Getting the Last Laugh on Graft With 'The Name of the People'
This article originally appeared on April 11, 2017 (Tuesday).
Welcome to TV Tuesday, a column devoted to following the newest and most notable Chinese mainland television shows. Each week, this features examines notable television shows that are worth watching.
A spotlight on corruption always attracts public attention in China, but this time the ongoing fight against graft has become prime time television entertainment as China's breakout hit of the season.
The Name of the People (人民的名义) has the distinction of being China's first ever show to depict a high-ranking Party member as a corrupt official. At a time when the Chinese public have long been accustomed to reading headlines skewering the latest victim of the ongoing fight against graft, this plot device has served as the show's selling point to a cynical audience.
And, it's worked. The Name of the People has become a smash hit throughout China, even attracting a younger demographic who has rewarded the show with Internet memes. Hunan Satellite Television, the show's broadcaster which is also responsible for Daddy, Where Are We Going? (爸爸去哪？) and Fan Bingbing's cleavage controversy in Empress of China (王朝的女人·杨贵妃), have once again captured lightning in a bottle. Scheduled an entire year in advance before rising tensions with neighboring rivals, The Name of the People proves that Hunan TV possesses an uncanny ability to pioneer and set national trends.
What is the show about
The show works as a whodunnit mystery in which the murder crime is exchanged for graft, making the final unveiling of the corrupt official much the same as how TVB dramas always climax their series with a wedding. But even though much of the story to The Name of the People is inspired from Chinese news headlines (like the corrupt official who stole so much money he overloaded a money counting machine, breaking it), the show is very aware it is being watched by a critical audience.
The result makes for an overly meticulous show. The black-and-white morality of the show's universe is echoed by a cast that almost exclusively dresses in black and white, a clothing style further emphasized by the show's use of color filters to make its environments exceptionally sterile.
This leaves an impression with the viewer that they are watching a lecture instead of a TV drama. As upstanding as the anti-corruption characters are on the show, it's more enjoyable and cinematic to watch them walk down a hallway instead of listening to them talk.
Why should I watch it?
As a popular show that everyone is watching, it isn't particularly entertaining TV. The Name of the People started out with a bang with its debut episode, unflinching in its depiction of crooked officials on the lam. But in the following episodes, the show has lost its urgency, padding out its running time as it delays the unveiling of its hidden criminal mastermind. This translates into scene after scene of characters spouting ideological beliefs, a parade of dialog not designed to push exposition but to serve as a social critique for the viewer to digest.
Terrible pacing/editing and the inclusion of typical Chinese tropes further drag The Name of the People into mediocrity. Anyone expecting a show depicting a crack team of professionals meticulously unraveling a mystery will have to settle for a typical Chinese multi-generation drama about following Confucian principles and settling family squabbles. Anyone hoping for an expose into the hidden world of Chinese politics will have to contend with made-up names and places, a degree of fiction that limits the show's relevance.
We can't be sure what really goes on behind the scenes with the Communist Party of China, but the scene where a roomful of people decide the fate of a single person seems to have an eerie twang of truth to it.
The Name of the People was burning up the Internet with peer reviews on Dianping over 9.0 in the first week of its broadcast, but has since cooled. This is a show about the destination and not its journey, making it dispensable viewing except for its final reveal.
Representative dialog of the show
The Name of the People opens with an investigation into "Jingzhou" official Zhao Dehan, a man whose contemptuous verbal sparring with the police makes his eventual downfall all that more satisfying to watch.
After a police search interrupts his dinner, Zhao uses every excuse in the book to (unsuccessfully) escape his accusers:
[Grieviously wronged] You can't oppress us, the masses!
[Average Joe] What kind of corrupt official would live in a run-down place like this? This rotten place doesn't even have an elevator. If a corrupt official were to live in a place like this, then, strictly speaking, the people would be overjoyed beyond words.
[Familar dogma] No matter how big the authority wielded, it must be used to serve the people!
[Counter accusation] Does having authority mean you can use it recklessly? Don't take this as a criticism, comrade, but there's room to improve your thinking and awareness.
[Martyrdom] The Party and the people have entrusted me to such an important task. Tell me: How can I let them – the Party and the people – down? I am a person with strong principles, and that is why I am often the target of slander. I'm used to it.
A cornered corrupt official on the verge of collapse is a terrible thing to behold, but it is just the kind of scenery-chewing enjoyed by the show's many veteran character actors. Here's Zhao Dehan's final stand, capped off by a spastic finger wave::
The Party has given me so much that I am utterly devoted to them. I have to be worthy of the Party, worthy of the people. My principles and Party spirit are exceptionally strong – that's why other people are trying to frame me. There is no way you can persuade an upstanding Party member like me of being this bad person. What you are doing is completely groundless.
Mandarin language of difficulty
The moderately difficult Chinese used on this show becomes exceptionally difficult when the show follows an enormous cast that frequently uses euphemisms. Rated 4 out of 5 for difficulty.
Where to watch it
The Name of the People currently airs nightly on Hunan Satellite Television and can be watched online on Chinese streaming platforms TenCent (v.qq.com), Sohu (tv.sohu.com), PPTV (v.pptv.com), Mango TV (mgtv.com), and iQiyi (iqiyi.com).
Images: TV.Sohu.com
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