Chapter 688 The country’s citizens imitate!
That night.
The Voice of China’s online video was officially uploaded. As Central TV Department 1 had already agreed on a contract with an online video hosting service, the project was initiated very quickly as they wanted to ride the momentum of the show’s popularity. The online video hosting service website’s team had finally gotten everything in working order overnight. At 7:30 PM, The Voice’s first episode had appeared on the website’s main page at a prominent location together with an ad banner. This was also covertly a publicity campaign for The Voice to have an online channel of distribution.
1 million!
5 million!
10 million!
Once the video was uploaded, the number of views kept increasing!
Many of the “northern drifters”1 who stayed in rented apartments did not own a television set. Having found out about The Voice from short online video clips, they wanted to catch the full episode, which was the reason why the views on the video were increasing so quickly. Many of these younger people were savvy at using the Internet.
At this time, the popularity of The Voice continued on strongly. With every second that passed by, The Voice was creating history in the recent years of variety programs. This program had been pushed to the very top and Zhang Ye was also riding on the crest of this wave!
However, there were also some side events occurring at the same time.
At 8 PM, Zhang Ye received a call from the program team’s Assistant Director Ha Qiqi.
Ha Qiqi: “Hello, Director Zhang.”
Zhang Ye: “Sister Qi, what’s the matter?”
Ha Qiqi said: “About that, an advertiser just contacted me, it’s the executive from Dahua Hotel. He was requesting that you slow your reciting during the advertising messages’ segment from the second episode of The Voice on. Just a slight pause where you can clearly pronounce their hotel’s name syllable by syllable. This doesn’t apply to any of the other advertisers; they just hope that the words ‘Bei-jing Da-hua Ho-tel’ can be slowed down a little.”
Zhang Ye asked: “Why didn’t he contact me directly?”
“I don’t know why either, perhaps he wasn’t too comfortable speaking with you and just contacted me directly instead. I think he also contacted Central TV Department 1 and the station was thinking that you might really have spoken too fast, and that it wouldn’t do justice to the advertisers. After all, they did spend money to purchase the advertising rights, so…” Ha Qiqi sounded a little hesitant.
Zhang Ye said: “Did the station approve this already?”
Ha Qiqi answered: “Not really, they did not say so directly.”
Zhang Ye determinedly responded: “Tell the executive at Dahua Hotel that I won’t be slowing my speed. The future style of hosting in The Voice also won’t change. If they feel uncomfortable about it, they can come and look for me directly and talk about it. If that still doesn’t work out, then we will refund them the advertising costs.”
“Refund?” Ha Qiqi said with a hint of surprise, not expecting Zhang Ye to be so persistent.
Zhang Ye confirmed that.
Ha Qiqi probed a little: “But if the station says…”
Zhang Ye interrupted: “It doesn’t matter who says what.”
“Sure then, I understand.” Ha Qiqi knew what had to be done from here.
Zhang Ye was very stubborn and headstrong in his position on this matter. In the field of artistic performances, he’d always had his own principles to follow. To put it in Beijing jargon, he was very stiff. No matter what anyone said, he would not listen or change his mind. In his previous world’s version of The Voice, Hua Shao had been pressured by the program team leader and advertisers to slow down his reciting of the advertising messages several times to adhere to the requirements of the advertisers. That made The Voice have one less interesting point to look forward to.
However, Zhang Ye was not ready to cave in on such matters, nor was there a need to do so. Hua Shao was only a host on the program team of The Voice, and therefore did not have much authority in the decision making process. He also did not have much fame as a celebrity before becoming the host of The Voice. But it was different for Zhang Ye, as he had come on board to The Voice as a B-list celebrity. His fame and reputation were already known by everyone. The key factor was that he was also the executive director and executive program planner, while also informally the executive producer of the program. He was in charge of The Voice’s overall planning and spending, so that would make him the highest up on the program team. Even the executive producer, Old Fu, had to step aside for him. Zhang Ye had no need to listen to anyone trying to give him instruction or making thoughtless comments!
……
Past 8.
After he got off the phone, a heated discussion about Zhang Ye’s eloquent reciting skills suddenly began online. The topic had slowly shifted from talking about the program and the contestants to focusing on Zhang Ye!
“That reciting speed, how godly!”
“Yeah, I was totally dumbfounded the first time I heard it!”
“I get shocked every time I listen to it, how could he be so fast!”
“Was it put together with the help of a computer?”
“You’re thinking too much, why don’t you make one for us to listen to?”
“Are those professional hosts all crazy like that? Is that something that all broadcasting hosts can do?”
“I don’t know.”
“Right, I’ve never ever heard someone speak that fast before!’
Suddenly, the host of Beijing Television’s Do You Remember, Dong Shanshan posted an audio clip. It turned out to be her trying to imitate Zhang Ye’s advertising messages. “I will not accept any gifts this year The only gift I will accept is Brain Gold I will not expect…There’s no need to watch any TV shows this year The only TV show you need to watch is The Voice The authentic health product The attacking, the authentic The Voice Welcome to the broadcast of The Voice of China brought to you exclusively by our title sponsor The health Brain products…in health products…leader in health products…Brain Gold…” The audio clip ended there and accompanying this was a message at the end of the post: “I tried to recite a segment of it, but realized just how crazy that mouth of Zhang Ye’s was. I couldn’t do it, I totally couldn’t copy it!”
Below were the comments from the netizens.
“Pfft!”
“Our goddess is so funny!”
“Teacher Shanshan, you’ve already done well!”
“Yeah, you said it very quickly too.”
