Name: Russian man 'trapped' on Chinese reality TV show finally voted out after three months
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Russian man 'trapped' on Chinese reality TV show finally voted out after three months

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This article is more than 1 year oldThis article is more than 1 year oldVladislav Ivanov says he regretted his decision to join Produce Camp 2021 but fans refused to vote him outLast modified on Wed 5 May 2021 06.55 EDTA Russian man who joined a boyband competition show on Chinese TV on a whim but quickly regretted his decision has finally been released from his ordeal after making it all the way to the final.Vladislav Ivanov, a 27-year-old part-time model from Vladivostok, was working on the show Produce Camp 2021 as a translator when producers reportedly noticed his good looks and asked him to sign up as a contestant.Ivanov told the programme he had been asked “if I’d like to try a new life” and agreed, but quickly came to regret the decision. Unable to leave on his own without breaching his contract and paying a fine, he instead begged viewers to send him home and deliberately performed poorly in the hope of being voted off.The programme concept, which originated in Korea, pits young performers against each other to train and eventually form an 11-member international boyband, chosen by a voting public. Ivanov and his fellow contestants were sequestered in dorm rooms on Hainan island and their phones reportedly confiscated.Using the stage name Lelush, Ivanov told viewers “don’t love me, you’ll get no results”, and repeatedly pleaded with people not to vote for him. His first song was a half-hearted Russian rap, in stark contrast to the high-pop of his competitors. “Please don’t make me go to the finals, I’m tired,” he said in a later episode.“I hope the judges won’t support me. While the others want to get an A, I want to get an F as it stands for freedom,” him as saying.His pleas went unanswered, however, and he was propelled through three months of competition and 10 episodes, plus supplemental digital content. A fanbase which had taken to his grumpy, anti-celebrity persona, or were perhaps driven by schadenfreude, urged each other to vote for him and “let him 996!” in reference to China’s digital industry culture of chronic overwork - .Others called him “the most miserable wage slave”, and celebrated him as an icon of “Sang culture”, a Chinese millennial concept of having a defeatist attitude toward life.After making it to the final, Ivanov grumpily ate a lemon on camera, and said he hoped people would not support him again. “I’m not kidding,” he said, deadpan.He was eventually voted out in the final episode, which aired on Saturday. “I’m finally getting off work,” he posted on his Weibo account the next day.A Weibo hashtag related to his departure was viewed more than 180m times and reposted more than 59,000 times, including by the Russian embassy. “Congrats, have a good rest,” the embassy said.Russian media reported that Ivanov had been mobbed at Beijing airport as he left the country, defying rumours he would stay to build a modelling career.Reports of a captive Russian from Vladivostok being held prisoner on a Chinese reality show had led to an online campaign at home for Ivanov to be released from his contract, which bloggers coined #FreeLelush or #СвободуЛелушу.State media began reporting on Ivanov’s predicament about a week ago after popular Russian bloggers posted about the interpreter’s unlikely run. “It’s not funny any more, let Vlad go home!” .“I am very sad and disturbed. It might have been amusing for some time, but the situation is becoming absurd.”Popular blogger Ruslan Usachev said Ivanov’s high profile, if reticent, participation had boosted Produce Camp’s aura of an international competition – no doubt pleasing Tencent, the Chinese tech giant that runs it.“Suddenly a real live person appeared on this show and people started to vote for him,” Usachev said. “Partially because he stands out [from the other contestants.] But mainly because it’s just kek” - a term, adopted by gamers, that refers to an amusing incident.Ivanov’s story, which has gained him millions of viewers and fans on social media, has drawn accusations of being a publicity stunt, but his friend, the agency executive Ivan Wang, who had hired him to chaperone and translate for his two Japanese clients on the show, said he really disliked being in front of the camera.“One time, I got him a modelling job in Hong Kong, he sent me a SOS message saying he couldn’t stand it five minutes after arriving on set,” Wang told a Chinese entertainment blog.“He declined repeated participation requests by the director of Produce Camp 2021. He just said yes after getting bored on the island. He thought joining the show might help his introverted personality.”

This article is more than 1 year oldThis article is more than 1 year oldVladislav Ivanov says he regretted his decision to join Produce Camp 2021 but fans refused to vote him outLast modified on Wed 5 May 2021 06.55 EDTA Russian man who joined a boyband competition show on Chinese TV on a whim but quickly regretted his decision has finally been released from his ordeal after making it all the way to the final.Vladislav Ivanov, a 27-year-old part-time model from Vladivostok, was working on the show Produce Camp 2021 as a translator when producers reportedly noticed his good looks and asked...

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TheGuardian.com, formerly known as Guardian.co.uk and Guardian Unlimited, is a British news and media website owned by the Guardian Media Group. It contains nearly all of the content of the newspapers The Guardian and The Observer, as well as a substantial body of web-only work produced by its own staff, including a rolling news service.

Russian man 'trapped' on Chinese reality TV show finally voted out after three months

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