Avoiding the unreal

Local reality shows tap into Vietnamese social mores of politeness and consensus, not crude and rude confrontation

Ngo Thanh Van, singer, actress and her professional partner Tisho Tikomir at the Dancing with the star competition, one of the latest reality shows in Vietnam which took place early this month at the Phan Dinh Phung competition center in HCMC

In the US, the world of reality television is cutthroat and brutal.

In The Amazing Race, mean-spirited contestants can’t get enough of bickering, fighting and saying nasty things behind each others’ backs. In the dog-eat-dog, survivalof-the-fittest world of Survivor, greed is all that matters as competitors ruthlessly “kill off” the weaker contestants in a bid to further their own cause, like shipwrecked sailors resorting to murder and cannibalism to stay alive. In American Idol, Simon Cowell constantly mocks and insults the less-talented performers, often to tears, in front of audiences of millions.

Voyeuristic viewers seem to eat it all up: the arguments, the fights, the cheating, the conniving, the sex scandals and the embarrassing mishaps.

But in Vietnam, where propriety and saving face are some of the most important cultural values, back-stabbing and heartlessness are rare if not unheard of on the country’s most popular reality series.

Instead, another kind of reality show is grabbing local hearts, one that plays on the old Vietnamese beliefs that keep local families strong and makes sure members of the community support each other.

People helping people

Shows like Dream Houses, Vuot len chinh minh (Surpass yourself) and Nhu chua he co cuoc chia ly (As if we never parted) feature uplifting stories in which participants are encouraged to help each other and contribute positively to society.

In Vuot len chinh minh, in which poor people undertake various challenges such as sewing and hauling salt, the competition is only against the clock, and there are no losers. The show’s host Quyen Linh has even been known to let contestants win by adjusting the timer.

The contestants are selected from poor families in hard-up situations, and the prizes are not new cars or fancy vacations. Instead, the players have their debts cleared or are given money to start new small businesses.

The first half of the show is fun and games and the second half is always the players’ emotional true-to-life struggles of their battles against poverty. Audiences are attracted by the inspiration at hope provided at the end of each story, when the players are given their “prizes.”

The show, one of Vietnam’s most popular reality TV shows (garnering 35 percent of all viewership in its time slot), taps into themes at the heart of Vietnamese society.

The sentiments of the program, and local audience’s positive responses to it, hearken back to a traditional saying popular among Vietnamese young and old: La lanh dum la rach (literally “Healthy leaf helps the torn leaf”), which means that the well-off people should help those in need.

Dream Houses plays into similar cultural veins at the root of Vietnamese cultural norms.

In Dream Houses, the host of the show comes to visit families that don’t own homes to give them new houses. The stories of the people in need of homes are told in a documentary-style and then a sponsor provides them with a new home.

Again, the motifs of the show are influenced by a few old Vietnamese adages: “The only three things you need are a buffalo, a house and a wife,” and An cu lac nghiep, which means that one can only have a prosperous or stable life if one has a stable house.

Owning a house is traditionally a sign of success, and considered the first goal once one can find a job: settle down first, then build a career.

From that, people infer that without a house, one can be seen as insecure, possibly thus not reliable.

Thus, home ownership is valued above everything except for family itself. Many people’s number one goal and aspiration is to own their own house, so people really connect with a show in which giving a family a home is the central theme.

Dream Houses also plays into the philosophy of La lanh dum la rach as the less-privileged are given what they need by the “healthy leaves.”

Learning to dance

Buoc nhay hoan vu, Vietnam’s version of Dancing with the Stars has also become a big hit.

Nguyen Quang Minh, general director of Cat Tien Sa, a TV production company that owns the show, said the program resonated with Vietnamese audiences because it wasn’t just an exhibit of flashy commercialism materialism, as most celebrity-based shows are.

“It has high ratings now because it has changed people’s view of celebrities, winning their hearts by using their weaknesses, instead of their gifts, to entertain artists.”

He said viewers found it inspiring to watch successful people try something at which they were not experts, and eventually learn and succeed.

The ties that bind

Then there’s “As if we never parted,” which plays into the traditional family values that Vietnamese still take seriously.

In the show, people identify long lost relatives they haven’t see in decades and the series’ producers and investigators scour both Vietnam and foreign countries for the person in order to stage a tear-jerking on-air reunion.

They’ve connected everyone from poor farmers, to estranged friends that once flew as fighter pilots together.

Straight shooting

This kind of wholesome entertainment is what sells in Vietnam. Shows that stray away from these set values often have to answer to an angry public. The blogosphere is always rife with comments criticizing public behavior and producers are conscious of this.

For example, a massage scene in the reality show Nhung chang trai, nhung co gai (Young men and young women) was cut from the broadcast for being to risqué.

There was a huge audience backlash against Vietnam Idol when the show first aired in 2007 as the judges were criticized for trying to hard to imitate Simon Cowell’s abrasive style and simply humiliating the contestants. Ever since, the criticism has been light, and constructive.

But what does the future hold for reality TV in Vietnam?

Dark days ahead?

Adventure Line Production (ALP) is producing a reality show based on Koh-Lanta, the French version of the famous American show “Survivor,” which will take place on Vietnam’s pristine and relatively untouched Con Dao Island.

Will the untouched atmosphere of the remote locale be spoiled by the kind of mean-spirited competition that fuels Survivor?

It looks like “reality” in Vietnam could be taking a turn for the worse…