Eye Central Television

Eye Central Television (Chinese: 眼球中央電視台; pinyin: Yǎnqiú Zhōngyāng Diànshìtái), or EYECTV, is a Taiwanese internet media which focuses of political satire. Hosted by “Retina” (Chen Tzu-chien) with YouTube as its platform, its main video content is the Central Television in One Minute series, a parodic news channel claiming to be "state media of the Republic of China" and makes fun of China Central Television (CCTV) news reports.[1]. The media's content portrays Chinese nationalism and conservatism in an satirical tone and mainly touches on Cross-Strait politics and public affairs.[2][3][4][5]

Eye Central Television
Launched5 August 2015
(4 years, 285 days)
Owned byChang Chang Creative
Country Taiwan
LanguageTaiwanese Mandarin,
Taiwanese Hokkien
WebsiteYouTube channel

Purpose of founding

The purpose of EYECTV is to portray as irony, parts of the Constitution of the Republic of China (ROC), including the territorial scope covered in the Constitution. It seeks to highlight the "absurdity" of Constitution, as well as outdated concepts like "Three Principles of the People Unites China" and "saving the compatriots in the occupied area" which were propagated during the one-party authoritarian rule of Taiwan by the Kuomintang.[6]

Production team

Origins

Curious about Mainland China’s political strategies, EYECTV anchor “Retina” (Chen Tzu-chien) attended an undergraduate journalist contest held in Quanzhou, Fujian, Mainland China in 2015. He saw CCTV’s Xinwen Lianbo news programme and started to privately imitate CCTV anchors’ singing of praises to leaders of the Communist Party of China (CCP), as he found them funny.[7]

Producer “Oculomotor Nerve” (Ho Shan-jung) met “Retina” at the contest. The contestants communicated in WeChat groups. One day, Ho Shan-jung accessed WeChat after a day of not using the Internet and saw hundreds of messages. She asked if any group member was willing to arrange the chat contents. Chen Tzu-Chien volunteered by imitating CCTV news anchors.[8]

During the event, Mainland China officials gathered the students for meals every day, and the song Both sides of the Taiwan Strait are a family were sung before that. This made Taiwanese students uncomfortable. They discussed producing similar online news programmes to counter Mainland China’s political strategies, and it became the Eye Central Television as Chen Tzu-chien previously suffered from eye diseases.[7]

Formation

At the initial stage, the team included Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese people and were 24 years old on average. Some members had never met and they held discussions and completed tasks on the Internet. On 3 September 2017, Retina told the Liberty Times in an exclusive interview that the team had then consisted of four people as his friends gradually graduated or become employed.[7]

The current production team as displayed on YouTube consists of anchor “Retina”, producer “Oculomotor Nerve”, film director “Lying Silkworm”, PR manager “Iris” and animation “Pupil”.

Planning

Producer “Oculomotor Nerve” and anchor “Retina” pointed out that by proclaiming to be the “state media of China” and using terms like “Mainland occupied area, Hong Kong special occupied area and Taiwan free area of the Republic of China”, it highlights the absurdity of the Constitution of the ROC that is in force.

The team wishes Taiwanese people to re-discuss what the ROC is, and spark the viewers’ interest in politics and social affairs. They wish to target young people aged 35 and below, as “they may have a confused identity or are shaping their identity. Their national identity isn’t deeply entrenched yet, and can be reconstructed through various discussions.”[9]

Reporting style

The contents of EYECTV programmes involve satirical political correctness and self-censorship, for example:[10]

  • President of ROC Tsai Ing-wen is referred to as “President of China”, and Kaohsiung is called “Kaohsiung, China”.
  • The ROC is proclaimed to be the “sole legitimate China”, and the map of ROC (consisting of Taiwan, Mainland China and Mongolia) published by the ROC Government until 2005 is used.[6]
  • President of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Xi Jinping is referred to as “bandit chief” or “Winnie the Xi”.[10]

Programmes

Regular programmes
  • Central Television in One Minute
  • Central Television Walks the Ground
  • Central Television Guest Hall

Special programmes
  • Central Television New Year’s Gala, 2017 (ROC 106)
  • Republic of China celebrates Double Tenth: 68 years since the fall of the Mainland China
  • Republic of China celebrates Double Tenth: 69 years since the fall of the Mainland China
  • Central Television New Year’s Gala, 2019 (ROC 108)

Impact

On 5 January 2016, the Green Party–Social Democratic Party alliance held a press conference and played EYECTV’s video that mocked President Ma Ying-jeou’s policy for young people.[11][12]

References
  1. "為何自稱官媒？ 眼球中央電視台：用反諷凸顯憲法荒謬". Liberty Times. 2016-11-03.
  2. "什麼！30年交不到女朋友 也是陸客不來的錯？". UDN. 2016-09-07.
  3. "自製反諷新聞影片 網路媒體好吸睛". PTS News. 2016-12-11.
  4. "對岸看過來！網推「藍八大攔轎寶島旅遊攻略」". Liberty Times. 2016-10-17.
  5. "「金罵獎」酸片神嘲諷 摑面黨大贏家". Apple Daily (Taiwan). 2015-11-22.
  6. Chang Yu-hsiang (2016-11-02). "【媒體】將中華民國憲法秋海棠荒謬性極大化". New7. Archived from the original on 2017-01-30. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
  7. "打著「央視」反中國 走進視網膜的新聞直播間 - 文化週報 - 自由時報電子報". Archived from the original on 2018-08-27. Retrieved 2018-03-30.
  8. 發自台北, 特約撰稿人 林揚軼. "中華民國官媒、央視春晚⋯⋯這個笑話，我們想講給台灣人聽｜端傳媒 Initium Media". 端傳媒 Initium Media (in Chinese). Retrieved 2018-03-31.
  9. "為何自稱官媒？ 眼球中央電視台：用反諷凸顯憲法荒謬 - 生活 - 自由時報電子報". Retrieved 2018-03-29.
  10. "直擊「央視」在台灣 惡搞百無禁忌". 蘋果日報. 2016-11-05.
  11. Weng Jung-hsuan (2016-01-05). "低薪窮忙 綠社盟：非年輕人努力與否的結果". 新頭殼 newtalk.
  12. "央視改編藍營廣告？ 主打：一個中年 各自表述". Liberty Times. 2016-01-04.
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