With tears of joy, fans of Li Yuchun cheer for the victory of their idol as the top "Super Girl" on August 26 at a bar in Pudong in Shanghai.

Behind every successful man is a woman, as the saying goes. So behind every girl with a dream for stardom, there is a mother whose ambition and perseverance drives her forwards.

"Super Girls," the smash hit pop star contest organized by Hunan Satellite Television this summer, instantly created a bevy of super stars. During one of the final shows which ended in August, the finalists' mothers made an appearance, sharing quaint memories from the singers' childhoods.

One got the impression reaching for the stars was as much the mothers' dream as their daughters'.

Cinderella syndrome

Chinese Women's magazine recently conducted a poll of 100 mother-daughter pairs in Beijing and the provinces of Hunan and Henan.

The survey showed 92 per cent of respondents were "very familiar" with the program, and half called themselves "loyal fans."

Only 7 per cent saw "Super Girls" as a travesty of culture, a view shared by a few prominent personalities such as Cui Yongyuan, a China Central Television talk show host, who called the television ratings system "the source of all evils" and this ratings vanquisher "vulgar."

But unlike the pundits who have read political meaning into the phenomenon, mothers and daughters saw it for what it was. Some 38 per cent attributed the success to the content and format of the show, and 58 per cent saw it simply as a Cinderella story.

Ordinary girls, with sheer will, talent and a stroke of luck, can be moulded into shining stars.

As the show tracked the contestants through rounds and rounds of screening and competition, the audience got to know them as they grew up in the public eye, trading in their ugly duckling beginnings for the polish and flair of super-stardom.

"Magpie transforming into phoenix" is the term often used to describe the idol-making process. This is also the Chinese title of the Julia Roberts film "Pretty Woman."

Highlighting the changes are Internet postings of before and after shots of the top five super girls a reminder of the extreme nature of the makeover. For those finding it hard to imagine their humble beginnings, unflattering ID card photos are available online for comparison with their new glossy magazine covers and posters.

Ripple effects

The majority of respondents to the survey (66 per cent) said "Super Girls" had a positive impact on them because it offered an opportunity for them to vicariously experience success. Everyone had a taste of the kind of fame and fortune ordinary people can only dream about.

About a third saw the show as a chance to realize their potential, or that of their daughters', build self-confidence, gain maturity and make new friends.

Overall, 58 per cent of the interviewees gave "Super Girls" the thumbs up, saying the show does not have any adverse effects.

But 15 per cent contended it will drive girls towards vanity and superficiality, while 10 per cent believe that by promising the illusion of stardom, the show not only wastes the time of wannabes but ultimately causes them to lose confidence.

These detractors do not necessarily think entertainment programs like "Super Girls" are bad for youngsters. But they point out that excessive admiration for the girls' achievements may bring more harm than benefit to adolescents, who often have little idea of the nature of the entertainment business and may equate fantasies with plausible blueprints for future success.

Generation gap

Discrepancies emerge between mothers and daughters when it comes to emulation of the show's participants.

On the surface, daughters are equally divided into two camps 46 per cent are willing to try their luck on the show. They believe they have the talent to get to the top and to fire up the audience's collective imagination themselves. To become "world famous" is their dream and "singing whenever I like it," the refrain from the show's theme song, is their motto.

But 54 per cent said they would not take part in the competition. Among the reasons given were: "I'm not fit for it," "the time is not right," "I don't have the guts," or "I don't care for it."

"This is not real. I don't want to waste my time on something so flimsy and fall victim to a television show hyped by media," some respondents said.

Zhou Bichang, the first runner-up in "Super Girls," publicly acknowledged she could not handle overnight fame constantly being in the media spotlight and hearing about the clashing of various fan bases; specifically hers and that of the champion Li Yuchun.

She has converted to Buddhism and is seriously thinking of shutting herself off from the outside world, according to an interview she gave to the Southern Metropolis Daily, a Guangzhou-based newspaper.

Others argue that, for many of the final winners, fame was anything but instant. Most of them have extensive experience performing in front of live audiences as they have participated in all kinds of competitions in small venues.

Wang Han, one of the hosts of the show, brushed aside any disadvantages of the shortcut to fame. "It's not a bad thing per se, the key is how to handle it," he told a reporter.

Many more mothers support their daughters in the pursuit of the "Super Girls" dream. Some 61 per cent said they would encourage their daughters to participate in a similar event to develop better social skills and even build up bravado, to "lay a foundation for the future." On the other hand, 39 per cent of the mothers questioned in the survey said they would encourage their daughters to grow up "step by step."

Singing is only a hobby and spending several months on a TV set could derail their daughters' normal lives, they said.

"It is not worth it to bear the cruelty of rejection at such a young age simply for a flash-in-the-pan career," noted one mother.

The twist in the survey results is the gap between what the daughters aspire to and what their mothers hope for them.

As many as 80 per cent of the mother-daughter pairs differed on the question of participation in "Super Girls."

Mostly, mothers seem more ambitious, wanting to push their youngsters on a path to glamour, glitter and glory.

"It is quite typical of some mums, whose parenting philosophy is mainly about transferring their own unfulfilled dreams on to their children," said some netizens in a discussion group.

"Stars can be hyped, but cannot be pushed. Confidence, however, can truly be built."

(China Daily November 1, 2005)