Top TV producer shows changing face of China Party

By Guo Shipeng

BEIJING (Reuters) - A top television producer whose best-known work has been criticised for poisoning China's youth seems an unlikely choice to be a delegate to the country's Communist Party Congress.

But Wang Ping, 40, is representative of a slew of new faces among Party delegates, who now include everyone from sports stars to entrepreneurs.

Wang is the mastermind behind the American Idol-style "Super Girl" singing contest, which became one of the most successful TV shows in China's history after it hit the airwaves in 2004 but also earned the wrath of old-guard propaganda czars.

"There were quite a lot of negative opinions against 'Super Girl'," Wang told a small group of reporters on the sidelines of the Congress, which closes on Sunday.

Wang, general director of the show produced by Hunan Satellite TV, was undaunted by the criticism.

"After China's development all these years, the independence and diversity in our audience's thinking are set to become greater," said Wang, looking youthful in a sharp suit.

"Super Girl" tapped into that trend, becoming a smash hit whose record ratings unnerved China's state television and spurred copycat shows.

Teenage girls flocked to compete in the contest and viewers sent millions of text messages to vote for their favourites.