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Abstract

This article critically examines the blind audition and the voting system in The Voice of China to understand how the singing competition show narrates the most contemporary political, social, and cultural ideology of the Chinese society in the discourse of globalization. The article starts with an overview and some highlights of the show. Then this article explores how the blind audition serves as the venue for the ordinary Chinese viewers to engage with an illusion of fairness in a society. Next, this article investigates how the re-creation of the voting mechanism in the show symbolizes the fantasy of democracy and how it negotiates the power between the public and the state. I conclude with the argument that societal discourses on the blind audition and voting systems on a singing competition show reveal growing public awareness of and concern with issues of equity and fairness in the cultural arena of traditional esthetic standards as well as the societal arena of electoral politics.

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Illusionary fairness and controlled democracy: a critical examination of blind audition and voting system in The Voice of China

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