After I came to Chengdu, I discovered that many brothers and sisters’ families did not have TVs installed in their homes for the sake of their children’s education. This was quite surprising to me, as I felt differently. Ever since I went to elementary school, I have liked watching TV after watching TV shows such as “Journey to the West” and “Ikkyū-san“.
Black and white TV
I remember that there were a total of two or three TVs in my village. When watching “Journey to the West”, a yard was filled with dozens or hundreds of people. In reality, without amplification, the sound was faint. From over ten meters away, you couldn’t make out details on the small 14-inch screen. What I loved was the atmosphere; what I yearned for was a glimpse into a larger world.
Color TV
In the late 1980s, my stepfather brought a 14-inch color TV produced by Sichuan Changhong Factory, which finally ended the history of going to other people’s homes to watch TV. This type of television is terrestrial television, which is transmitted wirelessly and requires an indoor antenna or an outdoor antenna. This TV has 8 buttons for switching channels. The right side of the button can be opened, and the signal and color can be fine-tuned inside. I have been living on campus since I was in junior high school. I come back once or twice a week. When it was time to leave, I felt reluctant to part with the TV. I’d often linger to watch Shandong TV’s afternoon ‘advertising and literature’ segment before heading back to school.
Satellite TV
I didn’t watch TV in high school, and I watched videos and movies in college. In 2005, I went to work in Beijing and became obsessed with satellite TV. At that time, I lived in the Mingguang Beili Community next to the Jimen Bridge on the North Third Ring Road. I had a balcony facing south, and the headquarters of China University of Political Science and Law was downstairs opposite. On a balcony less than two square meters, I began my journey into satellite TV enthusiasm.
The main satellite receiver is dm500s. I forgot what model of the machine I used before. Many satellite TVs are not free and require a subscription card. The subscribe card is very expensive. Some subscribe cards on a satellite will cost about several hundreds dollars. In my country of piracy, they came up with a plan. Just buy a genuine card, put it on a server, and then all receivers connected to the Internet to read the account information on the genuine card.
With this small dish antenna, I could probably receive signals from a few satellites. But I mainly receive programs on the Asia-Pacific 5C satellite at 138 degrees. On this satellite, there are several channels of BBC, CNN, HBO, CTITV, EBC, Phoenix TV, National Geographic, as well as CCTV. What I often watch is a gospel TV station in Taiwan – GOODTV.
There is a Christian talk show “True Love Blog” that I often watch, and it is for some Christians to share their testimony. One episode featured an interview with a Christian named Jiang Ximing, titled ‘Rivers in the Desert’. Jiang played a live poem of his own creation (the video starts at 45 minutes and 11 seconds), and I still remember it now:
no longer go with the flow
From now on, I will walk with the Lord, no longer go with the flow, I will turn back now, please love me, and no longer go with the flow
Lost, I didn’t know to turn back; Jesus pleaded for me. Henceforth, the prodigal returned; Jesus still loves me.
The station also broadcasts many preaching programs, such as “Joel Osteen” (https://www.joelosteen.com/ ). I later realized that this is the standard prosperity preaching exactly.
Then why not use youtube? Youtube was only established in 2005, and there are not many program sources then.
Maige box
In 2012, an IPTV box called “Maige TV” became popular. I use its service from 1st generation to 3rd generation. Its general method is: collect some satellite TV or cable TV signal sources in Hong Kong, Taiwan or somewhere in the mainland china, and then broadcast it through video streaming. About one or two hundred TV stations can be received, including various TV stations in Europe, America, Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China. Therefore, this box was used not only in mainland China, but also by Chinese TV lovers all over the world.
In the second half of 2014, after the launch of the third-generation H3D model, within a year, Hong Kong and the mainland began to crack down on this piracy. The server was shut down.
At the end of 2020, one day I suddenly received a QQ message from a Maige box agent I had added, and asked me if I remembered him. He had just been released from prison in those days and had been isolated from the world for five years. He was afraid that the world had forgotten him.
Online TV
Android TV was only released in 2014. It can be said that this is a set of operating systems. I bought several Xiaomi boxes based on android tv, and the most impressive one is the enhanced version of Xiaomi Box 3. It can install google framework with root permission, thus you can install youtube in it. But it was later abandoned due to Xiaomi’s censorship of user-installed software and its secret deletion.
Mibox s international version is a TV box launched by Xiaomi for foreign markets. In addition to youtube, it has the certification of Netflix and can watch Netflix. I remember being excited for a while after installing Netflix successfully for the first time.
This year, when recommending a TV box to a friend, I found that mibox s are not very popular anymore. Google built google tv on the TV stick chromecast and launched chromecast with google tv. The price is $39.99, and the domestic price is less than 400 RMB.
In addition to its beautiful appearance, the Chromecast has a very beautiful interface. If you can have a US ip address, you can see this interface with many options. If it is a non-US ip, it is a very concise interface.
Moreover, users in the United States will have built-in TV stations by Pluto tv. There are probably hundreds of TV stations to broadcast.
As a fan of Marvel and National Geographic, I subscribe to Disney+ . It has five parts of TV to watch: Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic (subject to change based on ip). Disney+ is worth subscribing, although its ip requirements are very strict.
Conclusion
- The important role of television media is to transmit information, and access to information is a basic human right.
- I don’t believe it makes no difference who holds power. If Mao had lived another 40 years, I likely wouldn’t have been able to watch any television programs from outside China, similar to the situation in North Korea.
- Reform and opening up gave me the opportunity to know more about the world.