Reference News Network, March 7**Dao, the United States, "The New York Times**" recently published an article entitled "Tetsuko Kuroyanagi: A 100-year-old woman can also host a talk show", the author is Suko Richie. The following is an excerpt from the article:
Tetsuko Kuroyanagi pushes a walker through a TV studio in Tokyo. With the assistance of his assistant, he slowly climbed the ** steps, came to the stage, and sat in a cream beige armchair.
The stylist took off the sturdy pair of tailored boots on her feet and replaced them with a pair of high-heeled mules. The makeup artist brushed her cheeks and touched up her with bright red lipstick. The hairstylist smoothed out a few strands of her signature onion hairstyle, while another assistant rolled her black embroidered jacket with a lint roller. In this way, the 90-year-old Kuroyanagi is ready to record the 12193rd episode.
The "incarnation" of the history of Japanese television
One of Japan's most famous artists for 70 years, Kuroyanagi has been interviewing guests on her talk show "Teruko's Room" since 1976, setting a Guinness World Record last summer for the number of episodes hosted by the same host. Generations of Japanese film, television, theater and sports personalities have sat on Kuroyanagi's couches, as well as American stars like Meryl Streep and Ms. Gaga, Britain's Prince Philip, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Kuryanagi said Gorbachev remains one of her favorite guests.
Kuroyanagi joked that she wanted to keep the show until she was 100 years old. Known for her speedy speech, she is adept at directing guests to topics like dating, divorce, and now more and more about death. Despite her efforts to appeal to a younger generation of viewers, 28-year-old Korean-Canadian actor and singer Ahn Hyo-sub appeared on the show this month, many of her guests in recent years have spoken about the pain of aging and the loss of her peers in the industry.
Kuroyanagi first rose to fame by acting on early Japanese television, but gradually found a format that featured a program that made the interviewee feel good, and his unique style is still familiar to almost all Japanese people today. She was not just an interviewer, but she also dressed herself as a character, thus opening up a new genre of Japanese performing arts—television artist. Nowadays, the genre is ubiquitous on television.
In some ways, she really looks like the embodiment of (Japanese) television history. Alan Groh, a professor of East Asian literature and film at Yale University, said.
Women are advised to be self-reliant.
What sets Kurokagi apart from everyone else is her longevity. In an environment where men are overwhelmingly dominant, she is also a groundbreaking woman.
When she started working as a variety show host in 1972, if she asked a question, "people would tell me to keep my mouth shut." In a hotel near the studio, she recalled in a nearly two-hour interview that she had already recorded three episodes.
I think Japan is no longer the same as it was back then. She said.
She is a deaf advocate and a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Children's Association. But critics say she has contributed little to women's causes despite such a pioneering career. "She is the symbol of the prosperity and beauty of the past," Ms. Hayashi, a research professor at the University of Tokyo, said in an email.
As the only woman in a room, she often doesn't dwell on the humiliation of these experiences in interviews. She said that when she was in her thirties and forties, men in the television industry would offer to date her or propose to her — something she hinted that was often not what she wanted. In addition, some of the remarks that may now be considered inappropriate, she used to be a joke.
In such a society, she believed that there were still many "feudal" elements of gender relations, and she suggested that women should get ahead on their own.
Never say that because you are a woman, you can't do anything. She said.
She said she entered television to make appearances on children's shows in preparation for her motherhood, but she never got married or had children. "It's better to stay single for such a unique job," she said, "and it's more comfortable." ”
Take control of the situation with the guests".
The black willow has always maintained a childlike quality. For the interview, she swapped out her signature onion bun and covered her hair with a light blonde Shirley Temple-esque microwave wig, finishing with a giant black velvet bow.
It's all part of the harmless image she's created over the years. "She's amiable and cute," said Miko Nemotomiya, a professor at Tokyo Senshu University's School of Business Administration, who studies gender issues, "and she doesn't criticize anything, doesn't bring up any political topics, and doesn't say anything negative." ”
Although sometimes compared to Barbara Walters, a pioneer American female journalist, Kuroyanagi does not challenge interviewees too much. The producer will ask the guests in advance if there are any topics they want to avoid or focus on, and Kuroyanagi usually does so.
In this week's recorded show, her guest is Kabuki actor Rokushi Meme Kankuro Nakamura, whose father and grandfather are regular guests on Kuroyanagi's show. Nakamura seems to know before the prompter that there will be questions about his family next.
My top priority is to control the situation with the guests and make sure that the audience doesn't think the guests are weirdos or bad guys," Kuroyanagi said, "and if possible, I want the audience to realize, 'Oh, this guy is pretty good.'" ”
Inspiration for the elderly.
As she grew older, she began to confront the plight of her generation on the stage of TV Asahi, where her show aired for 49 years. For example, Kuroyanagi, who interviewed the lyricist of the song "Sukiyaki" before his death in 2016, Nagakusuke, appeared in a wheelchair and already had obvious symptoms of advanced Parkinson's disease. Kuroyanagi spoke frankly with him about his condition.
Her presence is sure to be an inspiration to the elderly. Takahiko Kageyama, a research professor at Kyoto Doshisha Women's University, said.
Kuroyanagi, who has noticeably slowed down her speech, says that inspiring the elderly is what motivates her to continue working. "I'm going to prove that a person can be on TV at the age of 100 and be in good shape and have a spinning brain," she said, "and if I could do it, I think it would be an interesting experiment." ”