Cultural education via MTV clone

BEIJING - I'm starting to get hooked on the Chinese version of MTV on CCTV, which is Chinese cable. I'm a pop music hound anyway so it was bound to happen. The Chinese and I have that in common.

My interest was piqued a couple of days ago watching a video by a male singer, who was representing a style that was equal parts Justin Timberlake and Jordan Knight. He could dance and he ended his video with a Janet Jackson-style chair routine complete with the fedora, thrown to the foot, kicker.

I came home from the women's USA-China game on Monday night and turned on the TV only to get immediately sucked into this video of a ballad called "I do yes I do." It was a familiar story. I didn't need to understand the Chinese.

Boy meets girl. Boy likes girl. Girl likes boy. Boy, wearing many fashionable scarves, chases girl. Girl gets mad and petulant. Boy bends over backward to win her back. Boy and girl walk in the park. Boy and girl make meals together, play electronic piano together. Boy gets dragged in deeper. Girl, wearing pedal pusher leggings in the dead of winter, knows boy is leaving. Girl breaks up with boy. Boy and girl must now say goodbye. Girl totally disses boy with a handshake. (Cold.) Boy walks away. Girl realizes mistake and yells after him. Boy and girl embrace, teary-eyed. Boy still must leave girl to go to school.

Boy arrives at school and promptly gets run over crossing the street. 

I'm not kidding. That slayed me. I sat up in my bed at 2 a.m. screaming, "What the ...?!!?"

That's good stuff. I hadn't been that surprised by a plot twist since Kate threw her car into reverse on the season finale of Lost.