Among the dozens of reality talent shows that have appeared in China over recent years, The Voice of China is a big hit among the increasingly critical Chinese audience due to its complete focus on music.

Premiered on July 13, 2012 on the Zhejiang Television cable network, The Voice of China is part of the Voice franchise and is largely based on the Dutch program The Voice of Holland, a program whose format has been adapted to many other countries.

The show includes three phases: a blind audition, a battle phase, and live performance shows.

In the blind audition, the four judges/coaches choose teams of contestants - most of them are singers drawn from public auditions - without seeing them, and turn their chairs to signify that they are interested in working with that artist. Each team of singers is mentored and developed by its respective coach.

The competition then enters into the battle phase when the coaches pick two of their own team members to sing the same song together in front of a studio audience. After the vocal face-off, the coach must choose which singers will advance in the competition.

Finally, each coach will have his/her best contestant left standing to compete in the final live broadcasts, singing an original song. From these four, one will be named "The Voice"—and will receive the grand prize: a recording contract.

“The program focuses on the value of music and supports musical works that can stand the test of time and remain close to people’s lives.” said The Voice of China’s official website.

A large majority of Chinese Weibo users believe it is the best reality talent show ever introduced to China. They applauded the contestants’ superb musical sensitivity, the honest coaches without acid tongues, and above all, the beautiful, varied, and inspiring voices.

User 黄金窝窝 wrote：“I just watched the fifth episode. Fantastic! It is better than any other talent show. Now I am going to watch the other four episodes.”

User 偶是水水 wrote：“The creative ideas of the program are first-class. I watched all five episodes in one go. Sometimes it made me cry and sometimes made me laugh. I was totally carried away. The high-level program overtakes any other entertainment programs. Super Good!”

Despite its huge success and high audience ratings, one of the major traits of the Chinese version is the sometimes redundant attention on the contestants’ tragic family background, a widely-employed tactic to earn social sympathy and support, some argued. Some contestants even fabricated sad stories about their childhood and family members as a showcase of their bravery and persistence in the face of hardship.

It is indicative of the growing significance of people that come from a low socio-economic standing in the commercial media market, but it also has become a widespread problem in Chinese reality talent shows, which seem to miss the point of the show – the voices, experts of the mass media said.

“The show is not about their physical appearance, job and family background. We care about only their voices.” said Jin Lei, chief director of The Voice of China.

By Xu Xinlei