As a newspaper employee, I read columns in other newspapers and try to learn something from them in my attempt to write my own columns. I always wondered privately if there is a knack for column writing but never found any. Recently, however, I discovered a trick to some columnists' writings.

Here is the trick: If you want to impress your reader, write something that defies common sense.

About two weeks ago, in a regional contest of Super Girl (a Chinese version of American Idol) in Guangzhou that was live cast on TV throughout the country, Ms Sun Yixin was singing and dancing when her left hand moved to have the hem of her miniskirt lifted and her white underpants exposed.

The episode caused widespread attention. In the following days, most media and cyberspace critics and audiences reproached the girl for the "indecent" behaviour. A number of people, however, defended the girl, claiming that her move was an unintentional one.

An opinion columnist, while making the same claim, criticized the girl's critics for being "dirty minded" and "muck-raking." He questioned them: "What the hell have you seen?"

The columnist, surnamed Jing, then continued: "The lifting of the skirt hem is nothing dreadful, nor is what was exposed to our eyes. What is really worrisome is what we have in our mind."

This remark is really astounding. He was actually saying that so long as the audiences have a clean mind, it does not matter how much the girl exposes her private parts. This viewpoint obviously offends against common sense.

If Mr Jing's viewpoint holds water, we needn't worry about children being contaminated by TV programmes involving sex and violence, for children have the cleanest mind. But I am certain Mr Jing would not allow his child, if he has any, to watch any such programmes.

Mr Jing may argue that he was referring to adults rather than children. Then I would like to ask him: Is it really acceptable for a TV station to screen any indecent scenes, no matter how abhorrent they are, because adults have strong immunity?

Another media columnist, named Hongshui, angrily berated the government department supervising the TV industry because the department reportedly had criticized the Super Girl programme and requested to "clean the TV screen." He called the criticism a "farce" and ridiculed people's worry about the influence of the indecent TV show as "having underestimated today's youngsters' ability to stand (the test)."

Mr Jing and Mr Hongshui are undoubtedly much more liberal minded, more avant-garde than those who they jeered as "apologists of old ways." They must have felt indignant that old conventions still prevail in this country.

They must also, however, feel disbelief if told of a law called the "Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act" in the United States. Under the law, radio stations and over-the-air TV channels may not air obscene material at any time, and may not air indecent material between 6 am and 10 pm.

I wonder what Mr Jing and Mr Hongshui would say if they were in the US and heard about CBS's being fined US$550,000 for airing a brief exposure of one of Janet Jackson's breasts.

Of course, in the skirt-hem lifting event, there is controversy over whether Ms Sun did so deliberately or accidentally. The Hunan Provincial TV Station, the host of the Super Girl gala, claimed that the skirt-hem was "fanned up by the movement of Sun's hand while dancing."

I examined the video recordings and photos published on Internet and found that Ms Sun's pulling the hem with her left hand was so obvious that anyone who has a normal sense would regard it as a deliberate move.

And any average person would think the move was an indecent, disgusting act that should not be allowed on TV screens. This is common sense.

Email: liushinan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 08/09/2006 page4)