While most Chinese are basking in the euphoria and pride brought on by the successful launch of China's second manned space mission, a TV producer from Denmark was viewing the event from a different angle.

At a forum titled "New Trends in the World Children's TV Industry," Preben Vridstoft, head of the Children and Youth Department of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, took Shenzhou VI as an example of a dilemma facing the children's TV industry: how to spice up their TV programs and get children with short attention spans hooked on their shows.

The forum, held in Beijing on October 13, was part of the "Asia-Pacific Children and Youth TV Festival, " which took place from October 10 to 14.

Perhaps the children's TV industry in China could use some tips from Barney, a singing purple dinosaur from the Barney and Friends show, or Dora The Explorer, a smart and savvy Latina schoolgirl who stars in an interactive cartoon hit. Both are wildly popular shows in the United States that have attracted a cult following among the milk-and-cookies bunch.

Preben suggests putting a fresh, creative spin on such children's fare.

"It would be great if there is a cartoon series featuring a boy astronaut in his space mission," Preben said in his speech. "There are a lot of interesting issues which can be delved into. For example, how he takes showers, how he eats and drinks, and how he wears his space suit."

Such ideas, however, so far haven't yet entered the minds of Chinese TV producers or directors. TV companies already have massive coverage of the space launch, but most of them are simply satisfied at doing news reports and fail to think of other innovative ways of educating the masses about such an event's historical and educational value.

Some say a common fault in the country's TV entertainment business is precisely the lack of imagination and originality. Children's television is no exception to that.

At the forum where many international professionals and scholars in this field gathered, Yu Peixia, head of the Youth and Children's Program Center of the China Central Television (CCTV), didn't hesitate to express his dissatisfaction over the lackluster development of children's television in China.

Yu is the most senior children's TV program director in China. He is currently taking the helm at CCTV's children's channel, the first channel of this kind in China.

The development of Chinese children's TV programs over the past half century can be divided into four phases, according to Yu.

Between 1958 and 1980, the genre was in its infancy. Occasionally, there were some programs specially produced for children, but such programs were very rare.

Between 1981 and 1991, children's television began to steadily develop. CCTV and many provincial TV stations launched regular weekly programs for children. Most of these programs were very similar both in content and appearance.

Generally, there was an amiable, always-smiling young lady who acted like a big sister. Every week, she would spend several minutes infusing morals and ethics into the audience of children who were affectionately addressed as "xiao pengyou" (little friends) most often by telling philosophical moral stories.

The most famous program from the 1980s was CCTV's Jigsaw Puzzle (Qiqiao Ban). Although the program had long been cancelled, it became an inalienable part of the collective memory of the generation who grew up in the 1980s. Its most famous anchorwoman, Ju Ping, is still a household name today.

The period between 1992 and 2002 saw the rapid development of children's programs.

Jigsaw was replaced by another program called Big Windmill (Da Fengche), which is more abundant in content and longer in length.

Anchormen, who had been rare in children's TV programs, became accepted. The program also invited primary school and middle school students to be little anchormen or anchorwomen. Most provincial TV stations followed these new practices and made similar changes to their programs.

The new phase began in 2003, the year when CCTV Children's Channel was launched. Since then, children's channels have multiplied in China. Within only two years, there are 32 such channels, three of which exclusively devoted to broadcasting cartoons. In some regions, children now have access to three or four channels exclusively for them.

At first sight, the statistics appear to be quite impressive. But Yu said there are problems.

Programs' Shortcomings

Since most children's channels do not have the ability to produce their own programs, the demand for such programs greatly exceeds the supply. Last year, the demand was for about 79,000 minutes of cartoons, while there were only less than 20,000 minutes of cartoons for domestic productions. As a result, most children's channels heavily rely on imported content.

For the same reason, many children's channels broadcast a great deal of programs unfit for children. That, in turn, makes these channels fail to have a clear focus for its target market. For example, some categorize themselves as for "women and kids."

Yu said it is very unprofessional, since women and children have very different demands for TV programs.

According to a survey Yu cited, as many as 24.1 per cent of surveyed youth in major Chinese cities feel that the current children's programs don't meet their expectations, 22.4 per cent of those say there are too many repetitions in content, and 14.4 per cent decide that too many programs in different channels are identical in form.

The essential problem, according to Yu, is that many TV stations don't launch their children's channels to compete for the huge market.

Instead, most children's channels were launched at the command of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), the top TV authority in China.

There are 367 million children and youngsters under the age of 18 in China, accounting for 28 percent of the overall population. Studies have shown that on average, Chinese children spend two to four hours a day watching television.

Fearing that children would spend too much time on computer games, the SARFT has ordered all provincial TV stations to launch a children's channel before the end of 2006.

Actually, it is a problem that not only involves children's television, but also puzzles almost every TV station in China: They are neither fully commercialized, nor are they genuine public television.

Strictly speaking, all TV stations in China are State owned. However, they need to fight for their own survival, according to Yu.

Only by overcoming all these hurdles, Yu said, can children's television in China develop further. Some day, the industry can even win over more hardcore fans that could rival those of Barney's or Dora's.

(China Daily October 20, 2005)