Matt Schiavenza From the Dragon to the Apple- A Sinophile in New York

A Survivor Fantasy

In college my roommates and I had a running joke that Survivor would get really interesting if they relocated their show in some of the world's trouble spots. Instead of the Australian outback or some Pacific island, why not have Survivor: Chechnya? Or why not Iraq, or Afghanistan? In fact, perhaps the producers of the show could work out an agreement with the US government: one invades countries and create chaotic hellholes, while the other schedules a season of Survivor there. I think I smell a Strangelovian plot.

I bring this up because the current season of Survivor has been filmed right here in China, and while it can not be called a "trouble spot" by any stretch of the imagination, the producers appear to be avoiding any reference to modern China while focusing instead on cliches. According to its Wikipedia entry, Survivor China began with a Buddhist ceremony (managing to offend a devout Christian competitor) and each person was handed a copy of Sun Tzu's The Art of War. The two teams have been named 飞龙 （fei1long2) "Flying Dragon" and 战虎 (zhan4hu3) "Fighting Tiger". The logo, as Dan Washburn notes, "has just about everything you would expect from an American logo about China except for Yao Ming and a takeout box"

What I find interesting is that, for a series about China, all aspects appear to focus on classical Chinese imagery, the sort that only exists today in Chinese television costume dramas. The Wikipedia article goes on to note that the Survivor producers had extraordinary access to the Shaolin Temple and the Great Wall, and I'm surprised they didn't pull a Bertolucci and ask to film in the Forbidden City.

I would prefer, of course, a Survivor set in modern China. Imagine the possibilities. You could instruct two people to go to the Shanghai train station at Spring Festival time and somehow come away with two hard-sleeper tickets without being crushed by the onslaught of people. How about crossing busy intersections in any major cities- at night? I would also enjoy watching people swim in Kunming's own Dian Chi lake and avoid emerging with an extra limb due to the excessive pollution. There are plenty of challenges in China without building artificial obstacles. At least Fear Factor, one of the more watchable American reality TV shows, uses authentic situations in their episodes.

Finally, while we're on the subject of Survivor and China, Ling Liu at the Time blog reminds us of the show's controversial division of contestants by race in 2006, a subject that prompted host Jeff Probst (photo above) to say about Asian people: "When you start talking to a person from Asia, you realize--wow! They have all different backgrounds!". One wonders if the reporter who uncovered this gem redacted a follow-up comment along the lines of, "I just thought they were all shrimpy yellow slanty-eyed rice eaters!".