English in The Voice of China

In the first season (2012) of The Voice of China - a televised singing competition presented in a 'reality TV' format - 186 songs were performed on the program's stage to make the show one of the most popular in the history of Chinese television. While roughly one-third of those songs were performed entirely in Chinese, the other two-thirds contained some English elements (including a sizable number performed entirely in English). English lyrics function to achieve three linguistic goals: expressing referential meaning, voicing private feelings and directing routine speech acts. In doing this, however, some English lyrics deliberately blur the boundary between Chinese and English in order to develop an innovative and flexible style of performance.