Chinese-language program now shown on TV

Chinese-language program now shown 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.

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.