When you fry food, you heat it up.

The word for fry in Chinese is chao, but you can chao more than food.

You can chao people as well as events, making them hot and big.

For example, you can chao a singer, known or unknown, making the singer hot.

Chao is now often combined with zuo (work). So chaozuo (fry work), or cooking or creating a buzz is now being practised by some who are becoming experts in the field.

They do whatever it takes to ensure that chaozuo can be applied extensively.

They involve themselves mostly in entertainment and news media.

Their manner is loud, attention-grabbing and sometimes controversial, with emphasis on the unusual.

A good example is the ongoing competition to choose actors and actresses for the new TV version of the Chinese classic A Dream of Red Mansions.

Because the historical novel is so famous and CCTV's original series shot 20 years ago was so successful, it is understandable that CCTV has to embark on a worldwide search for performers. We understand it is of prime importance that competent actors and actresses be recruited to ensure the success of the new series.

However, to search through a televised competition is questionable to many. It deserves to be categorized as chaozuo, cooking up the program to make it hot.

Wang Shuo is anther example of the latest chaozuo practitioner. Known for his black humor, the 40-something writer was a bestselling author in the 80s and 90s, with more than 20 titles and 10 million copies in print.

But he stopped writing and was virtually written off until recently. Two weeks ago or so, he went on a swearing spree on TV and in the papers. He confessed to taking drugs and visiting prostitutes, and he attacked other noted figures in the art circles.

His brazen behavior was met with fury by some who claimed that the author had lost his mind and suffered from a very low EQ (Emotional Intelligence Quotient).

He may have a low EQ, and indeed his low EQ may leave him unpopular. But he is smart, and smart enough to chaozuo his name. Indeed, he is preparing the market for his new works.

Many Chinese despise chaozuo, regarding it as something superficial and philistine, or making things unreal look real. When they have doubts over something big, they blame chaozuo.

An extreme example is the claim by professor Huo Yuping from Zhengzhou University.

He recently said climate change is probably not caused by human activities. According to him, chaozuo is to blame as interest groups have cooked up the threat of global warming. Therefore the government should not try to reduce the nation's energy consumption to reduce global warming.

He used the word chaozuo to criticize the report of global warming. Of course he succeeded in securing media coverage.

However, chaozuo is not necessarily a derogatory term. It is often used to promote public awareness and participation.

The organizers of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, for instance, want to involve as many people as possible in the preparation for the Games, with the theme "I participate, I contribute and I enjoy."

To reach the goal, chaozuo helps.

The 500-day countdown activities are part of the chaozuo. About 40 sports and cultural activities were held across the capital in a week. These organized events are attention-grabbing high profile social activities. They hit newspaper headlines and TV programs nationwide.

So the word chaozuo can have both good and bad distinctive features.

First, chaozuo usually has an agenda, hidden or not. Second, it involves media as a partner. Third, planning is called for to attract public attention. Fourth, it causes a sensation or at least makes a stir, often for commercial gains.

Simply put, chaozuo is an act to sensationalize for desired gains.

Perhaps because of its attention-getting power, some media outlets have begun to apply chaozuo, especially news chaozuo, to increase market share.

News chaozuo, as defined by some as sensentionalizing news, has even been advocated by both academics and practitioners as a way to measure news planning. This is exactly what people are concerned about. Since sensationalism is a common occurrence in media performance, many worry the practice will adversely redefine news and news coverage.

The reason is simple. Chaozuo is designed to attract media coverage, and it works. News outlets attracted to chaozuo cannot expect to be objective.

If the media are involved in creating news or become newsmakers themselves every day, who will benefit in the long run, other than the practitioners of chaozuo?

(China Daily 04/03/2007 page10)