(CGTN) China’s highly anticipated variety show, “The Chinese Poetry Conference” is expected to make a comeback on Friday.
The show's producer, China Central Television (CCTV), revealed, at a press conference on Wednesday, that some of the widely loved sections, including a solitaire poems segment, were upgraded with higher requirements.
The competition show will again be hosted by Dong Qing, one of China’s most renowned hostess, while the guests will include professors from the country’s top-level universities such as Wang Liqun, Kang Zhen, Meng Man and Li Bo.
The third season will maintain the same theme from the previous two seasons, which is the rediscovery of “the poetic life”, but the database for the questions will be expanded to include poems from the earliest poetry collections of “The Book of Songs”, as well as poems by China's late leader, Chairman Mao Zedong.
At least 140 competitors were involved in this year's competition, and they were divided into four groups based on their age or occupations.
Some other cultural elements, such as the intangible cultural heritage items like paper-cutting and wood carving were also involved.
The show has also created interactive sections this year. Audience can participate in the same tests through their official accounts on Weibo and WeChat, the interactive quotes would be displayed in time on TV.
A documentary based on the production of the variety show will start airing on Friday, presenting the “poetic life” of several competitors.
“The Chinese Poetry Conference” is a dark horse in China’s market of variety shows last year, which roused unprecedented attention from the public towards the ancient poems and the traditional Chinese culture.
The first and second season were respectively given 8.3 and 8.6 points on douban.com, a Rotten Tomato-resembled website aggregating reviews for books, music, film and TV shows.
Source: CGTN