Grand Chinese TV Watching Challenge

[roddy]

Ok, lets give you all a chance to commit to actually doing something in Chinese to use all those elite language skills you've been developing.

I'm going to throw down a gauntlet. It has five fingers. You may wish to pick it up, but first let's have a look at what's written on those five fingers:

Finger 1: You must signal your acceptance of this challenge by posting the phrase 'I accept!' in this topic. Other thoughts are of course welcome, unless they are negative ones about this being a stupid idea.*

Finger 2: Once you have accepted you are committed to the really not that onerous task of watching one episode of Chinese TV, per week, until you opt to drop out. You can choose your own TV show(s), but I will of course direct you to the Grand First Episode Project, which describes, grades, indexes and assists with many shows. You can switch between shows as and when you like. There is no extra credit for watching more than one episode a week.

Finger 3: On finishing an episode you need to post about it - if there isn't an existing topic in the TV forum (there will be one for all GEFP shows) start a new one. What you actually post is up to you - it could be a list of words you noted, language questions, commentary on the quality of the show. You then need to post back here to say 'done one!' or similar.

Finger 4: The King (or Queen) of the GCTVWC is whoever has been participating longest, with no missed weeks. This is a purely honorary title, and does not make you the boss of anyone.

Finger 5: You will note that this plan requires no further input from me. This is because I'm not very good at further input. It has also been designed to allow participants to choose material that's of interest to them, and to allow you to drop in and out without losing anything but a chance at a purely honorary title.

So, who accepts?

*but if you've actually got any ideas on how to run this better, say so now before it gets started.

[jbradfor]

I accept!

I'm at episode 12 of 魔幻手机, so I'm going to go for that.

As to your middle finger, I'm not going to post on that thread every time I finish an episode. "Finished episode XXX, didn't understand most of it" will get old fast. I will either update this post, or post a new note in this thread stating "Finished episode XXX, didn't understand most of it", whichever you prefer. If that disqualifies me, so be it.

[roddy]

I'm not going to run around enforcing the fingers. And you're right, if it ends up with the last four posts in a topic being you saying 'Finished episode 13 . . . .14 . . . . 15 . . . . 16' that would be dull. But then again, maybe part of the challenge is that you watch closely enough so that you have questions, or something to say about the plot, or ...

Anyway, congratulations on being the first gauntlet-picker-upper.

[renzhe]

I agree with the 13 ... 14 ... 15 ...16 point, that makes little sense and will just spam the threads. A "check" comment here is better, and makes it easier to keep track.

Of course, whenever there is anything good to post, or people see a show for the first time, they absolutely should leave a commend in the GFEP threads.

[Gleaves]

Absolutely. I accept. I'm working on 潜伏 and have also dipped into 狼毒花. I'd like also like to start a new show or two. I might try that 武侠 one that renzhe recently posted. One of my goals for the year is related to TV watching and I'm already behind, so I need to make up ground.

[creamyhorror]

Watched ep 1 of 武林外传, it started off funny but got a bit slow near the end. Didn't get all the lines either, even with the amount of pausing and subtitle-reading I did. I'm sure not used to these accents.

Haven't decided if I'm going to accept yet, maybe I'll go for something less accented.

[feihong]

Does it count if I'm actually watching a Korean show but it only has Chinese subtitles?

[Hesham119]

Thats a great idea

I accept participating

I am currently watching 奋斗 and I am on episode 2, after finishing it I will post my questions and word list here

[roddy]

Excellent, but if you've got anything specific to an actual show, it's best posted in the topic for that show, otherwise this topic is going to get hugely messy. I make that Gleaves, Jbradfor and Hesham on board.

[renzhe]

OK, I accept. I'm watching at least an episode a week again, after a long break, so why not?

At the moment, it's 孔雀翎 and 给我一支烟 (which is really really underrated!) and I'll check Sarevok's spy recommendation soon.

Watched ep 1 of 武林外传, it started off funny but got a bit slow near the end. Didn't get all the lines either, even with the amount of pausing and subtitle-reading I did. I'm sure not used to these accents.

武林外传 is hard work at times, and some jokes elude even native speakers. But boy, is it worth it! One of the best shows ever. About 15 episodes in, you'll understand how genius it is.

Unfortunately, none of the authors' other work even comes close.

[creamyhorror]

武林外传 is hard work at times, and some jokes elude even native speakers. But boy, is it worth it! One of the best shows ever. About 15 episodes in, you'll understand how genius it is.

Does the humour keep up though? It started strong but by the end of the episode I was like "okay time to move it along guys". Effort-wise it's not enjoyable pausing all the time to read subtitles. I don't know how much that will improve as I get used to the accents, since it's not like all the words used are everyday Mandarin either.

I'll give it another 1 or 2 eps. The first was pretty good, but tiring.

[roddy]

I think myself, Imron and Renzhe all rate it very highly. It's 80 40 minute episodes though, and very challenging, so if you're looking for something you can *finish* you might want to look elsewhere. I'd say if you're not enjoying it it might be one to come back to later.

Tell you what I'd love someone to watch - 走向共和, that was a brilliant show.

[Sarevok]

Count me in!

I am currently watching 螳螂 and I am going to continue with episode 13. I don't know if I am going to commit to the regular posting after each episode though. If it was just one episode a week, then it would be no problem to make an useful post out of it. But sometimes it's more than that and then I wouldn't be so sure. Also, I prefer updating the first post when it comes to adding new vocab (and I like my spreadsheet method for its Anki-friendliness).

[renzhe]

Does the humour keep up though? It started strong but by the end of the episode I was like "okay time to move it along guys". Effort-wise it's not enjoyable pausing all the time to read subtitles.

Sometimes the slower parts set up some really funny episodes much later, it all makes sense if you watch it in sequence.

But I agree that it's hard going, and I agree with roddy's suggestion. I started this one 3 times and gave up because it was too hard. Only the 4th time did I actually manage to enjoy it -- and it was still hard work at times.

[Gleaves]

走向共和 is on my list, but probably not until next year (want to finish off 茶馆 first, which is around the same time period I think). 60 episodes is a bit intimidating. I feel like everything good in Chinese is really long.

[langxia]

Ok sign me up aswell. I watch way to much western shows lately

I will be watching 野鸭子。 What I understood so far is that it is about a mother who had to give up her child after it was born and now 20 years later she got really rich and is the boss of a company and wants to find the child back and connect to her again.

[rob07]

What are people doing now that both youku and tudou are unavailable outside of china? There is a lot of stuff that is not on Youtube, although it is getting much better.

Tudou says the problem is "暂时", anyone know more? Youku and tudou going black in both cases seems related to their NASDAQ listings.

[Gleaves]

I get most of my shows from emule and torrents. Although I'm watching 孔雀翎 on youtube, which is a first for me. I was also thinking of buying a few series on DVD (mostly for good sound quality and ability to turn off subtitles), but yesasia's selection is certainly mixed. It is definitely not as easy now to find shows as it was two years ago.

[feihong]

This may not be practical for many people, but isn't it possible to VPN into the mainland and view/download shows that way? It might be worth it for people like me who like to get our reality show fix every week.

[imron]

tv.sohu.com is my site if choice for Chinese tv shows and movies. It has a large selection of licensed content supported by advertising, and has reasonable speeds from overseas when not the Chinese evening.