Tian Tian Xiang Shang (天天向上) literally translates to 'looking up every day' and is broadcasted once a week on Hunan TV. From its beginnings in 2008, the show has been growing in popularity and current episodes are being watched by 300 million people every week on TV, while the number of views (of full episodes) on various social networks, web streaming and video sharing websites reaches 1 billion views within several weeks afterwards.
The popularity of the show relies on amusing and relaxed talk-style, humour, educative and eye-opening content, and many public and famous figures who appear as guests in the show. The show is co-hosted by Wang Han, Da Zhangwei, Qian Feng and Wang Yibo, who enjoy the status of national TV super-stars.
In the preparation for the December 15th – episode, with the support of Croatia’s Ministry of Tourism, 4 co-hosts came to Croatia (Dubrovnik and Zagreb) in October, and filmed humorous stories about Croatia, its people, culture, food and music with the assistance of Croatian celebrities: football manager Miroslav Ćiro Blažević, singer Jelena Rozga, violinist Ana Rucner and pianist Maksim Mrvica. The second part of the Croatian episode was filmed in the city of Changsha (in Hunan province) and was titled “Croatian Rhapsody”, featuring Mrvica, Croatian Ambassador to China Nebojša Koharović, Croatian chef Zlatko Puntijar, owner of Chinese restaurant in Croatia Xiaoting Chen-Li and singer Lana Jurčević.
The episode was dedicated to promotion of Croatian tourism through music, gastronomy, beautiful videos and Q&A games: Maksim Mrvica was playing piano, Lana Jurčević celebrated her birthday by eating “long life noodles”, Zlatko Puntijar was cooking Croatian specialities, while the Ambassador was the judge in a game with a main praise – trip to Croatia.
Considering that over 1 billion of Chinese speaking audience is going to see the show, it is expected that the show will bring much in recognition and popularity of Croatia within China. Countries like Czech Republic and Denmark, after appearing in the same show, have experienced significant increase in tourist arrivals from China, and many other countries are fighting to get the opportunity to appear in the same show.
90-minute Croatian episode of Tian Tian Xiang Shang is available on all big Chinese video sharing sites, as well as on youtube on China Hunan TV Official Channel.
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