Hello my dears, in my Voice of China Ep 11 recap, I mentioned that there was a ‘media clash’ between Wang Feng and the media. I had wanted to blog about it when I first read about it but decided not to reveal spoilers. Now that the episode is aired, here’s more about it. Last week, Wang Feng suffered 3 consecutive defeats when his team went against Harlem’s team and made a controversial speech because he was very upset with the judges (made up of the media and people from the music industry). Wang Feng had blamed the media for being unfair towards his students because of prejudice against him.
It was not an abrupt move. Tension had been there throughout the episode if you had paid attention. At the very start, the host, Hua Shao, had asked Harlem and Wang Feng to declare a battle cry. Harlem complied while Wang Feng refused and instead chose to say, “Nothing-to-say/No battle cry”. Wang Feng then reminded the media and judges that their votes are sacred. Foreshadowing, yes?
Well, turns out the judges paid no attention to him as his students lost the first 3 battles with scores: 28-23, 26-25 and 26-25. Very, very close. I personally found Huang Xiaoyun’s performance much better than Zhao Da Ge and was quite disappointed when she lost. But I guess it’s a matter of preference and this loss is understandable. The most shocking loss seems to be Beibei’s loss against Zhang Shu. There are many netizens comments that Bei Bei had performed a lot better and deserved to win.
The thing worth noticing is that Bei Bei had been leading in the voting (because the front rows judges were made up of professionals from the music industry). It was only until the last 2 rows of judges (which I believe are made up of the media) that voted largely in favour of Zhang Shu, causing Bei Bei to lose. Na Ying was also certain that Zhang Xinxin would win in the third round of battle (even though I think she might just be trying to speak up for Wang Feng’s team). However, Zhang Xinxin also lost by 1 vote to Tan Xuanyuan.
This made Wang Feng extremely uncomfortable because he believed that his students had performed close to perfection that night and did not deserve to lose. Hence, he stood up and said made a small speech to the judges and his students.
I’ve been thinking of something from the first song. I wanted to wait until the final song before saying it. I need to express some nagging feelings that I have. The next few lines might not be broadcast on the official show, but I will definitely be responsible for my words. First, I want to express that what I am about to say has nothing to do with my losses on this episode. As the opponent to Harlem, I have told my assistant and my family that my favourite part of this season’s Voice of China is the attitude of Harlem’s team and the songs he picked. My interactions with Harlem have also been pleasant. I have no issues with Harlem. What I am about to say has nothing to do with Harlem and his team.
To all my students that have failed to go through, I am extremely apologetic to all of you, please forgive me my frankness. You did not lose to music, you did not lose in Harlem’s point of view, you did not lose to your opponent’s spectacular performances, you lost to the materialistic and crude world of gossip and bias, to which it is aimed at your mentor (himself). Please do not cry, I am grateful for The Voice’s band, director, music producers, music critics and DJs. I would like to apologize, because I believe your performance is close to perfection, but I cannot change the reality. I have to say sorry because you’ve gotten hurt because of me. I can handle those defamation and gossip, but I should never let you bear all this.
-Taken from Amiehu.com
This ‘materialistic and crude world of gossip and bias, to which it is aimed at your mentor’ he is talking about is the prejudice the media had against Wang Feng. I’m not very sure about this but I have been reading some articles (in chinese) and it seems that Wang Feng is not very popular with the media because he’s aloof and not friendly with them. It is said that Wang Feng disliked the media and do not entertain them much. In other words, the media thinks that Wang Feng is too full of himself even though he is not of much status. (This is debatable but Wang Feng has only became popular in recent years and many had exclaimed surprise/disgust when Wang Feng and Zhang Ziyi announced their upcoming marriage because they thought he was ‘not worthy of her’.) It seems that Wang Feng had also sued a reporter for slander last year, further causing hatred towards him amongst the media.
Wang Feng was very apologetic towards his students, as seen by his endless apologies every time one of his student lost. I actually feel pretty bad because I like Wang Feng and I do feel that he does genuinely care about his students (and not just obsessed with winning). Plus, some of them really didn’t deserve to lose. Apparently, after Wang Feng’s speech, one of the media judge continued to vote for Harlem citing the reason, “I’m voting for Harlem because I am the materialistic and crude world of gossip and bias.” Horrid.
Of course, there are two sides to the story and the media had also replied that ‘they are innocent’. They had voted for whoever they preferred. Furthermore, if they really wanted to take revenge on Wang Feng, Harlem would have won by a large margin instead of a 1-vote difference which happened twice because it would be too hard to control.
There are also reports that in the last SAVE Battle between Ma Yinyin and Bei Bei, Ma Yinyin had won but there was a re-film and Bei Bei emerged as the final winner. If you listen really carefully, Bei Bei can be heard saying, “Sorry I took Ma Yinyin’s position” when she hugged Harlem at the end after she won. It was also said that Wang Feng had took his students and left in a huff right after filming.
