Ａ　Ｇｒａｓｓｒｏｏｔｓ　Ａｒｔ　Ｅｎｔｅｒｉｎｇ　ｔｈｅ　Ｍａｉｎｓｔｒｅａｍ.docVIP

Ａ　Ｇｒａｓｓｒｏｏｔｓ　Ａｒｔ　Ｅｎｔｅｒｉｎｇ　ｔｈｅ　Ｍａｉｎｓｔｒｅａｍ 　　 　　FOR more than two decades the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, a smorgasbord of various art forms running from 8pm to midnight every Chinese New Year’s Eve, has dominated Chinese TV screens. It is routinely followed by national voting on the most popular act each year. This year performer Zhao Benshan garnered the highest number of votes for his comedy skit Money Is Not the Issue. 　　In fact, Zhao has been one of the most popular acts for the past 10 years. This time he shared the honor with two of his disciples, Xiao Shen Yang and Mao Mao, who co-starred in the skit. “After more than 20 years on the stage, what pleases me most is seeing two of my disciples performing with me this year,” he said at the award ceremony for the best acts. 　　 　　A Rural Lad Becomes an Overnight Star 　　 　　The CCTV Spring Festival Gala has been staged every year since 1983. For entertainers, an appearance signals prominence or promise, since the national audience of hundreds of millions is one of the best routes to nationwide stardom. This was evident in the ascension of Xiao Shen Yang this year. In the week following the gala, reports on the 27-year-old flooded the entertainment pages of all major print media, and his lines from Money Is Not the Issue were widely quoted. Several local TV stations scrambled to invite him onto their shows, offering as much as RMB 100,000 per appearance, a huge leap from the few hundred he was earning for each appearance prior to Spring Festival. 　　Xiao Shen Yang’s overnight success was foreseen by his mentor Zhao Benshan, who had been waiting for this moment for a long time. For four years Zhao had recommended Xiao Shen Yang for every CCTV Spring Festival Gala, but was unable to get him on to the final list of performers. The main obstacle was the producers’ qualms about the transvestite roles the youngster was best known for, as well as the contentious nature of his comic routines. 　　Seeing Zhao Benshan’s unf