China's Media Going Global

[If you read my last post, here is a follow-up article from the NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/weekinreview/12rosenthal.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&sq=testing%20the%20chinese%20way&st=cse&scp=1]

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Lots of cool things happened this week.

I'll start with a Yale Club in Beijing event that my friend, Dominic, and I attended last Sunday. Half in search of good Dim Sum, and half interested in the topic of “China’s Media Going Global”, we set out for the Swissotel hotel in Chaoyang, where the Yale Club was hosting a brunch and lecture featuring one of CCTV’s regular anchors, Tian Wei. (China Central Television is China’s main news station. It has several channels, all of which are closely associated with the CCP).

Tian Wei is the moderator for CCTV’s daily talk show, “Dialogue”, and the weekly global debate program, “World Insight”. After some preliminary research, I learned she is best known for her direct and probing interview style, and her insights to important domestic and international events. Her frankness and knowledge were clearly evident as she spoke to us about the Chinese media.

Because of a holiday in the middle of last week, most people were working the weekend to make up for the missed days. As a result, only 15-20 people showed up for the brunch, and Dom and I were definitely the youngest in the crowd. It turned out to be quite a diverse group, with Chinese locals, foreigners, men, women, students, working professionals, Yale alums, Harvard alums, and even others working in the media market but with no affiliation to the university. All in all, we walked away with a lot to think about.

Tian gave us a brief introduction to herself and her career before launching into a lengthier discussion on China’s media market, its recent globalization, and implications for its future. She was surprisingly candid about everything, constantly reminding us that she is “not a spokesperson for CCTV”. She touched on everything from the Xinjiang riots in ‘09 to the growth of civil society and its impact on journalism. She even addressed the tougher areas of censorship, journalist ethics, and the top-down hierarchy within CCTV and the CCP. A word that came up quite a bit was the ever so important GuanXi, (关系), meaning “relations”, and referring to the personal connections that influence Chinese government, media, and society.

What I found most interesting in what she said was that she does not believe China itself knows where it is going, or even where it wants to go. (Another related NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/weekinreview/26sanger.html?_r=1&hp) Everybody is trying to predict the future of this great nation, yet whether or not the CCP is willing to commit to a credible and competitive media market is still up in the air. I was also surprised when she affirmed that she believes she has more freedom of speech because her programs are in English, as the producers/authorities are less likely to track every little thing she says.

I majored in East Asian Studies while at Yale, and took most of my classes within the major on Chinese politics and history. I ended up focusing most of my academic interest on the Chinese media, which culminated with several seminar papers analyzing the relationship, or I should say power struggle, between the CCP and both traditional and new forms of mass media, and my senior research project, in which I looked at traditional Chinese values as displayed in magazine advertisements over the Reform Era. I was hoping to hear Tian’s thoughts on these specific areas, and was surprised by how closely the day’s discussion resembled my previous classes.

It was almost as if I was back at Yale, sitting around a table discussing this material, but this time, instead of being surrounded by my classmates and professor, I was having the discussion with one of the most renowned CCTV journalists herself, in addition to Chinese professionals, those involved with the Chinese media, and Beijing students and professors. This week the Light Fellowship asked us why we spend so much time overseas, and why we feel the need to study abroad multiple times. Aside from the obvious answer, this event is an example of why I decided to come back to Beijing, and this time for a year. I feel like I just spent four years at Yale preparing for this, and now I get to come here and implement it. Now I get to actually have these discussions with people directly involved with the issues, whether it be the future of the Chinese media, the tendencies of the Falun Gong, or the status of Taiwan. Especially in comparison to last summer, I feel like I now have the time, language ability, and am slowly acquiring the cultural comprehension necessary to be able to live out what I learned about back at Yale. Also, I often got caught up in my studies and life at Yale, and being here, attending events such as this, is exactly what I need to remind myself of why I chose to major in what I did. It confirms my interest in the language and pursing a career related to US-China relations in some way.

In other news, I took my first midterm on Thursday, found a really interesting Japanese bar right in Wudaokou, left the city for the first time since arriving to go hiking, and bought a bicycle, (finally!)