China falling in love with an american caucasian and a japanese

‘My Hero’ on oriental TV (the biggest Shanghainese network which is broadcasted all across China through Cable TV) is the biggest entertainment show at the moment in China. Like for the hugely successful Supergirl that launched TV reality shows in China in 2005, it consist in a singing contest, where singing ability doesn't seem to be big part of the selection criteria...

For the first time for this kind of show in China, some of the candidates where foreigner. And not foreigners from whatever countries: one was a typical US WASP, the other was Japanese (yet both could speak fluent mandarin).

The show was on air from early may to the 21st of June 2007. In the end Chi Lai and Xiao Song Ta Yi made it no further than to the top 16, yet they enjoyed quite a big popularity.

There was some pride among Chinese women in discovering that a Chinese program could attract foreign candidates: here was a sign to them, that the ‘Middle Kingdom’ (Zhong Guo, direct translation of China in Chinese) is back in the middle.

Because, to them China is not a developing country but a major civilization recovering from though times... A country getting back in the middle.