Teaching Journalism in China

We got a first hand look at journalism instruction at China’s best and most prestigious university, Tsinghua, Friday morning.  We attended Professor Li Xuguang’s class.  There were about 70 students, all second year college students, in this class, learning how to write.  The class is taught in Chinese and English.  The students started class critiquing stories from the New York Times and CCTV’s 7pm newscast.  Like many US college journalism classes, there were more women students.  Professor Li teaches journalism much like that taught in America.  Today he told them to be sure to prepare for interviews by doing as much research as possible, to avoid making up quotes and facts, to balance their stories and to be accurate without their opinion in the copy.  He assigned them to go to Beijing’s Hutong district, the oldest part of this capital city, to develop a story about the changing history of Beijing.  He wants them to build a story about Beijing’s heritage and changes.  The students will have to interview long time residents of Hutong.  This class ran slightly more than two hours.  The students get two ten minute breaks.  When Professor Li needs his students attention, or to get them to calm down, he rings a bell. 

Sophomore journalism students at China's Tsinghua University

UIUC graduate student John Paul with Tsinghua University journalism grad student Ling Yun. Tsinghua's Great Hall is in the background, designed to look like Foellinger Auditorium by a UIUC architecture graduate

Today in Beijing...PLUS poll update

Sam Unger and Ted Land report from Beijing...Watch for poll results/answer. 

small world?

Ever since we arrived in China I noticed the image of Che Guevara on posters and on t-shits. Then as I was walking around in the stores I noticed that many of the business were selling Che t-shirts. When I had dinner with a Zhu’s friend, He noticed that I was wearing a necklace with the image of Che.  He was really excited to find something in common with me.  He knew some English, so as soon as he saw the image around my neck he smiled and said “I know Che!” So we had a long conversation about the Cuban revolution. 

Today, as I we waited for our interview with the organizing committee for the 2008 Olympic games I heard a familiar word.  I noticed that the two men sitting next to me were speaking in Spanish.  I was really excited to finally understand what people were saying around me. I asked where they were from and both of them were Cuban.  One of them was a member of the State-run Cuban press who had an interview planned for the same morning and the other man was his translator.  Fidel, the translator, has been living in Beijing for 2 years.  He is master’s degree in linguistics.  He said that Latin America has a lot in common with China.  Since we didn’t have much time to talk, I’m still wondering what he meant by that.  For now, all I know is that the image of Che is somewhat popular in China.

Che t-shirts for sale in Chinese stores:
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Beijing Gets Ready for Olympics

Get ready to meet Huanhuan, one of the cute, cuddly symbols of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.  University of Illinois journalism students reporting in China Thursday visited the headquarters of the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee to learn about the games to be held here next summer.  We met with Zhang Yong, a member of the staff at the Beijing Olympics.  Among other things, we learned that air quality is a big concern for olympic organizers.  Olympic organizers say air pollution in Beijing has been improving but they say it is unrealistic to believe that it will be gone.  They’re urging greater use of public transportation to reduce pollution.  Some polluted plants in downtown have also been moved out of the city.  Organizers are also concerned about traffic in this capital city.  They’ve started a campaign for better, safer, more civilized driving, especially by the city’s notorious taxi drivers.  Beijing is holding test events this summer to try out how the Olympic games will fare at some of the 31 venues in Beijing.  They also believe the Games of the XXIX Olympiad will project a freer, more open and prosperous China. 

Huanhuan, the child of fire, symbolizing the Olympic Flame

Chinese Paper Boys Give Their American Counterparts a Run For Their Money

Today some of the students and myself were lucky enough to get the chance to visit Beijing Youth Daily, which is a newspaper aimed at...you guessed it...youth.  Although it is a youth based circulation, you might say their definition of youth clashes with that of the US.  The editors we met with today said their demographic is any Beijing Citizen ranging in age from 25-40, and while that is not old by any means, by American standards it would not be included in a “youth” category. 
Being from a broadcast background myself, I was a little out of my league when discussing graphics and placement, but to me news is news and therefore I loved getting the chance to meet with reporters and editors alike, and picking their brain a little bit about the business.  Either way, it was a very insightful tour, giving us all an inside look at what being a journalist in another country, especially one so politically different than our own, feels like. For example, all five of the major newspapers, all of which are circulated daily, are state owned...one can only imagine the amount of control our government and politicians might exercise in the US if such power over the press was granted.  State run or not, I still got the feeling that the employees were very passionate about journalism and their duty to the public.

On to a few tid-bits of information about the newspaper business here in Beijing… There are a total of 1,000 employees at the Beijing Youth Daily alone, 300 of them being journalists...the paper costs 1 yuan a day (which works out to be about 10 cents for us in America) with a circulation of 600,000.

And on a more interesting note...the male mannequins pictured below are not soccer players on a team the newspaper sponsors, but rather the paper boys who deliver the news every morning.  Our tour guide said all paper boys employed by the Beijing Youth Daily sport these uniforms while on the job.