The People’s Daily newspaper, the official “mouthpiece” of the Chinese Communist Party, is not known for its inventive news layouts. Playing its narrow political role with tight-lipped seriousness, it lays out the Party news of the day with careful attention to the political pecking order — which usually means, yes, that Hu’s on first.
Over the weekend, however, Chinese tennis player Li Na (李娜) became the first Chinese national (and the first Asian) to win a tennis Grand Slam final, and that news was apparently immense enough as a source of national pride to warrant a break with form at the People’s Daily. Here is the front page of the June 5 edition of the paper, with a prominent report on Li Na’s victory.