Arriving in Beijing, and enveloped in a surreal trance brought on by jet-lag, I agreed to follow my new roommate Kyle to a Toastmasters event. For those not in the know, Toastmasters is a group bringing together locals and expats, so that they can practice speaking English and other foreign languages.
It proved an interesting experience and I found myself ad-libbing a speech about my potential as a best- man for a wedding, to a room full of Chinese people, and I was on UK time; it was 3 am for me. It was here that I met Susie, a relationship manager at Enlight Media, who offered to show me around her company. In my time-twisted stupor, I agreed to a day visit. Here follows my behind-the-scenes exploration of a Chinese television production center.
Enlight Media was set up in 1998 and is now the biggest private entertainment and media company in mainland China. The company conducts a wide variety of business, including television program production and distribution, entertainment events and performance holding and execution, movie investment production and distribution, actor and celebrity management and New Media business. Enlight deals in several sectors, but for a modern day media company to survive, it has to diversify.
The company produces over six hours of television daily, broadcast on more than 300 TV stations on about 1120 channel every day. Enlight media has also invested and distributed over 15 movies, including box offices successes such as Badges of Fury, The Chef, The Actor, The Scoundrel, and perhaps the company's most famous production to date, Lost in Thailand. Enlight made a total gross income of 340 million RMB in 2009, of which 70 million RMB will be profit.
The company is certainly looking to the future, an indication instantly delivered upon stepping foot into their futuristic offices. Situated in an old factory building, the Enlight offices are clearly designed to inspire innovation. The open plan, color-clad work floor teems with activity. The lunch hall still contains two large industrial turbines, a nod to the building's past, but also a metaphor for the company's hardworking nature. As well as the numerous desks, the building is laden with television and music studios, the largest studio seating 500 hundred people. Everybody working there looks young: media, it would seem, is a young person's game.
My guide, Susie, is indicative of this young movement in Chinese private media. After spending three years as a journalist and paparazzi peon, she has moved into event celebrity management. From my interview with her, it's clearly a decision she is glad to have made (certainly influenced by the fact that her working day now starts at the ludicrously late hour of 10am!).
Susie's phone repeatedly goes off during my tour. At one point I mention this, and in response she asks me to guess how many phone contacts she has. I sheepishly guess around 100, not going too high unless it turns out to be less and I embarrass her. She proudly replied that she has 1500 contacts on her phone. Pride is something Susie clearly associates with her job. "It's not totally superficial and shallow," she says. "We take our business very seriously." It is when she shows me round the different sections of the office that I notice the abundance of youthful looking workers. "Everything is new," she says, but she makes it clear that experience is useful. I ask her what happens to the workers when they get older and out of the company's apparent age demographic. She indicates that it's not a problem, "we grow up with our company."
While Enlight's workers may grow up with the company, the company itself is certainly growing. Enlight joined the stock market three years ago. The added investment now allows them to produce movies, and has led other companies to voice interest in their working together. Susie states that because of this, "there's pressure, everyone is busy".
Susie is certainly busy herself. The day before our meeting, Susie was in Sanya, supervising the stars on the Chinese television show equivalent The Biggest Loser. She explains the intricacies of her job to me: "My mission is to cheer up the stars. I just push myself to be optimistic; I talk about the news and gossip with them." She explains that, "you must be careful not to offend them!" although, "the managers give me clues on the stars." She reveals the more lugubrious side to her job. On television, she says: "You can't see the whole personality of the stars. Sometimes I feel sorry for them; they always have to pretend to be happy. They get treated like products. They must be like puppets." However, it's not just the stars she laments. "Also, I sometimes feel sorry for the agent," Susie reveals, "they complain a lot but they understand my work, they say sorry. The agent is made to be the bad guy."
Eventually, my day at Enlight came to an end. I didn't get to meet any stars (I missed Keanu Reeves by a week), but I did get to meet a stars-manager. Enlight is a private company; the image many westerners have of a Chinese television studio being ruled with an iron fist is pretty disparate, and not always accurate. That's not to say censorship doesn't exist (much of what Enlight produces is 'edited' by the government owned stations they are shown on), but it certainly isn't prevalent. The future of Chinese media looks bright.
Article by Jamie Hamill
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