Now Executive Director of the China Media Project, leading the project’s research and partnerships, David originally joined the project in Hong Kong in 2004. He is the author of Dragons in Diamond Village (Penguin), a book of reportage about urbanization and social activism in China, and co-editor of Investigative Journalism in China (HKU Press).
Bob Garfield of National Public Radio speaks with CMP researcher David Bandurski about ethics and commercialization in Chinese media. The “On the Media” site also contains an interview with Li Xiguang, head of Qinghua University’s School of Journalism. [Click here to download].
Freezing Point, the weekly supplement to China Youth Daily whose closure in January sparked an international outcry, reopened as promised this week, without its acclaimed top editors, Li Datong and Lu Yuegang, and with an essay criticizing the article by history professor Yuan Weishi which first raised the hackles of state censors.
Yuan’s article, which appeared on January 11, took issue with secondary-school textbooks on the nineteenth century Boxer Rebellion (1842-1860) that, he said, taught the superiority of Chinese culture. The article prompted harsh criticism for propaganda authorities, who issued an order for the supplement’s closure on January 24.
The much-awaited critique of Yuan’s January article was written by Zhang Haipeng, a researcher in the Contemporary History Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The critique ran to over 10,000 words and covered the entire front page of the supplement.
“How we recognize the theme of contemporary Chinese history and the many important attending events, is not only an important topic for research in contemporary Chinese history, but a question concerning China’s future path of development and the theory and practice of educating our youth”, Zhang began.
Then came the attack: “The views expressed in the essay, ‘Modernization and History Textbooks’, published in Freezing Point on January 11, sought to deny the basic intellectual gains made by Chinese scholars under the guidance of Marxist research, and severely misguided the youth of our country.”
The article took issue with Yuan’s claim that it was wrong to rally nationalist sentiment among children around the Boxer Rebellion. “The battle against imperialism and feudalism was an important theme in the development of modern China. Only after they had been basically routed, and after the people grabbed their own rule of the country could China relatively smoothly move ahead with modernization”, he wrote.
Quoted in Hong Kong’s Ming Pao Daily, former Freezing Point deputy editor Lu Yuegang said the relaunch of the supplement had resulted from the concerted effort of many people. He read its quick relaunch as a sign times were changing for the better.
Others continued to read the event as an ominous sign. An Apple Daily report quoted a Web-posted article by Chinese writer Fu Guoyong, who said “forces of political criticism should not replace normal academic discussion and criticism”.
[More about Zhang Haipeng, author of the Yuan Weishi criticism. Zhang is 66 years old, and is now a researcher at the Contemporary History Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). He is a member of Executive Committee of Degrees at CASS, which decides on credentials for postdoctorates and other degrees, and is also deputy head of the Japan-China History Research Center at CASS. He is a delegate to the National People’s Congress (Source: Ming Pao Daily)].
[Link to Yuan Weishi article on Freezing Point]
[Scholar Lung Ying-tai’s open letter to Hu Jintao/discusses Boxer Rebellion]
[South China Morning Post on Freezing Point re-launch]
[Associated Press coverage via The China Post]
[2004 People’s Daily clipping with quote from Zhang Haipeng on Taiwanese history].
After nearly five weeks of embarrassing international publicity following the closure of “Freezing Point”, a popular weekly supplement of China Youth Daily, Chinese officials announced the section would relaunch — but its star editors would not be running the show.
The section’s creator and editor-in-chief, Li Datong, and his second-in-command, Lu Yuegang, would be demoted to China Youth Daily‘s news research desk. Top Party leaders at China Youth Daily have also demanded the paper run an editorial on March 1 denouncing the article that reportedly set the controversy in motion.
“Freezing Point” was shut down by authorities on January 24 after printing an article by Yuan Weishi, a Guangzhou professor, who attacked the version of the 19th-century Boxer Rebellion in official Chinese textbooks.
The section’s closure set of a firestorm of international coverage as the most powerful sign yet of growing friction between propaganda commissars and a media with growing aspirations for independence. This week a letter signed by 13 former officials and well-known intellectuals expressed support for “Freezing Point” and asked authorities to relaunch the publication. [Reuters coverage of story].
October 2005 — Yang Daming is the managing editor of Caijing magazine, one of China’s leading economic journals. The magazine is well known in China and beyond for its keen analysis of economic, social and political issues in China. Caijing‘s comprehensive coverage of the SARS epidemic in 2003, for example, distinguished it from many other domestic media. In addition to his work at Caijing, Yang Daming has served as consultant for China Central Television (CCTV).
September 2005 — Currently managing editor of Caijing magazine, Jin was formerly editor-in-chief of China Newsweekly. Jin Liping is one of China’s youngest and best known reporters. Since graduating from journalism school in 1996, Jin has worked as a reporter and editor for several media, including China Newsweek, China Central Television’s “Focus” investigative news program (1998-1999) and Caijing magazine (2001-2002). She served as deputy editor-in-chief for Business Watch from 2002 to 2003, before taking the editorial reigns at Chinese Newsweek. Her best-known features include “Happenings in Guangxi” (广西现象), an investigation into widespread bureaucratic corruption in Guangxi, and “Investigation of the Yuanhua Case”, a story about corruption in the coastal city of Xiamen.
September 2005 — One of China’s most renowned photojournalists, He Yanguang is currently the photo director for China Youth Daily. Among He’s best known work is his series of photographs taken during the SARS epidemic in 2003. Also an experienced reporter, He is a six-time recipient of China’s national news prize. He has been with China Youth Daily since 1983, when he joined the paper as a junior reporter. Click HERE for He Yanguang’s BLOG
September 2005 — Lu Ye is a professor of journalism at Shanghai’s Fudan University and director of the school’s Institute for Broadcast Media and Social Research. Her areas of research include media professionalism, news production and broadcast television. Professor Lu is also acting secretary of the Chinese Association of Communication (CAC), an association of communications scholars promoting the development of communications in China.
September 2005 — Since 1994, Shi Zhengmao has been a reporter, editor and producer for China Central Television. Before joining CCTV, Shi was a reporter for Lifeweek magazine and News and Publishing Daily. Shi holds a law degree from China University of Political Science and Law and has studied economics at Beijing University.
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September 2005 — In the 1980s, Sun Xupei was director of the research office of the Journalism Research Center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and a key force behind the push for media reform and freedom of speech within the socialist system. Sun was also an instrumental figure in early efforts to create a Chinese media law. Currently Sun is a professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology and a researcher at the News and Broadcast Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. From 1981 to 1983, he worked as a reporter at People’s Daily. Sun is the author of numerous books and articles, including An Orchestra of Voices: Making the Argument for Greater Speech and Press Freedom in the People’s Republic of China, which has been translated into English.