Whether it’s Wang Feng or the media’s fault, we will probably never find out. But I gotta say, it was brave of Wang Feng to step out and say his heartfelt words despite the possible backlash.
If you are interested, you could check out what Wang Feng had said vs what was edited and aired here:
Tell me what you think about this whole incident by leaving a comment below. Feel free to correct me or add on other information you have regarding this issue 🙂
Cheers.
SkimmedMilkDRAMA 
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There is probably some truth to this. Why else would Wang Feng want to openly declare such a thing in the middle of the competition? And the confirmation by the media judge after Wang Feng’s comments just strengthens the authenticity of the story.
The people who will suffer from this is not Wang Feng nor the media. Unfortunately, it all falls on the contestants. Huang Yong and Bei Bei will ask themselves if they really did deserve to win and progress to the next round. Ma Yinyin will wonder at the injustice of being eliminated potentially from the additional pressure of Wang Feng on the judges. And if Bei Bei goes on to win, her victory will be somewhat tainted by this whole saga which would be a real shame. She wouldn’t have wished for this either.
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Well the saying goes, “there won’t be smoke without fire” but we really don’t know. But yes, I agree that it does brings a lot of doubt and questions into this whole competition. This magical experience for the contestants would probably be tainted and that is such a pity. We can only hope that the finals will be handled well.
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OMG!! I cant believe Ma Yinyin left the competition because of this!! Super disappointed… 😥 😥 😥 Btw, I do like Wang Feng’s frankness, because that was how the media works. But, now the competition was slightly bias, couldn’t agree more with Jinliang’s comment above. I hope the competition turns out well eventhough your (and my) favorite uncle had gone from this comp.
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Well, this are just netizens discussion so there is also a likelihood that Ma Yinyin left because she underperformed/wasn’t lucky enough to meet weaker contenders. We can only hope that even though Ma Yinyin left this competition, her singing career will not end. I believe there is a market for her voice, just like what Harlem always say.
Our favourite uncle was so close to getting into the Top 5!!! He was just 0.1% away from the 5th position. I still feel awfully sad for him, considering how he has got the lowest number of votes from the members of public + media. Why oh why 😦
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Some celebrities are just not comfortable with media and they are the ones that tend to become unpopular with the media. If it’s because Wang Feng is not well like by people that affects the votes of his contestants then I personally feel it’s a bit unfair. Judges should cast aside their prejudice and judge based on the performance and potential. Some contestants deserve to win and they are deprive of it.
Moreover, who are we to say he is not worthy of Zhang Ziyi. There is no right or wrong, worthy or unworthy in a relationship. Most important is 2 person are happy and enjoy each other company.
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Exactly how I feel! But sadly, when they choose to become celebrities, they give up part of their privacy. That’s the price of fame.
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I feel that the season 3 is a fairer system whereby the students selected by respective mentor complete among themselves and the best of each team will stay till final
Reason being the teacher has indicated and expressed their view on the student performance which meet their requirement and students has final make a decision to which teacher that they choose to be mentor. Completing among their respective group is a reasonable competition even if your mentor has matched you a strong competitor within your choice of team.
Nothing to complain
Else if you compete with another team with wrong mix, you will kill the potential candidate while another pair with average standard, the best of the average standard team will stay.
It will depend on the luck 1st than performance standard.
Harlem team choose the right song and the standard might not be way above Wang Feng Tan Jin Jin, but it is good enough to kill both tan Jin Jin and Bei Bei, else both of them are greater potential although they get knock out.
Eventually, the winner of Harlem team can’t even sustain themselves at the final. At the end of the day, both mentors and students do not feel good.
a mentor can have 3 candidates at final and 2 more mentor has 1 each and 1 mentor may have zero candidate representing the team. This is totally not a fair system.
I hope organizer of Voice of China can rectify this system, else good luck to them that end of the day, they will not have professional singer who wants to participate in this prestige and challenging performing.
I would like to praise Wang Feng , Jay Chou , Na Ying and Harlem who are professional and cooperative with each other although the competition rules and process might not be a present
1 with many other factors to be improved.
Jia You for Wang Feng and Bei Bei, you both are truly good. To me and all audiences, you both have ultimate achievement in Voice Of China 2015, Season 4
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Thanks for this post. I linked my blog post to yours, if you don’t mind. 🙂
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No problem! May I ask for the link to your post?
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Hi Kate. Thank you for your interest. 🙂
My blog link is here:
http://iceman-in-iceworld.blogspot.sg/2015/12/voice-of-china-season-4.html
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I’m in Canada, & have been watching every season online. Anyone know the reason why “The Voice of China” became “Sing China”?
Anyhow, I get frustrated seeing some of the injustices. Bei Bei is a phenomenal singer. She deserved better.
Then, Queen T looses to Zhang Lei?!! And previous seasons, Na Ying literally cried, telling the judges they were making a big mistake! (I thought so too, personally.)
All in all, it’s quite messed up, seeing the most talented people get knocked/voted out.
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