Prison Break, Chinese fan art

I can’t say much about other countries, but young people in China’s and India’s cities loooove the Fox TV show Prison Break.  On the advice of a friendly DVD shop salesman in Beijing (who, incidentally, hated 24 and loved the Sopranos), we bought the first two seasons this summer in China and began watching.  We were hooked.  Who knew that Fox was enlisting the young urban elites of India and China in a giant conspiracy theory about the U.S. government that lots of them now half-believe…

You may have read about the amateur translation collectives who can translate and subtitle a new Prison Break episode within 4 hours of its broadcast in the U.S..  The Chinese PB fansite is here, and it has all kinds of fan art and miscellania such as Prison Break t-shirts for 55 RMB; video clip of Wentworth Miller’s appearance on Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show, with Chinese subtitles, for your cellphone; photo of a Chinese student abroad who met the actor who played Mr. Kim.

The site of course has a discussion forum with a special section on original works 原创剧场. There you can find a short story imagining Michael Scofield’s first experience of Sona in the first episode of Season 3 (which begins in the fall), as well as an MV, or music video, done by a Chinese fan, which puts scenes from Prison Break against music.  There are tons of these on Youtube made by viewers from all over the world, but if you’ve watched the show you’ll appreciate the utter bizarreness of the words to this sugary sweet English-language ballad (original version by SuperGirl 3rd place winner Zhang Liangying), set to pictures of mortal enemies, scenes of sadism and torture, murder, and the occasional romantic moment of conjugal visits in prison and kisses between long lost lovers. Link.