space oddity phase. she auditioned with in my heart there`s only you, never her, an oldie made famous by taiwan`s liu wenzheng—a man. in the main competition she sang other songs written for male performers and called herself "a tomboy." for an audience reared on the bubble-gum, lip-gloss standards of chinese girl pop, li`s disregard for the rule book produced an unfamiliar knee-weakening. her fans wept openly and frantically shrieked when li took the stage. the show ruffled feathers among beijing`s commissars. by the final episode, li and her two remaining rivals had switched their repertoire to patriotic folk songs.

　　li`s victory was unusual in other ways: like american idol, but unlike china itself, "super girl`s voice" is run democratically. eight million sms votes flooded in on the night of the finale. for a few weeks after, the mainland press debated the relevance of this format. "only something that smashes social norms could elicit such a response," yu guoming, a media expert at people`s university, told the beijing news. "after all, in china the opportunities to use votes to choose are relatively few." an editorial in the china daily wondered: "how come an imitation of a democratic system ends up selecting the singer who has the least ability to carry a tune?" as li prepares for a nationwide tour with the other finalists, her handlers are loath to discuss the political dimensions of the program or of li`s triumph. hunan entertainment channel refused time`s requests to interview or photograph li. according to one of her many agents, they were worried the story would portray li as more than just an entertainer. but she is more: li represents unabashed individuality, and that`s why she`s a national ic