After Zhang Da, Cai Chengrong returned to the stage of "Super Celebrity List". (Provided by Sanli)
[Reporter Fu Mingyu/Exclusive Interview] The "Little Singer" section of "Super Popular List" has always been a favorite unit of the audience. It once allowed 5-year-old Cai Chengrong to stand on the stage and sing "Silent Flower" with an appeal beyond his age. Not only did the audience remember it, but Jiang Hui was so moved that she personally forwarded the performance clip and later invited him to be a guest at the concert. Many years later, Cai Chengrong also returned to the show "Back to Mom"; when he grew up, he returned to his status as a student and focused on his studies. This growth trajectory exactly echoes the most important thing about "Celebrity List" regarding child contestants: singing can be a child's talent, but it should not become a matter of winning or losing that is carried on the shoulders early.
The program has an unwritten principle for the little singer: children are here to experience, not to win or lose. Yu Meiren said that she does not want children to be trained to be "little singers" who can only imitate adults' singing, and she does not like to see parents use the stage as a battlefield to win face for their children. She revealed that she once bumped into a parent scolding a Little Singer contestant in the stairwell of a TV station. Yu Meiren was very concerned about it. Later, she kept reminding the production team and parents: the children came to the competition because they like singing and wanted to try what it felt like to be on stage. They were not here to shoulder the family's expectations, nor were they required to win every time.
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When Cai Chengrong was 5 years old, he appeared on the "Little Singer" stage of "Super Popularity List" and took home the bonus.
Yu Meiren said: "We don't want to have a child who imitates adults' singing." Children will be nervous, forget words, and even lose competitions. This is part of growing up. What should be preserved is the innocence and ease when singing, rather than a childhood that is worn away by scores, rankings, and adult standards. Judge Xu Changde also has a very direct way of judging children, "Children are children." He does not ask children to perform in an adult's way of singing, emotional processing or showing off skills, but to see whether the other person has the ability to naturally impress people. He said that when it comes to children, the most precious thing is often not how accurately they sing, but the authenticity that has not been overtrained.
However, Xu Changde also disagrees with parents who blindly reassure their children, "Don't be nervous, just treat it as a matter of fun." He believes that being on stage is inherently stressful, and this is an experience that children must experience personally and slowly learn to face. "To participate in this kind of competition is to have an intense experience and a nervous feeling."
The most touching part of the Little King of Singers unit is that the Taiwanese songs sung by children are often not learned from the Internet, but taught line by line by their grandparents. Many families have intergenerational upbringing, and children come on stage to sing songs that are familiar to their elders. To some extent, they also bring the most important memories of the family to the stage.
The program often reveals the most touching aspects of inheritance from generation to generation through children's singing and children's words. (Provided by Sanli)
Yu Meiren said with a smile that the question she was most afraid of asking her children during the recording was: "Has grandpa come today?" A child once answered seriously: "Grandpa should be here." At first, she thought her grandpa was just sitting in a corner of the auditorium, but later she learned that grandpa had passed away long ago; but the child believed that grandpa would still come to listen to him sing. Yu Meiren said that after finishing speaking, some children would look into the air and shout: "Grandpa, come here." A child's words often make the scene instantly quiet.
Taiwanese songs on the Little Singers stage are never just about nostalgia. Children sing songs that their grandparents can understand, and elders hear their youth, family, and longings being taken over by the next generation in the songs. In recent years, Deng Pinyan, who has made his way to the top with bel canto, has also allowed the audience to see the potential of young singers; but in the eyes of "Celebrity List", rather than being labeled as a genius early on, it is more important to let children who love singing grow up well. Yu Meiren believes that the stage can allow children to experience applause, tension, winning and losing, but it should not take away the reason for them to enjoy music. When Cai Chengrong grew up and returned to school, and returned to his original life as a child after singing, what the little singer king left behind was not just a cute picture, but a true growing memory that belongs to the child.
