Leonardo DiCaprio finally got an Oscar and all he had to do was get eaten by a bear! With this win and the fact that his film The Revenant earned more than 200 million yuan at the Chinese mainland box office over the weekend, Chinese audiences seem to have become fascinated with surviving out in the wild and going toe-to-toe with Mother Nature.
Even the film's Chinese title, Huangye Lieren (Lit: wilderness hunter) seems to present the film more as a tale of survival than one of revenge. Articles have even begun appearing on social media discussing how to survive a bear attack.
The Leo-eating bear isn't the only bear that has gained some recognition in China. Starting last year, Bear Grylls began airing his own survival reality show on Shanghai TV in which he takes stars on adventures in the wilderness. The show became the center of debate a number of times since Grylls often has these young idols eat things like worms or drink their own urine.
Chinese audience's impression of Grylls got its start with his previous TV shows, such as Man VS Wild, which were widely spread online in China. Many of these shows' eye-catching or disgusting moments showing Grylls eating living bugs or the rotting organs of some dead animal have been turned into GIFs that have been shared throughout the Chinese Internet. This has given many Chinese the impression that surviving in the wilderness means having to eat something weird and disgusting.
It's odd how Chinese today think of people like Grylls and now The Revenant's Hugh Glass when it comes to exploration and survival, instead of China's very own explorers. Few people think of Xu Xiake, who traveled the length and breadth of China nearly 500 years ago and made contributions such as discovering the true headwaters of the Yangtze River.
Chinese hikers reached the peak of Mount Qomolangma, commonly known as Mount Everest in the West, in 1960, yet the names Wang Fuzhou, Gong Bu and Qu Yinhua still don't ring familiar to the Chinese public.
It seems we don't care about promoting our own heroic pioneers.
Chinese audiences don't just lack knowledge about the history of exploration, but also fall behind when it comes to common camping knowledge. Other reality shows such as Divas Hit the Road demonstrated that most Chinese stars don't have much experience when it comes to basic skills like pitching a tent. This also represents the level of their audience, people who have no idea how to start a fire, find basic compass directions or locate water sources.
Camping out in the wilderness isn't very common in China. Even those who love going camping have a hard time enjoying their hobby because there are so few natural camping sites around major cities.
While this is changing as more people become interested in heading out into the wilderness, we probably need some more articles on basic camping knowhow and fewer ones on what to do if you happen to run into a bear.