Dong Shanshan replied with a smiley face: “Even if I said it fast, it’s not as fast as Zhang Ye. The accuracy of my pronunciation is not good either. I’ve already tried it more than a dozen times, but I just can’t get it right. My mind can keep up but not my mouth.”
At this time, Yao Jiancai also appeared.
Old Yao came out and immediately announced: “Let me try, let me!”
After around two minutes, Yao Jiancai posted a video of himself, the background showing that he was at some hotel, probably with a film crew at some place for filming. The video was recorded in a hotel room and Yao Jiancai could be heard clearing his throat before he quickly recited: “I will not accept accept any…gifts this year…The only gift I will accept is Brain Gold There’s no need to watch any TV shows this year The only TV show you need to watch is The Voice The authentic health product The authentic The Voice Welcome to the broadcast of The Voice of China brought to you exclusively by our title sponsor ladder…leader…” He managed to spew the lines of the advertising messages carelessly and did it a little faster than Dong Shanshan, but also recited many wrong words.
Many of Old Yao’s fans came to laugh at him.
“Haha.”
“Teacher Yao, you really think you could do it?”
“That was such an inferior version!”
“Teacher Yao, give it some more effort. You were a professional crosstalk actor in the past after all. Don’t all crosstalk actors learn speed recital?”
Yao Mi also teased her father by replying: “Dad, you’re the worst! Heehee.”
A depressed Yao Jiancai replied: “I’m just a supporting character and don’t depend on my wits and mouth, but that kid, Zhang Ye is a main character, so don’t compare us like that!”
Suddenly, even Chen Guang partook in the imitation game.
“Ah, Old Chen is here too!”
“Whoa, dude, you shouldn’t be disgracing yourself here, Old Chen!”
“Yeah, even a professional host and a crosstalk actor couldn’t do it, so why do you think you can!”
Chen Guang’s imitation was indeed a miserable one. His reciting speed was already slower than Zhang Ye’s by two to three times, yet he still stuttered and made a lot of mistakes with the words. On top of that, he was even using a script to read from but could not recite it successfully even at his own speed. After he posted the audio clip, Chen Guang left a 囧 emoticon below it. When everyone heard Zhang Ye’s recital of the advertising messages, they might have thought it would be difficult, but it was only after they tried for themselves that they realized this was not even about difficulty, this was already a speed that had exceeded mortals!
“Lemme try too!”
“I won’t believe it, I’ll give it a try too!”
“Haha, count me in!”
“Interesting, interesting!”
“I feel like I could do it!”
“It shouldn’t be a problem for me either. Wait a bit for me, everyone!”
No one knew when or where it started, but everyone was already trying to copy Zhang Ye’s advertising message online!
“I will not accept any gifts this year The only gift I will uh…accept is Brain Go-Gold…”
“As long as they get ack-acknow…ledged by at least three coaches they’ll win a 10,000 yuan Music Dreams Scholarship Sponsored by Brain…”
“We also give our thanks to Bei-Beijing Dahua Hotel for sponsoring the accommodations for the coat…coat, co…aches of The Voice of China!”
No one could say it as fluently as Zhang Ye!
While there were those who could recite it fluently, they did it with a much slower speed, carefully reading out each and every word, and none these were done in a single breath. Then there were those who committed many mistakes when they increased their speed of reciting. Many of them thought they could do it, so they kept trying and trying until they nearly went crazy!
Rather than reaching Zhang Ye’s speed, most of them could not even hit half of his reciting speed! The person who did the best was a third year student from Media College’s broadcast major, a class junior to Zhang Ye. He managed to read the entire advertising message of about 200 words in 22.3 seconds, taking a single breath in between!
As for Zhang Ye?
Zhang Ye did it in 14.7 seconds with a single breath!
The difference was nearly eight seconds!
Eight seconds might seem to pass in the blink of an eye, but only an industry insider would know what this really meant. They were worlds apart. For there to be a difference of eight seconds for 200 words, it could already be said that this was forever going to be an insurmountable divide! For such speed, even a difference of half a second would be a very large gap, let alone eight seconds!
“Who else?”
“No one will stand a chance anymore! It’s impossible!”
“F**k, it’s too difficult!”
“What kind of a mouth does that Zhang Ye have!”
“I don’t think anyone in the country…no, anyone in the world will be able to surpass that mouth of his, right?”
“Yeah, even if it’s those famous hosts overseas, they can’t possibly read with that kind of speed! This is a technique that truly belongs to Zhang Ye alone!”
Within the industry, many hosts did not feel convinced. Unlike Dong Shanshan who posted an audio clip to imitate the advertising messages, they couldn’t do the same. This was because Dong Shanshan and Zhang Ye were old classmates and had a good relationship. Even if she tried to rub some attention from off Zhang Ye to herself, it wasn’t a big deal. But for them, as professionals and people who were not close to Zhang Ye, they needed to refrain from getting too close. They couldn’t use him as an excuse to get some attention for themselves, so they could only secretly time themselves at home while attempting to recite the advertising messages. But just as expected, no one could achieve the level Zhang Ye had set. They couldn’t even reach half of the level he had set!
This was a result many did not expect. Perhaps they knew that their recital speeds could not possibly match up to Zhang Ye, but they couldn’t have expected that they were off by so much!
Having tested themselves, these hosts gradually gasped in amazement upon realizing the difference!
This was really a show that could not be replicated whatsoever!
Just based on the hosting style alone, whether at home or abroad, only Zhang Ye could do it!
1. Laborers from provinces other than Beijing