Beijing Letter: There are just three teenage wannabe starlets left in a hugely popular show, basically a Chinese version of Pop Idol, and nerves all over the country are jangling, writes Clifford Coonan
Who will win? The Mongolian Cow Yogurt Super Girl Contest, to give it its somewhat less catchy full title, has high stakes - the chance to be a celebrity, to stand out from the crowd in a country of 1.3 billion and to make big money in a society where cash is king.
"I will strive to get on TV, even to death," said Zhou Ting from Sichuan province, when she joined in the ranks of the Super Girls in a preliminary round.
The programme is merely the latest show in a frenzy of mass-entertainment, western-style TV to hit China's screens, prompted by the strong growth of a new rich middle class.
TV is a serious business in China - state broadcaster CCTV claims to have one billion viewers.
The old days of endless programmes showing the achievements of the air force, or military marches or farming specials are giving way to reality TV shows and chat shows. And Super Girls.
Over 120,000 women from Hunan, Sichuan, Guangdong, Henan and Zhejiang provinces auditioned to appear in Super Girls.
A survey in Shanghai, Chengdu, Chongqing and Hangzhou, showed 40 per cent of city dwellers under 45 watch the show, the brainchild of Hunan Satellite TV.
And while you can't elect the government in China, you certainly can vote for Super Girl, and across the country, fingers are twitching furiously as fans vote by mobile phone SMS message.
Packs of girls patrol the shopping precincts of China's cities, urging people to send text messages avowing their support for Li Yuchun, Zhou Bichang or Zhang Liangying. Li Yuchun (21) is the favourite.
One blogger wrote how he barely got away from a gang of 10 girls in Shanghai trying to force him to vote for Li Yuchun.
"I was surrounded by a group of girls. They were holding pictures of their idol. It's very impressive. It's like the US presidential election," he wrote.
Office worker Rebecca Zhang spoke of a kind of mania. "People are trying every means to persuade people to join the SMS vote," she told the Shenzhen Daily.
Three hours long, the programme can make for excruciating viewing as the girls (no boys here) switch from Evanescence-style gloom to Pink rock-outs to syrupy ballads about friendship.
The costumes range from faux schoolgirl to ludicrous underage vamp. But for sheer drama, Super Girl is unbeatable.
And it's a lucrative business, too. In the competition in Chengdu, the best three singers got 307,071 message votes, each costing up to 30 cents.
"I love Super Girl. There are kinds of different rounds and the last three girls have the chance to become real members of the celebrity circle by becoming singers or TV presenters," says Qi Wen, an 18-year-old student from Harbin.
"It's interesting to watch girls my age performing on stage. They are very pretty and lovely and very self-confident. I feel happy for those winners, and feel sad for those losers. But everyone is great. They are all winners," says Ms Qi.
It's not just Ms Qi who is enthusiastic about the show - it seems that everyone loves it, old and young.
As in the West, the sociologists are not far behind in trying to put this kind of televisual feeding frenzy into some kind of cultural context.
"It has turned into a reflection of reality and the situation of ordinary people, which proves emotionally satisfying for viewers," said Yu Hai, a Shanghai sociologist.
Qian Qing, an analyst at Market-Expert group, said the girl-next-door factor pushed all the right buttons with the normally conservative middle aged and elderly viewer. "The programme emphasised that it set no limit on candidates' age, appearance and signing abilities, which means the Super Girls look more like your next-door neighbours."
This month, a master class in US-style capitalism came to China's small screens with the launch of Wise Man Takes All, the country's first reality TV show aimed at promoting young entrepreneurs.
Around 300 would-be Donald Trumps were chosen from 10,000 applicants to be on the show, and they were interviewed in cities all around China, including Chongqing, Wuhan, Beijing and Shenzhen.
Just 16 would-be capitalists will make it to the televised knock-out stages, competing for a million yuan, around €100,000, in start-up capital.
Perhaps prompted by the Chinese upstart, the venerable Donald himself has said he will launch a Chinese version of The Apprentice, hosted by Pan Shiyi, a famous property developer.
It's still not clear whether Super Girl will be making an appearance on Trump's show.