0:00

From your car radio to your smart speaker,

0:02

NPR meets you where you are in a

0:04

lot of different ways. Now we're in your

0:07

pocket. Download the NPR app today. Today

0:17

on State of the World, what a

0:19

hit Chinese TV show tells us about

0:21

China today. Thanks

0:25

for listening to State of the World from NPR. We

0:28

bring you the day's most vital international

0:30

stories up close where they're happening. It's

0:33

Friday, March 29th. I'm Greg Dixon. In

0:36

China, a TV show set in the city

0:38

of Shanghai in the 1990s

0:40

has become a huge hit. Blossoms

0:43

Shanghai is a 30-part series

0:45

directed by acclaimed Hong Kong

0:47

filmmaker Wang Kar-wai. NPR's

0:50

China correspondent John Ruich tells us

0:52

that the popularity of a TV

0:54

show set 30 years ago says

0:57

a lot about China now. Blossoms

1:05

Shanghai follows the story of Abao, a

1:08

young businessman hustling to make it at

1:10

a time when China's economic reforms were

1:12

just taking off. It

1:14

was the go-go year. Anything

1:16

seemed possible, and opportunities were

1:18

blossoming. The show is

1:21

Wang Kar-wai's first foray into television.

1:23

Cinematography bears his fingerprints, dark

1:26

scenes, plush sets with saturated colors

1:28

and brooding characters. It's

1:34

set a new bar for television in China, but

1:36

it's not just the visuals that have struck a

1:38

chord. Shanghai's Huang

1:40

He Road used to be the go-to

1:43

strip for the city's nouveau riche, and

1:45

it figures prominently in the show. It

1:53

came to see it for themselves from a

1:55

province several hundred miles away. Wu

2:00

says Blossom Shanghai did something rare

2:02

for a Chinese TV show. It

2:08

stirred a sense of nostalgia in her. Ma

2:15

says everyone wishes they could have the kinds

2:17

of opportunities available back then. A few years

2:19

back, there was a bull market, and you

2:21

could at least invest. But

2:28

in the wake of the pandemic, for various

2:30

reasons, the global economic situation is bleak. Everyone

2:33

wishes they could go back. China

2:35

in the early 90s was in the

2:37

midst of a tectonic shift. The state

2:40

was stepping back, downsizing the communist planned

2:42

economy. Private entrepreneurship was

2:44

taking flight. Shanghai, which

2:46

had just reopened its stock exchange,

2:48

epitomized the spirit of the day.

2:51

And the TV show is in Shanghai

2:53

News, not Mandarin, another marker of how

2:55

different things were. The dialect

2:57

has become much less prevalent after decades

3:00

of government policies promoting Mandarin.

3:02

Ma Xianglong is a writer, born and

3:04

bred in Shanghai. NPR met

3:07

him at a cafe at the Peace

3:09

Hotel, an institution that also figured prominently

3:11

in Blossom's. Fans crowd

3:13

the lobby now, and can even spend a

3:15

small fortune to stay in the suite that the

3:17

main character used as an office. Ma

3:23

says the contrast between the 90s

3:25

and today is part of what makes the show

3:28

so appealing. Back then he

3:30

says people were full of dynamism and

3:32

desire, and that comes through. He

3:38

says life was like playing one of those claw

3:40

machines at the arcade, where you put a quarter

3:42

in and you could try your luck at grabbing

3:44

a stuffed animal. If

3:49

you couldn't grab one, you'd just keep

3:51

on trying again and again. People

3:54

in the 90s, he says, had that kind of

3:56

hope. To be sure, I'm not

3:58

sure. But life in

4:00

China today is immeasurably better in

4:02

a material sense. But the

4:05

economy is foundering, and many think the authorities are

4:07

not doing enough to give it a charge. Also,

4:10

the 90s were a time when

4:12

the states seemed to be getting out of

4:14

the way. Today, the ruling Communist Party is

4:16

asserting itself in every corner of society. Ma

4:19

says living in China today is like being

4:21

on a cruise. It's

4:27

comfortable, but there's a feeling that you're just

4:29

along for the ride, with no say in where

4:32

you're headed. For

4:35

Ma, there's one character in the show who

4:37

stands out and is his favorite, Ms. Wang,

4:39

played by the actress Tiffany Tang. She

4:44

worked at the state foreign trade company and

4:46

did deals with the main character, Aba. She

4:49

also harbored hopes for a romantic relationship

4:52

with him. But when she

4:54

ran afoul of the corruption watchdog and got

4:56

sidelined, it was a wake-up call. She

5:03

realized her previous successes and social status had

5:06

all been a result of her relationship with

5:08

Aba. And she wanted to stand

5:10

on her own two feet, or, as she puts it,

5:12

to be her own dock on the riverbank. Ma

5:17

says she's like a lot of Shang'e-ni's

5:19

people at the time, with the desire

5:21

and determination to control her fate, something

5:24

that's less obvious today. John

5:27

Ruich, NPR News, Shanghai. That's

5:34

the State of the World from NPR.

5:37

Thanks for listening. See you again soon.

5:42

On Bullseye, Peter Dinklage, Bird

5:44

Whisperer. I started talking to

5:46

the crows and befriending crows. I fed

5:49

them every morning. They're at my door.

5:51

I'll talk with the Game of Thrones star

5:53

about his new movie with Shirley Maclean, and

5:56

because this is NPR, Birds.

5:59

That's on Bullseye. for maximumfund.org and

6:01

NPR. Instead of scrolling

6:04

mindlessly, engage mindfully with the NPR

6:06

app. With a mix of on-demand

6:08

news, stories from the station, and

6:10

your favorite podcast, you can relax

6:12

without shutting off your brain. Download

6:14

the NPR app today. The

6:18

world is changing every hour, and catching

6:20

up once or twice a day might

6:22

not be enough. For quick updates throughout

6:24

your day, there's the NPR News Now

6:26

podcast. Every hour on the

6:29

hour, we bring you up to speed on

6:31

the latest news from around the world in

6:33

five minutes. Listen now to

6:35

the NPR News Now podcast from

6:38

NPR.