via: 胡泳's blog - 谁“通”中国 (in chinese), Dr. Hu Yong has worked for a number of prominent media in china, including the China Daily, San Lian Life Weekly, CCTV, Internet Weekly, etc. and he was also a columnist for Fortune China magazine and the author of a number of popular books. in a recent post he commented on Kristof and his style of reporting china:
从新闻的专业角度讲，我不认为纪思道写了一篇好文 章。它和我们无数次读过的美国记者有关中国的报道太相像了：对整个国家的状况和趋势作出一个十分泛化的推断，而支撑这个推断的基础却并不十分牢固;有关官方立场的片言只语，有限的目击证据，普通人的一点轶事，再加上异议人士的数则访谈。如果说新闻是 反映现实的镜子， 那么上述的文章映射的却是走样的画面，因为它有选择地强调和诠释了某些特定的主题、价值和事件，而这是以牺牲其他的主题、价值和事件为代价的。
judging from the professional standard of journalism, i don't think Kristof wrote a good article. it was not that different from numerous "china stories" reported by those american journalists - those "china stories" make a very general speculation on china's current situations and future trends, however, the groundwork that supports the speculations is not solid enough, a few isolated words of official stand, limited witnessed evidence, ancedotes of ordinary people, plus a few interviews with dissidents. if journalism is a mirror reflecting the reality, then such "stories" only reflect a distorted picture of the reality, because they selectively highlight and interpret certain subjucts, values and events, which unfortunately at the expenses of overlooking other subjects, values and events.
and Dr. Hu gives those foreign china observers some advice on how to study china:
如果你想在中国以外的地方研究中国，你的研究的起点 必须是中国，而不是西方。所谓“研究的起点在中国”有三个涵义：第一，在研究中国时，把注意力集中在中国社会内部因素，而不是放 在外部因素上；第二，产生历史变化的根源来自内部因素；第三，从置于中国语境（Chinese context）中的中国问题着手。
if you want to study china outside china, you starting point must be china, instead of the west. what i mean by saying that "the starting point must be china"? first, you must focus your attention on those internal factors instead of external ones of chinese society; second, (keep in mind that) changes of historic significance must come from those internal factors; and third, start your study from "chinese issues" in chinese contexts.
i was quite lucky to find an excellent example to do a little more elaborations on Dr Hu's point.
in the past few days my eyes was catched by various analysis on Culture Ministry's new rules to regulate the songs played in karaoke bars, and i had two posts on the event, one in english - "opinions from readers", antoher in chinese, talking about the implications from this event, i.e., how monopolized power could collaborate with affiliated business for their own good, and how japanese failed to prevent such collaborations with scrutinies from political parties, media and the public, etc in 1980s.
not surprisingly, when western media picked up the story, it's "media censorship" again, and this time it's the LA times:
the whole event has little to do with censorship - the Ministry of Culture developed the new rules for various reasons, money, pressure from song writers, good image, just name a few, and to censor immoral songs might be the least thing they would like to care, the impressions that chinese government starts to censor politically sensitive contents in another corner of the country is totally misleading, which is undoubtly and unfortunately the only impression most readers of the above LAT article could get.
with such stereotyped views of china reinforced in your minds (i call it western media brainwashing), you lost the excellent opportunity to learn such insightful analysis given by a chinese business daily, which talked about the relationship between the governments and its affiliated business, the roles that the public can play in order to prevent such collaborations and more important, what chinese cares about and the evolution from business progress to political changes.
is it beyond the capabilities of the foreign journalists or china-watchers? yes if they are always preoccupied by the "kristof way of seeing and understanding" china.
last weekend i read an article by a german sinologist (Kubin?) complaining chinese complaints that "foreigners don't understand china", i think he was totally wrong in saying that chinese complain in order to save face or chinese just don't like to be criticized by foreigners.
TBC