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5月18日 We're Not With Vatican, But We Do Defend Them Yahoo! Photo
You know a funny story when you see one, even for an heathen Chinese.
According to Xinhua News Agency, the independent Chinese Catholic Church is calling for a boycott of the movie Da Vinci Code because of the many affronts it contains against Catholic doctrines. Liu Bainian, vice president of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, tells Xinhua the association is considering sending a letter to church members nationwide telling them not to watch the movie, which has just premiered in China. A newspaper run by the Henan branch of the church, state-approved of course, has been calling for a boycott and running stories about overseas "reaction" to the movie.
Yes they have long rebelled against the Vatican and are still taking a strong stance against those old men in funny red robes, but some things just don't change. The same impatience with dissenting ideas, to say the least. Not that the movie itself, or the novel (ugh!) is that great, but come on! It's a movie for St. Pete's sake!
The Da Vinci Code is sacrilegious of course, but what about "all religions are superstitions", the doctrine all Chinese born after 1949 are brought up under? Would the church denounce that too?
But who knows, common resistance against the movie may help bring up the flirtation already going on between the Chinese Church and the Holy See. After the latest row over ordination of bishops, wouldn't this be a fine occasion to mend some fences. 5月12日 Ethics, Ethics, EthicsThe Huaxia Times debate has been eclipsed in the last few days by a much more sensational story involving a popular tabloid, a burned-out rock star, his ex-wife the most famous Chinese singer ever, their daughter and her puppy, his second ex-wife, his erstwhile fellow rock star, some broken computers and TV sets, and last but not least, a burned car.
I could only count on the infallible EastSouthWestNorth to do the translating. But the gist of the story is: the used-to-be China's most talented rock musician, Dou Wei, has apparently been on a streak of very bad luck in the last few years, with a career going down the drain, a famous divorce with his first wife and an infamous one with the second, and almost weekly coverage of his messy private life in Chinese tabloids.
Finally losing it on Tuesday, he charged into (who else but) the Beijing Times office, demanded to speak to the entertainment reporter that had been concocting one story after another about him. When refused, he went berserk, smashed some computers, TV's, threw water on employees, and went outside, doused an editor's car with gasoline and burned it.
I get exhausted even trying to summarize all this. But the aftermath on the Internet is even bigger. The sheer volume of content on the above linked Sina page is overwhelming. Most reader responses are, again, in fierce condemnation of the newspaper, many of whose previous stories on Dou Wei were found to contain more than a little mere hearsay. An online survey by Sina finds 60% of people in support of Dou Wei. Now the rock star faces time in jail for arson, and the newspaper has issued a roundly-worded statement defending itself and denying any wrong-doing. Media commentators and critics are having their day of the year.
This time around I wouldn't presume to play the ethics hawk, not even think about it. Personally I wouldn't call entertainment news journalism, nor be so stupid to try to apply any of the usual ethical standards on these reporters, whatever country they are in. As far as I am concerned, Dou Wei could stuff all the entertainment reporters that ever reported on him in that car and burn'em all with it.
5月11日 The Huaxia Times DebateIn the last few days I have practically tired myself out arguing with fellow journalists about the ethical problems in Beijing-based tabloid Huaxia Times' Reporting of the Peking University student who died in the traffic accident. EastSouthWestNorth explained the whole incident in great detail. Here's what happened afterwards:
Readers and netizens, outraged by the journalist's subterfuge reporting and the publication of her story, posted messages on many domestic Web sites condemning her and her employer. They tracked down, presumably through Internet search engines like Baidu or Google, her name, phone numbers and address from a resume she posted on the Web, as well as a Huaxia Times editor's blog post bragging about their "exclusive reporting", and how they beat rival papers by obtaining intimate information about the dead girl and her boyfriend.
Always trying to be the ethics hawk, I hurled myself right into the debate. Several posts (1 2 3 4) have appeared on the Reporters' Home online discussion board, drawing thousands of reads and dozens of responses. I was surprised to find some journalists have come to the perpetrator's strong defence, saying things like "judging from her story, there isn't much wrong done", "everybody is doing this, why shouldn't she?" "given the cut-throat competition between newspapers, what she did isn't such a big deal." etc. Many are upset about what the students did to track down the journalist.
I tried to make the point that journalists should be extremely sensitive to the feelings of victims and those close to them when reporting deadly accidents, and that subterfuge reporting should only be used in cases involving significant public interests, and only when there's no alternative means of obtaining the information. The students only dug up public information available on the Internet, and that's about the only thing they can do to hold accountable the reporter who hurt their feelings so much.
