D-FOB-Mack-H25 CHINESE ACTION Quest USA: Da Tiao Zhan, a new reality ...
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CHINESE ACTION Quest USA: Da Tiao Zhan, a new reality program produced in Mandarin with English subtitles, is airing in New York on Sunday nights on SinoVision (channel 73) at 9:25 p.m. and on the International Channel at midnight.
"It's quite different from American reality shows," says Rudy Zhao, 34, a member of team Mainland China. In the first episode, for example, after falling three feet short of the finish line in a relay race, contestant John says, "You bleed and sacrifice for the people... I'm hurting... I'm dying... I don't have insurance."
To which Rudy replies, "Don't be afraid to bleed and sacrifice, only this way, you can win the final victory."
A Chinese audience will get the allusion to the sayings of former communist ruler Mao Zedong. For others, it may be lost in translation.
"Most reality shows are pretty brutal," says Councilman John Liu of Queens. "There is a lot of shouting, screaming, fighting, getting fired, eating cows' eyes." Quest USA, on the other hand, he predicts, "is going to be a special show."
According to executive producer Ric DiIanni, Quest USA is the first Chinese reality tv show to be shown in the United States. Says producer Sarah Zhang, "Chinese youth are underrepresented in tv and film. The market is totally ignored We want to make something inspirational and uplifting."
The show, which pits four teams against each other in a 12-episode scavenger hunt across the United States, features a cast of young, attractive men and women who go by their first namesJohn, Dorothy, Rudy, Camilla, William, Jeffrey, Talbott, Amy, Alfonso, Tim, Cecilia and Kerryand the color that corresponds to their team, which can be Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong or the U.S.A. They were chosen from 1600 applicants, all of whom were required to speak Mandarin, and everyone except Jeffrey lives in the U.S.
These are no average Joes. John, for instance, is an MBA student at Wharton, and Dorothy finished her PhD in molecular biology at Harvard in April. But the show is not all about intellectual ability. The players travel from Boston to Miami to earn points in contests that range from gambling to writing and performing rap lyrics to a melody by Notorious MSG, a three-man rap group from New York's Chinatown. The cast is led cross-country by the show's host, David Wu, "the most recognizable VJ on MTV Asia," according to the show's website.
Already, producers want to take the show to Asia, where reality tv is limited, and to the mainstream media. As the contestants bleed and sacrifice on their way to final victory, perhaps, in the words of Councilman Liu, Quest USA: Da Tiao Zhan "will teach something to the mainstream networks." o