Renowned musician Liu Huan appears in The Voice of China as one of the show's judges and coaches.

The past three years have been the golden age for Chinese TV reality shows. They've grown in number and variety, and they dominate weekend primetime hours on almost every major broadcaster.

But it's not hard for viewers to notice the shows' resemblance to foreign small-screen hits. Growing along with the production scale of the singing contests, dating shows and game shows is a bad reputation among Chinese TV producers for unauthorized imitation of foreign program formats. But industry insiders say the copycatting is no longer common and many of the shows nowadays that are suspected of stealing ideas are in fact authorized reproductions.

"There's a new consensus for gaining authorization. That's the latest trend," said Zheng Xuan, director of the program research center at Hubei TV.

Hubei TV recently became the authorized broadcaster of the Chinese version of I Love My Country, originally a Dutch TV show, after the lackluster performance of its first season on Sichuan TV in 2009.

It's hard to trace which Chinese broadcaster was the first to buy the rights to a foreign show. But Hunan TV, one of the most-watched and leading entertainment broadcasters, took the initiative by producing authorized Chinese versions of the UK-originated Strictly Come Dancing and Just the Two of Us in 2007.

The trend became noticeable when Hunan TV's authorized reproduction of Take Me Out in 2009 set off a wave of similar dating shows in China, including Jiangsu TV's If You're the One in 2010.

"But later, Jiangsu TV was openly criticized by Hunan TV for copyright infringement. I think it was this legal dispute that made Chinese broadcasters nationwide more aware of respecting copyrights," Zheng said.

Since 2009, Chinese television has seen more than 30 authorized reproductions of foreign reality shows - this year alone, there were at least 10. Nearly all of these programs originally came from Europe. The BBC, London-based FremantleMedia, and the Dutch production companies Talpa and Endemol have so far been the main suppliers of these program formats. Half of the shows are aired on Hunan TV, Shanghai's Dragon TV, Zhejiang TV and Jiangsu TV, arguably China's four most-watched satellite channels.