Many journalist do seem to agree; others simply dismissed the principles regarding bereavement and subterfuge reporting as "not in line with China's unique conditions".
I quoted from the UK Press Code, which I recently have had the opportunity to examine, to make exactly the same points, and to suggest that maybe China, too, needs a self-imposed and self-regulated press code in a similar fashion. Absolutely no response to that, aside from a few sarcastic comments on why the Brit stuff doesn't fit in here. Yeah, maybe this is indeed too much ahead of our time.
But to argue the specific ethics of this case is like upsetting the hornets' nest, surely to bring forth painfully bitter debates, virtually fistfights, about all aspects of the evil beleaguering the Chinese press. In the end I had to rest my case -- there is very little common moral ground for journalists from different press organizations to stage a meaningful discussion, as we could't even agree on the simple fact of whether a journalist should begin his/her day with a clear conscience.
I am, however, relieved to know that at least some newspaper reporters are keenly aware of the problem of low ethical standards among their peers, and are trying hard to establish their own frame of reference. It really doesn't harm to learn how the the British, the Americans and other foreign press professionals go about their business, whatever our "guoqing" is. 5月7日 China's Abramoff? Shit happens when a financial broker ventures into political rain-making.
During His Majesty's recent visit to the US, national media gave high-profile coverage to the story by Yale alumnus Victor Gao (Gao Zhikai), who is now chief counsel of China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), better known as the Chinese oil firm snubbed in its notoriously-failed bid for Unocal.
Gao told unsuspecting domestic news media including CCTV and 21st Century Economic Herald that he was the man behind the visit and speech at Yale. The idea first struck him in 2002, during Bush's visit and speech at Tsinghua University (bad show on both sides at that too), says Gao: if Dubya speaks at His Majesty's alma mater, it would be only appropriate for Him to repay the kindness at Yale, home to "many American leaders", Skullers and Boners, Nake Olympians and such.
According to Gao, he then wrote to Yale President Richard Levin, popping the idea to the latter's great delight (Gao makes it sound like it had never occurred to Yale before to invite His Majesty), and proceeded to work with US Ambassador to China Sandy Randt to get a Yale invitation letter to the Chinese foreign ministry.
Meanwhile, Gao conveniently slips in the background about himself: former interpreter for late leader Deng Xiaoping, recommended by Kissenger to Yale, got a JD in '93, now senior VP and chief counsel at CNOOC, etc.
So continues Gao's story: Katrina, of course, screwed everything up in August 2005, and the visit was rescheduled. President Levin visited China in September 2005, and discussed renewing the invite with Gao, who had apparently been acting as the unofficial go-between ...... Next thing you know, His Majesty addresses Sprague Hall!
Pretty moving story about an American-educated prominent Chinese businessman working selflessly to promote the friendship between the two countries, isn't it? Execept Yale doesn't think so. Here's excerpts I have just obtained of a Q&A between a Chinese magazine and Yale :
Questions from China Campus and the answers from Yale Office of Public Affairs:
Yes, it was conceived by Yale. On is first trip to China in 2001, President Levin encouraged former President Jiang Zemin to visit Yale if he returned to the United States. Levin later renewed the invitation with President Hu shortly after he became president.
There were many meetings between representatives of President Hu and Yale to prepare for the visit. The visit was originally planned for September 2005, but was postponed because of Hurricane Katrina, which made it impossible for U.S. President Bush to meet with President Hu at that time. All the planning for the September 2005 visit was helpful preparation for when President Hu rescheduled his trip.
There were no private parties of which Yale is aware that facilitated the visit.
We do not know if someone wrote the letter you describe on behalf of Yale alumni in China. We do believe that President Levin’s invitation and official contacts with the Chinese government led to President Hu’s decision to come to Yale.
....... Wow. That's a pretty hard slap across Victor's face. Talk about alumni relations. This seems to be a specific retort to Gao's claims. Now it becomes a "Gao says, Yale says" situation. From the above I can't tell for sure who's lying, although I have a vague idea. Gao's story, if checked out, would help elevate him right into a higher plane of business-political lobbyists. He has a lot to gain from the story.
Again, Chinese press played a ignoble role in this farce. CCTV and 21st Century Economic Herald, among others, didn't seem to have checked Gao's story with Yale. They simply swallowed Gao's story up, hook, line and sinker. Did they figure a senior official at a state-owned Chinese firm, and who had also worked at numerous respectable foreign and Chinese investment banks, wouldn't lie on such a matter of significant political implications? Or were they simply kissing up in exchange for a favorable tip-off on CNOOC's next big move? For the thousandth time, shame on them.
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