TV host Yang Lan is one of China's biggest celebs. Will the propriety and pragmatism that got her there keep her from becoming the mogul she wants to be? A story of fame, ambition, and reality in modern China.電視主持人楊瀾是中國(guó)的名人之一。讓她譽(yù)滿(mǎn)天下的得體和實(shí)用主義會(huì)阻礙她成為顯要人物嗎。這是當(dāng)代社會(huì)一個(gè)有關(guān)榮譽(yù),抱負(fù)和現(xiàn)實(shí)的故事。
"We have some work to do." Yang Lan, one of China's most famous women, doesn't so much say the words as turn them into a command. It is the last day of taping for her reality show, New Girl in the Office, and in a sweltering Beijing studio, Yang is coaching an audience of college-age women. Despite the heat, the students sit ramrod straight, their eyes glued to the regal star who stands before them in her gold Prada gown and Prada shoes. ("I wanted it to feel more formal," she says later.) She is about to teach them how to clap.“我們得做一些功課。”楊瀾,中國(guó)最有名氣的女性之一,并不經(jīng)常以這種命令的語(yǔ)氣說(shuō)話(huà)。她的真人秀節(jié)目《尋找杜拉拉》正在北京的一間悶熱的錄影棚里錄制最后一期節(jié)目。楊瀾正在指導(dǎo)一群女大學(xué)生觀(guān)眾。雖然天氣很炎熱,學(xué)生們腰桿兒挺得筆直,目光緊緊地黏在了站在他們面前穿著Prada 的金色長(zhǎng)裙和皮鞋的明星女王。她將要教這些觀(guān)眾如何鼓掌。
"There are three forms of applause: First, fast and furious," Yang tells the women. They clap feverishly. "When the comedian says funny things, there's the appreciative clap." They clap slowly. "The third is like when a political consultative conference is about to end, and you want it to be over so bad." They flatten palms together robotically.“鼓掌的類(lèi)型有三種:首先,快速而熱烈,”楊對(duì)這些女性聽(tīng)眾說(shuō)。他們熱情地鼓起掌來(lái)。“當(dāng)喜劇演員說(shuō)到一些好玩的事情,應(yīng)該報(bào)以欣賞式的掌聲。”觀(guān)眾們鼓掌的頻率放慢了。“政協(xié)會(huì)議閉幕就屬于第三種,這時(shí)你們的掌聲傳達(dá)出來(lái)的情緒應(yīng)該不是歡快的。”這些觀(guān)眾一起機(jī)械式地鼓動(dòng)他們的手掌。
Yang's face melts, but just a little, into the smile of a teacher pleased with her charges. Pleasant but not too warm, genuine but slightly distant, that smile has, over the past 20 years, become one of the most recognizable in the world's biggest media market. Yang's rise to fame has been unique in modern China. Two decades ago, she answered an open casting call for a slot as cohost on a new Chinese TV variety show. She was picked for her pluck —— when asked during her audition whether she would "dare" to wear a bikini, she replied that at nude beaches in France, it would be too conservative to wear even a bikini —— and has since parlayed her never-say-fail attitude into stardom. She has interviewed both Bill and Hillary Clinton, Henry Kissinger, and Kobe Bryant. When the Shanghai Expo was casting celebrity spokespeople, they chose seven men (including Yao Ming and Jackie Chan) and Yang.楊的臉上出現(xiàn)了老師滿(mǎn)意于自己的職責(zé)那樣的微笑,愉快但并不太溫暖,真誠(chéng)但又保持一些距離。這種微笑在過(guò)去的20年里,已經(jīng)成為了世界上最大的媒介市場(chǎng)中最為人們熟悉的面孔之一。楊在現(xiàn)代中國(guó)一舉成名的過(guò)程非常獨(dú)特。20年前,她在為一檔新的綜藝節(jié)目《正大綜藝》選拔主持人的比賽中因自己的勇氣而獲得賞識(shí)。當(dāng)評(píng)委們問(wèn)道她敢不敢穿比基尼時(shí),她回答說(shuō)在法國(guó)的裸體浴場(chǎng),即使穿著比基尼也會(huì)被人們認(rèn)為過(guò)于保守。從那以后她抱著絕不認(rèn)輸?shù)膽B(tài)度進(jìn)入了綜藝圈。她采訪(fǎng)過(guò)包括克林頓、希拉里、基辛格以及科比在內(nèi)的諸多名流。當(dāng)上海世博會(huì)挑選名人代言時(shí),他們選擇了楊瀾和其他7個(gè)人。
She has sought to turn that fame into a full-fledged business empire. Yang has created new programming for TV —— including one of the first shows targeting women —— and set up sites on the burgeoning Chinese-language Web. She has bought print publications; she sells credit cards; she's even hawking a co-branded jewelry line with Celine Dion. She and her husband, Bruno Wu, are one of China's richest couples; Forbes has estimated their wealth at about $300 million. All of which has led the foreign press —— and her own handlers —— to rarely miss an opportunity to call her the Oprah of China.她試圖把這種名望轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)槌墒斓纳虡I(yè)帝國(guó)。楊瀾創(chuàng)辦了包括第一批針對(duì)女性的欄目在內(nèi)的新的電視節(jié)目,還建立了一個(gè)中文站點(diǎn)。她收購(gòu)過(guò)出版商,賣(mài)過(guò)信用卡,甚至還與席琳?迪翁一起聯(lián)合創(chuàng)辦珠寶品牌。她和她的丈夫吳征是中國(guó)最為富有的夫妻之一,《福布斯》估計(jì)他們的財(cái)富價(jià)值在3億美元左右。所有這些使得外國(guó)媒體以及她的同行們一有機(jī)會(huì)都會(huì)稱(chēng)她為“中國(guó)的奧普拉”。
Yang Lan, 42, has done wonders to achieve what she has so far, being careful to maintain her above-the-fray image while morphing with the fast-shifting landscape. "You do what you can do," she says with a sigh in lightly accented, fluent English. Some of her ventures have succeeded —— her interview show has been one of the past decade's megahits —— while others, including her Sun TV network, have been huge flops. Through it all, she has held on to her biggest asset: her fame. Liu Yingqi, vice president of China Life Insurance Co., which sponsors New Girl in the Office, says, "She's the audience's Yang Lan, society's Yang Lan." 42歲的楊瀾創(chuàng)造了一個(gè)奇跡,她一邊精心保持著自己在熒幕上的形象,一邊體驗(yàn)商界這片變化莫測(cè)的領(lǐng)地。“要做那些力所能及的事情。”說(shuō)這話(huà)時(shí),她操著流利的英語(yǔ)微微嘆了口氣。她的冒險(xiǎn)有的成功了——她的訪(fǎng)談節(jié)目至今仍被人們認(rèn)為是過(guò)去十年的經(jīng)典,而包括她的陽(yáng)光衛(wèi)視網(wǎng)絡(luò)在內(nèi)的其他項(xiàng)目卻是巨大的失敗。一路走來(lái),她憑借的是她最大的資本:她的名望。劉英齊,中國(guó)人壽保險(xiǎn)公司副主席,也是這次《尋找杜拉拉》節(jié)目的贊助者說(shuō)“她是觀(guān)眾的楊瀾,社會(huì)的楊瀾”。 |