Chinese-language program now aired on TV

By Ida Indawati Khouw

JAKARTA (JP): China's national language, better known as Mandarin, was forbidden during Soeharto's New Order regime. The ban not only prohibited the speaking of Mandarin but also the possession of printed material -- either newspapers, magazines or books -- written in the language and performance of Chinese culture including barongsai (dragon dance).

Thus, people who longed for Mandarin television programs had to buy a satellite dish to enjoy programs using the language aired by foreign stations.

It is understandable why most Chinese Indonesians are happy with the presence of locally produced Mandarin programs pioneered by Indonesia's newest TV station Metro TV, with its Xin Wen news program which was launched on Nov. 25 last year, and by ANteve with the Info Bintang Asia infotainment program, after former president Abdurrahman Wahid's removed the prohibition of Mandarin.

"Upon watching the news program for the first time, my mind went back to the years when I spent some time in Taiwan. It's strange to hear Chinese being spoken publicly here," said a Xin Wen viewer Feily Emita, 43.

Kandy Natazia Jorian, one of Xin Wen's two presenters, said that the program was warmly welcome, and not only from people who speak Mandarin.

"We receive many calls from non-Mandarin speakers saying they enjoy listening to the language with its beautiful tones," Kandy said. "But the most important thing is that our program really helps expatriates here understand more about the country. There are comments from the Mandarin speaking expats that confirm this," she said.

The 30-minute program is broadcast daily at 11 a.m. and 11 p.m., and repeated at 3 a.m.. Xin Wen has 15 crew including two presenters, two reporters and five translators.

Despite the ban during New Order regime, Chinese Indonesians still tried to learn the language. Kandy, who started to learn Mandarin at elementary school in 1970s, said her classes were conducted in secret.

"I learnt the language secretly when I was a child in Jambi. We were forbidden to go to or leave our teacher's house in groups," said the woman, who continued studying Mandarin in Taiwan in 1999.

Infotainment

In addition to the news program offered by Metro TV, ANteve also offers Info Bintang Asia, an entertainment program focusing on Mandarin stars.

"It's so great to have an infotainment program on Mandarin stars. I had previously relied on foreign TV stations, magazines or tabloids to follow the issues," said 22-year-old Lita Hartono.

The 30-minute program -- aired every Saturday at 8 a.m. and every Monday at 6.30 p.m. as of April -- has interview, video clip, news and review segments.

"Eighty percent of the program is about Mandarin stars, while the rest is on Japanese and Koreans. We believe there are many fans of Mandarin stars here," said Jennifer Yap, executive producer of the Asia Entertainment production house.

"We hope former readers of Ria Film and Pesona magazines will tune into our program," she said, referring to two magazines which ceased publication in the 1980s.

The program, with 90 percent of its content still imported, is presented by four funky young Chinese Indonesians, who sometimes speak Mandarin. Singers Harry and Iin frequently perform Rayuan Pulau Kelapa and Bengawan Solo in Mandarin with young singer Lidya Lau.

"We are targeting teenagers and young mothers. The main obstacle is that we don't have enough manpower to achieve the target, thus we rely on Harry, Iin and Lidya as our local singers," said Jennifer, claiming that the program has received responses of up to 3,000 e-mails per day.

ANteve's supervisor of the research program section, Djafar Mahfudz, said the show has good potential, although it had only achieved number one in the ratings after 21 episodes. That means only around 250,000 viewers watch the program.

"Research shows that the potential audience is about 27 million viewers throughout the big cities. We'll continue to broadcast the program and we have recently signed a new contract with the production house," he said.

But sinologist Myra Sidharta criticized both programs, saying that "sometimes the presenter's pronunciation is incorrect".

Therefore, Harry and Iin's producers decided to send both singers abroad to improve their proficiency.

"In 1998 I was sent to Taiwan to study Mandarin, financed by the (music) producer," Harry said.

Lidya's parents also spent money to finance their daughter's command of Mandarin. Lidya received an award from the Indonesian Record Museum (Muri) as the first child singer of Mandarin.

"Lidya has the talent to speak Chinese and she's also willing to learn. So we send her to a language training institution and hopefully she will become a specialist Mandarin singer," Lidya's father David Lau said.