Chinese debate show ‘I Can I BIBI’ huge cross-Straits success among young viewers

From left: Hosts Ma Dong, Gao Xiaosong and Li Dan on I Can I BIBI

If you spend any time walking around public spaces in China, there is a high chance that you've heard people talking about I Can I BIBI, the famous Chinese online variety show that just wrapped up its fifth season on Saturday.

Known as Qipa Shuoin Chinese and formerly U Can U BIBI in English until this season, the show is a debate program produced by online video platforms iQiyi and Miwei Media. During each episode, two teams debate about a single topic, and the team that gains the most votes from live studio audience wins the round. The show became a huge sensation after its first season debuted in 2015, and four seasons later it has still managed to keep its appeal. The fourth season of the show racked up more than 780 million views.

The fifth season this year, which kicked off on September 21, was one of the most talked about subjects on Chinese social media since participants from all over the world applied to take part in the debate program.

Talking about life

"I like this season of I Can I BIBI," Sun Yizhu, a student who is also a member of the debate team at Beijing Forestry University, shared her opinion of the recent season with the Global Times.

"Every topic has made me think, especially when candidates express their opinions from different perspectives and in different ways. I really adore it. I want to be one of the debaters."

The fifth season, released under the rebranded name I Can I BIBI, has attracted a huge number of fans with its new rules and new faces. When the final episode of season 5 was released on Saturday, there were more than 6 billion posts related to the show on Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo, while the show topped the most-searched lists on a number of online platform such as Baidu, Zhihu and Yi'en.

"More topics about love and relationship have been added into the discussion," Sun said.

"Which I think caters more to the tastes of the public because they are closer to everyday life."

According to the data released by Chinese streaming site iQiyi.cn, 65 percent of the show's viewers are aged 18 to 35. Therefore, more topics related to the lives of young Chinese have been discussed on the show such as "Who should apologize first when you fight in a relationship," or "If you had a button that would display how much your partner loves you, would you push it?"

The latest season's decision to include more candidates and guests from Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia has also helped fuel the show's popularity outside the Chinese mainland.

Kevin Tsai, one of the show's hosts and a huge name in his home province of Taiwan, has played a key role in getting fans from the island to tune into the mainland show.

"Tsai doesn't just debate, he digs deep into human nature," netizen Zhoushiyu noted on Chines Q&A platform Zhihu.

"He has a big heart and can see straight to the essence of a topic."

Jonas Hwang, also born in Taiwan, a professional debater who won the International Varsity Debate competition in 2003 and 2005, has also helped attract viewers from the island.

"I saw a lot of improvement in these candidates. Also, because this is not a pure debate, it is also a TV show, so it is important to have empathy. You need to stir up the emotions of the audience," Sun said.

Rise and fall of variety shows

With the rise of variety shows such as I Can I BIBI, Temptation Banquet (Fanju de Youhuo) and Who's the Murderer in China in recent years, more and more viewers from Southeast Asia have become hardcore fans of mainland shows.

"I watched Qipa Shuo, it was very deep. I felt so sad I cried," a netizen nicknamed X noted on Twitter.

In Taiwan, I Can I BIBIranks at No.3 among all online variety shows. This has sparked discussion about the rise in mainland shows and the decline of those produced in Taiwan.

"I have to say I find this quite normal, because the mainland has been constantly developing at a rapid pace, while Taiwan just stays still and even goes backward," netizen Xuweizhounzhangkailin noted on Chinese media review platform Douban.

"I think the gap between the two will become larger in the future."

Also on Douban, an article written by a netizen who claims to be from Taiwan named Shihuahaitan gained a lot of attention on social media for accusing the Taiwan TV show School Babe Come(Xiaohua Laile) of plagiarizing I Can I BIBI.

The article listed in detail the rules and format of both shows, demonstrating the similarities between the two.

"Before we laughed at shows from the mainland, saying they could only copy others. Then we looked down on them for buying a lot of copyrights for shows. And now, we have finally started to copy them - how sad."