Classical poetry quiz show

[abcdefg]

Is anyone else watching the classical poetry quiz show 诗问大会 on CCTV 1 nightly at 8 p.m?

 

Lots of tough questions, mostly having to do with Song and Tang poetry. The moderator/master of ceremonies 主持人 is a popular news anchor who really shines. (I cannot recall her name.) Panel of two experts give wise commentary.

 

   

 

Some of the contestants are young, 16 years old in one case, but others are adults. One is a librarian of about 35. Sometimes the questions are posed to just one contestant, but later the leaders do a "face off" in which the first one to push a buzzer must give the right answer.

 

After each question they electronically poll the audience of 100 educated people. Some questions are so tough that 35 or 40 percent of the audience gets them wrong. In one instance, 51% failed.

 

Pretty erudite stuff;  most of it well over my head. Still entertaining to watch brainy people at work. Check it out if you are curious and have nothing better to do.

 

I watched it tonight live on the TV in my living room in Kunming, but here's a link in case you want to watch it on-line.

 

http://tv.cctv.com/live/cctv1/index.shtml?stime=1459512060&etime=1459517820&type=lbacks

[Angelina]

I know this show

[Zbigniew]

The link doesn't work for me, unfortunately.

 

By western standards, it sounds like an unusually narrow topic for a quiz show, though it's a pleasant surprise to know such a TV quiz exists.

 

You say some of the questions are tough. What sorts of questions do they ask? "Who wrote this?", "What comes next?" etc.?

 

You probably do have to be erudite to do well, but does it mean you're brainier than the next man (or woman) just because you're more familiar with a particular canon of poetry?

[abcdefg]

Yes, that's the show, Angelina. Do you watch it sometimes? What do you think?

 

Zbigneiw --

 

You say some of the questions are tough. What sorts of questions do they ask? "Who wrote this?", "What comes next?" etc.?

 

Sometimes the host will quote a few lines of a poem and ask the contestant to identify the three words in it that are wrong and then recite those lines properly. Often those "trick" words are homophones.

 

Sometimes the host will ask about meaning of various parts of a verse. "Does the nickname Big Moon refer to Mr. Lee or Miss Yang in the third line?"

 

Or "What did the author mean by "shining city" in the title of the following verse? Did he refer to A. Xian, B. Suzhou, or C. Nanjing?" Why did he select that metaphorical name?"

 

Sometimes the host will ask about historical context for the poem in question. "Was this verse written A. In response to a request by the Emperor, B. To pay off a debt, C. As part of a contest with another poet?"

 

Sometimes the host will give the contestants a whole bunch of scrambled words and ask him or her to re-arrange them into a line of famous verse.

 

Please realize that my examples are made up and not very good. I didn't write down any actual questions from the show.

 

The link doesn't work for me, unfortunately.

 

Did the link take you to CCTV1 programming? If so, scroll back from today to 4月1日 at 20:01 to find the right (yesterday's) show. Press 回看，which means to watch it again. Then it starts up (with ads) and plays for an hour or more.  Are you trying to access it from within China or from overseas? Might be different if the latter.

 

If the link doesn't work at all for you, try searching for 中国诗词大会 using Baidu and maybe you will turn it up someplace else. I tried that just now and found some places that even offer downloads. Then you can see the show and judge for yourself. (My descriptions of the show don't do it justice.)

 

Some people like to watch athletics because the participants are strong, skilled, and nimble. Watching this show is kind of like that for me. I admire their ability to do what I can't, and respect the ways in which the players are special.
 

But, in any case, I realize this show is something with limited appeal.

[Luxi]

I watched yesterday's show on my home TV in Britain, the wonders of technology.

 

I enjoyed it. Of course it was way over my head in language level and background knowledge, but I could pick some of it and  recognise many of the  poets' names, even a couple of poems. I liked the professors' comments, but It was too fast for me. I'll persist, though, it's bound to get easier. It's much more elevating than the crime records programs I started watching. Made me take out my '300 Tang poems' book to have at hand.

 

Amazing to see a show like this on TV. The contestants were incredibly knowledgeable, and so were the audience it seems. It was nice to see some very young kids there. I wouldn't be surprised to hear it has a good following in China, I've met many Chinese people with an impressive knowledge of Tang - Song poetry.

 

Thank you for posting the tip, a good find!

[abcdefg]

Amazing to see a show like this on TV. The contestants were incredibly knowledgeable, and so were the audience it seems. It was nice to see some very young kids there. I wouldn't be surprised to hear it has a good following in China,

 

I agree, Luxi. So many of the shows I run across on TV are mindless and silly. This one was refreshing and I applaud the broadcasters for taking a risk to produce it. Hope it has a long run.

 

I don't know how to research the popularity of various TV shows here, but the fact that they gave it prime time (8 p.m.) on a Friday night on China's most popular TV channel suggests they thought it would have a good following. 

[Zbigniew]

Many thanks for your assistance, abcdefg. I'll have another go and see how I get on.

[Angelina]

Food courier wins Chinese poetry contest

 

https://www.shine.cn/viral/1804082794/