WHOM DO I BUY MY MUSIC CD’S FROM - China Horizon



WHOM DO I BUY MY MUSIC CD’S FROM?

On Segment Advertising and Evangelical Publishing Today

Samuel Ling

One of the advantages of living in the Los Angeles area is the availability of at two television channels, which feature Chinese programming. Although they do not provide Chinese programs all day long (the time is shared with the Koreans and other groups), there is enough entertainment and news programs (from Hong Kong, for example), to keep many overseas Chinese happy and informed. The fact that these are free for the non-cable subscriber, like my family, is good news indeed.

Just last weekend, as I was driving to church, I noticed a billboard advertisement on I-5 North (the freeway which goes through downtown Los Angeles). The face was unmistakable – Sum Dim Har, or “Fay Fay” (fat fat) as she is affectionately known. She has been a comedian actress in Hong Kong’s television circles for over twenty years. Her face and thick glasses are familiar, unforgettable features. What is “Fay Fay”’s face doing on a billboard on Interstate 5? As I looked closer while still paying attention to my driving, the advertising was for a Chinese cable television network. Later that afternoon, as I was driving on I-10 going to Monterey Park (the “second Chinatown”), “Fay Fay”’s face greeted me again.

The media, like other industries, know which segments of the market they need to target their advertising at. So it is not surprising to find, for example, Chinese advertisers selling their products, touting their restaurants and health food supplements, on the television stations which feature Chinese programming. In recent months, however, I had noticed something, both on the Chinese TV station, and on ABC (channel 7). It was advertising fromTime-Life, who regularly sells sets of music cassettes and CDs. They had been selling beloved classical music pieces. But this time, the product was praise and worship music, a set of two CD’s or cassettes. All the tunes were familiar to me; on the screen, I see people raising their hands in stadium-like sanctuaries. And the price for this praise-and-worship music set was very inexpensive – under $15 for the set of two plus shipping! I also noticed that the advertising came from both Time-Life and Integrity (a major Christian music publisher).

It is surprising enough to find praise music advertised on ABC-TV. But it is even more surprising to find the advertising running on a Chinese TV channel! The advertising world must know that there are a lot of Christians – at least a lot of churchgoers and buyers of Christian music CDs – in the Chinese community. The world also knows that Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship and the Urbana Missions Convention has a 30% Asian student representation.

I felt bewildered. I felt even a little invaded. My identity, that of an evangelical Chinese Christian in North America, is now a demographic fact used by marketing experts to promote products.

What makes this more complicated, is the fact that major secular publishers of books and music have bought out “Christian,” or “evangelical” publishers. I wonder when will we begin to see New Age and pagan books published by these “evangelical” houses? Will secular publishers interfere with the content of Christian books? Will Christian authors be pressured into writing only what will sell at Wal-Mart and Borders?

Thirty years ago, we could just endorse any book published by Word, Zondervan along with Eerdmans, Baker and Inter Varsity. We don’t expect ABC and Time Life to have anything to do with evangelical publishing. We know where to buy our “spiritual food.” Today, we live in a different world. I asked myself, should I order this CD set? It is really cheap. But the thought of responding to an ad on TV about worship music, paid for by a major secular giant (Time Life), was, to say the least, disturbing.

Jesus calls us to be salt and light in the world; tame as doves but wise as serpents. Jesus reminds us that the eye is our light; is our light shining brightly as representatives and discerners of truth?

March 6, 2001

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