Now, China’s forward thinkers have seen a real need. This need is that the people of Nairobi, capital of Kenya, are thirsting for the latest developments in China. I mean, of course, why not, if you are in a poor African country the first thing you want to know about is the valuation of the RMB.

Really, this is no joke, China Radio International has launched its first FM Service in Nairobi, Kenya. They say it is to “consolidate and strengthen the great friendship between the governments and people of China and Kenya”. Perhaps they mean “strengthen the influence of Chinese culture on the world?”

They describe the types of programs:

Programs will report China’s economic, social and cultural development, its friendly exchanges with African countries and major events around the world.

So the unfriendly exchanges will be conveniently missed out. Perhaps the Kenyans can learn from the Chinese how to manufacture goods at very low cost due to the cheap cost of labor and start to further sap the economies of world powers?

I have no idea what this is all about. If I really wanted to listen to Chinese news and music overseas, there are countless radio stations. If my country did not have the infrastructure for the Internet, or I was to poor to buy a computer, I don’t think finding out what’s going on in China would be anywhere near the top of my list.

Hey guys, here’s an idea. How about an all english radio channel in China? Apparently they think we don’t need any help with knwoing about China’s economic, social and cultural development. I am sure the Kenyans appreciate that.

It seems that China is working with the Anhui Modern TV Technology Institute (as opposed to the Classic TV Technology Institute), to develop yet another big brother type technology. The system will “automatically monitor TV broadcasts FOR ‘unhealthy’ content” said an official from Anhui. I think it’s more like anti-TV technology.

Now what is deemed unhealthy? Again, that’s up to the Chinese government. Anhui says it is the “next step” after their implementation of their quality monitoring system, that determines poor or unreadable broadcasts.

What I find astonioshing, is that everyone seemed very normal about this whole proceeding. Yep, we will be making sure we filter out everything that you see, and that’s perfectly normal. For your own protection, because you don’t know what you shouldn’t see. Again, the whole idea of the Chinese government being like a “parent” to its “little children” citizens comes into vision. Perhaps one day people will “grow up” and not need the protection of their government parents anymore.

Film producer Wang Zhongjun seems to have the right idea. Since films in China are doomed to be pirated anyways, and people don’t go to the theater very much, why not plaster sponsor ads all throughout your movie? Yes, make your movie one giant commercial.

Laugh if you dare, but this is proving to be the business model of choice for the Chinese movie industry these days, and it has paid off big. Wang has made millions of yuan by partnering with China Mobile, Motorola, and BMW. He has made similar deals for many of his movies such as “Love message” which was blatantly a commercial centric film, and as such did not do so well.

So it seems with the right balance of sponsors and quality, movies could actually start gaining ground as a lucrative money making opportunity. Though, this applies mostly to movies made for a Chinese audience. Like many movies, the trend seems to be toward dealing with wireless (cell phone) service providers. For movies made available for export, the product/service placements make little sense.

For now it seems, there is hope for Chinese films, perhaps even in the long run.

I recently came across an interesting interview with Li Ruigang, the man who runs Shanghai Media Group, one of the biggest media conglomerates in China.

It details how he is striving to take SMG and turn it from a government controlled “state asset” into a public company that can compete at an international level. There are also some good comparisons, such as seeing the revenue of the entire SMG group and all its media amounts to a mere 60% of what the Fox news channel in the US alone gets.

I think it is very interesting to see that government owned media companies are not as controlled as we are led to believe. Li seems very interested in getting as friendly as possible with foreign partners, to set the foundation for when SMG gets released from it’s Government control.

I am not sure how, when and if this will happen, but Li seems confident on that direction. All luck to him.