn’t upset my wife so much.

At any rate, it didn’t get out of hand. I just knocked the beer out of his hand that I had poured for him and grabbed him by the shirt. By that time my buddy (the owner) had some of his friends remove him from the bar.

August 23, 2005 @ 3:38 am | Comment

“Or does it bother you most when we come here and marry your women? ”

Gordon, it is stupid to drag your woman into an irrelavent debate. It is so easy to trash your woman if you like to hear it.

Despite Richard hate CCP to guts, I still enjoy reading his comments, because I can feel the compassion in his heart. The same with other lisa’s comment.

The comments by you, Martyn and Conrad are a living proof to support the paranoid held by some narrow-minded chinese.

August 23, 2005 @ 6:46 am | Comment

steve, sorry mate but I’ve got to pull you on this one.

If you think my commenting on the fact that China has paid for the legal rights to air an international television programme (the intellectual property of a foreign TV channel) for perhaps the first time in its history rather than just stealing the format as CCTV has done many, many times in the past as some kind of China-hating paranoid rant…..well, I feel sorry for you if that’s how you feel.

August 23, 2005 @ 7:56 am | Comment

AAHHHGGGHHHH!!!! I can’t go to sleep without you guys turning this into a locker room conversation about “size”?!

Look I may need to edit some of the above exchange. Sorry, guys, but I’m not Richard, and if I err on the side of too much “nannying”, that’s just the way it is…

August 23, 2005 @ 10:17 am | Comment

Okay. You will notice some light editing of above. In the absence of Richard, here is my “pee-pee” policy. You may brag all you want about the size of your own members. No insulting others’ pen1ses.

August 23, 2005 @ 10:23 am | Comment

Steve, you can’t trash my wife because you don’t know her.

If anything, you’re just jealous because she is more of a woman than you will ever be of a man.

That must suck huh? Don’t worry, I’m sure you can always cut hair.

August 23, 2005 @ 10:46 am | Comment

“Steve, you can’t trash my wife because you don’t know her. ”

Gordon, if your woman loves you, I can guess what your woman is from who you are. You should love your woman instead of flaunting her in public.

If your woman does not love you, do not worry. She is not the only one for sale.

August 23, 2005 @ 11:21 am | Comment

I repeat, AAGGGRRRHHHHHH!!!!!

Time-outs for both of you! In the corner! NOW!

August 23, 2005 @ 11:24 am | Comment

Steve,

I don’t “flaunt” my wife at all..and certainly not the way you flaunt your stupidity.

You can say what you like. You don’t know anything about her and the fact that you would stoop so low as to try to insult someone that has done nothing to you….speaks multitudes about your character.

Besides, it’s easy for someone with such little gonads as yourself to make such comments from behind the safety of your computer screen.

August 23, 2005 @ 11:33 am | Comment

Okay, does my pee-pee policy need to encompass balls too?!

And while I’m at it, no insulting other peoples’ spouses.

August 23, 2005 @ 11:45 am | Comment

“I don’t “flaunt” my wife at all..and certainly not the way you flaunt your stupidity.”

Gordon, next time please do not insist people answer your question, such as, “Or does it bother you most when we come here and marry your women? Damn! I did that too!”, you are just asking for an insult.

To answer your question, my answer is NO! Why this strange thought ever registers in your mind is beyond me.

August 23, 2005 @ 12:04 pm | Comment

“Why this strange thought ever registers in your mind is beyond me.”

Well, obviously you’re not a foreigner married to a Chinese.

I can’t count the number of times I have been asked “why did you come to my country to find a wife?”

August 23, 2005 @ 12:22 pm | Comment

the twist is that the loser gets executed.

August 24, 2005 @ 2:32 am | Comment

It never fails to amaze me how people insist that foreigners should treat China with “compassion” and should “not insult our Chinese hosts”..like China is like a puppy with a broken paw or something.

I treat China like I treat every country in the world, I don’t patronise China by ignoring the bad as if the ‘poor’ ‘backward’ Chinese can’t help it.

I criticise China whenever I feel like it. My most recent monthly pay packets caused me to hand over nearly 20 thousand yuan in tax per month. That’s more tax than a hundred ordinary Chinese workers pay so don’t tell me that I don’t have any right to critcise China.

I live here, pay my taxes here, own properties here and I won’t ever go back to England. China is my country now.

August 24, 2005 @ 4:09 am | Comment

One point (well, actually 2)

I am not the same Steve as in the rest of this thread…ok, now one point.

I think The Apprentice could be a valuable tool for teaching about American/international business practices and in that way is actually better (of more value) than most television shows in China (or anywhere for that matter). Yes, Trump is a master of self promotion, and that can be annoying. But hey, it works for him. There are worse character flaws.

Incidentally, many of my English-speaking Chinese friends LOVE the US version of The Apprentice. It is a love bordering on obsession with some. If done well, the show could be a hit. My prediction.

August 25, 2005 @ 3:34 am | Comment

Dear mr gordon sir, ahhh (diffident little Chinese girl with pigtails and tacky fake Balenciaga biker bag minces up to mr gordon).
your wife sound like nice chinese girl, but you not sound velly gentleman, mr gordon, sir, ah.
excuse me, velly rude, but you make me think of caucasian man in bangkok khao san and patpong – crepuscular, corpulent and crinkled – always with girl half their girth and one third their age, wear too much makeup and too little clothes. Solly, mr gordon.
(diffident little chinese girl with pigtails and fake biker bag flees, sensing something about to explode

August 25, 2005 @ 3:49 am | Comment

Haha. Velly good. Liked the line about Western men with Thai girls half their girth. Classic.

August 25, 2005 @ 11:01 pm | Comment

Very interesting blog!

September 16, 2005 @ 3:43 am | Comment