Lifestyle / Hot Pot Column

Storm for a work that isn't worth its weight in mooncakes

By Raymond Zhou ( China Daily ) Updated: 2007-06-20 09:15:35

Two decades ago, the wife of the US ambassador in Beijing, a Chinese American, complained that Chinese did not know how to properly "package their wares". An exquisite cloisonne piece she bought was accompanied by a wooden stand that was so poorly made that it effectively pushed down the perceived value of the artifact.

Storm for a work that isn't worth its weight in mooncakes What a difference 20 years make! Now we have fastidious packaging that wraps around trinkets with negligible value. The mooncake comes to mind. Four cakes that cost a few kuai each are put in a box that probably is worth ten times that much and are sometimes supplemented with expensive wine or jewelry.

Welcome to the age of excessive marketing, when facade is more relevant than substance and foreplay accounts for more than consummation. The new hero is Wang Shuo, who single-handedly raised the bar for enlarging the gap between the quality of promotion and the quality of what is promoted. His new book, My Millennium, sold only a few hundred thousand copies, hardly a cause for joy for writers of his stature. But the publicity stunt he pulled off in advance was so spectacular we should give him a special award for shameless self-promotion.

Early this year, the hibernating author began to call select press people, offering a glimpse into his mind. Well, actually, it was more like a month-long gaze. During the interviews, he lambasted other celebrities, revealed his drug habit and other juicy bits, and the media devoured them. By the way, he also claimed he would put his new work online and invent a new model for revenue.

Then came Act II, in which he basically retracted everything and created another wave of publicity. In the aftermath of exhaustive coverage, which could only have been rivaled if he had faked his own death, he sold the rights of his book for close to 4 million yuan ($520,000).

And it turned out to be something like an equivalent of John Travolta's Battlefield Earth. The bulk of the book is devoted to his interpretation of some religious scriptures, which only people of holistic consciousness of the highest order could comprehend. And it is padded with an old movie script and the transcript of an extended interview.

Now, Wang came forward and said he never expected his book to be a best-seller. His publisher divulged that they had reaped millions from advertising inserts. What a great deal! The advertisers must be elated that their ads could go into a volume filled with gibberish.

After Zhang Yimou's campaign for his first martial arts epic, Hero, many wondered how he could possibly top that. But he, or rather his producer, came up with new promotional gimmicks for House of the Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower. The public swore they'd never go to another of his "blockbusters", but they always eat their own words.

Now, I'm wondering how Wang Shuo can push his next book. Is he going to stand on the tallest building in Beijing and yell "I'm gonna jump" or some variations of it? That's a stunt migrant workers resort to when they cannot get their pay. It works every time.

(China Daily 06/20/2007 page20)