Why Do Chinese People Care More about the US than Themselves?

Published in China Daily
(China) on 15 August 2013
by Lu Qiu Lu Wei (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Brandon Peterson. Edited by Mary Young.
I have been thinking, if I were a high-ranking editor for a nationwide Chinese news organization and I was deciding how to lay out the sequence of that afternoon or evening's news, which of these two would I make the headline: an American school shooting or the stabbing of a student in Henan Province?

Without a doubt, I would choose the former.

If the American school shooting had not happened that day, but the stabbing had, would I choose this latter event as the headline?

Unlikely. I would definitely choose some other news — perhaps a political change in Japan, or some new statistics from the Chinese government showing economic growth or still something else, but it would certainly not be the stabbing of the student in Henan.

Why? By necessity, the news is laid out according to its importance. But how does one determine the level of importance? As far as I'm concerned, the target audience of your own media employer is what must be considered. You must always be thinking: What do they care about?

Of course, within this question, there is a very realistic consideration that could be called selfish, which is: When the audience turns on their television and the news broadcast begins, will they change the channel? When a reader must choose from a pile of newspaper front pages, will they choose the scene of inconsolable American parents or a Chinese child lying in a hospital with his heartsick parents at his side?

I believe my choice is correct; the Chinese target audience really cares a lot about America, especially the natural and man-made disasters that occur there. This is because they can immediately find a topic of conversation or evidence to show that Americans' lives are miserable and their government unbearable.

My conjecture is not without reason — take a look at the commentary in the Global Times. Although I don't endorse many of their points of view or the system of values they pass on, I must admit that, within these articles, you can see a part of the Chinese way of thinking. I even think that the success of the Global Times lies in being able to take many ideas that Chinese people are unwilling to publicly discuss and frankly bring them out into the open — many readers of this newspaper are looking for a sympathetic response.

Often as I am flying within China on business, I will hear a fellow passenger ask the flight attendant, “Do you have the Global Times?” and my mind will always recollect the old woman selling salted duck eggs that Yang Hengjun wrote about. Despite being very poor, she was still worried about those American people who had suffered a shock in the financial crisis because, to her, it seemed they were suffering more than she.

Where did the America this old woman saw come from? Why do so many Chinese people talk about the world, but the only thing on their minds is America? I think this can be credited to media portrayals of America. But what the media will not tell you is that, even after a shooting, Americans don't have a voice with which to hold their government accountable. This is because the government is elected by the people and some responsibility is the result of the voters' choices — for example, the legalization of guns. Therefore, one must accept the results of those choices. If there is to be change, they must continue carrying on the discussion to see what kind of consensus society can ultimately achieve.

If a stabbing such as the one in Henan happened in Hong Kong one day, how much space would the American shooting take up in the news? I can imagine that, as far as the Hong Kong media and people are concerned, at this time, there would be no time or energy to care about what happened in America. Similarly, after such a shooting happens in America, as far as Americans and the American media are concerned, bigger things that happen outside of the U.S. become insignificant. The justification for this is simple: Local media is naturally most concerned with what happens locally. If we say that Hong Kong is too small, in that case, to the American media, a dead child in Connecticut naturally relates to all Americans' affairs.

From a humanitarian point of view, all the children who are injured or killed all over the world cause people to feel distressed. Because of this, a college student in Shandong who keeps a night vigil for an American child will not be criticized. But when we lament the life of someone in a distant land, why is it that, regardless of the media or ourselves, we seem so indifferent to a life much closer to our own?

I have always thought it cruel, but it is a fact that if a mining or other accident occurs in China and does not reach a certain death toll, the accident will not take up that much space in the media. The majority of these accidents do not require limits on reporting. Rather, the media has given up because of a very important reason: Since the readers or audience are doing OK, they will not have the interest to follow the story.

Don't blame the media; such judgments are accurate. Ask yourself: If mining accidents occurred in China and the U.S. on the same day, and the same number of people died in each incident, which scene would you like to see more on the TV and in the newspaper?


闾丘露薇:中国人为什么关心美国超过自己

  我在想,如果我是一个面向全中国的官方中文新闻频道的编辑,在决定当天中午或者晚上主要新闻的编排次序时,美国校园枪杀案、河南学生被砍伤案发生在同一天,我会选择放哪一条在头条?
  毫无疑问,我会选择前者。
  如果那天没有发生美国校园枪杀案,只有后者,我会不会决定把这条新闻放在头条?
  也不会,我一定会选择其他的新闻,可能是日本政坛的变动,也可能是中国政府发了经济增长的新数据,或者还有其他,但是一定不会是河南学生被砍伤的新闻。
  为什么?因为新闻的编排,一定是按照新闻的重要性;但是如何判断新闻的重要程度,对我来说,要考虑的是自己工作的媒体所针对的受众,总是要站在那里想:他们最关心什么?
  当然,这里面还有一个很现实或者也可以被称为是势利的考量,那就是当观众打开电视,当新闻开始播放,观众会不会转台?当读者在一堆报纸封面中进行选择的时候,他们会选择美国家长伤心欲绝的场景,还是医院里面躺着的中国孩子,以及身边忧心忡忡的父母?
  我相信,我的选择应该没有错,因为中国的受众,真的很关心美国,尤其是美国发生的天灾人祸,因为马上找到一个谈资,或者一个证据,来说明美国人民的生活是如此的凄苦,政府是如此的不堪。
  我的猜测不是没有道理,看看《环球时报》上的评论,即便不认同里面的很多观点,也不认同这份报纸一直在传递的价值观,但是必须承认,在这些文章里面,可以看到一部分中国人的想法,我甚至觉得,它的成功,在于能够把很多中国人不愿意公开谈论的一些想法,坦率地说了出来,读这份报纸的人,很多是在里面寻找共鸣。
  我常常在国内出差坐飞机的时候,听到身边的乘客问空服人员:“有《环球时报》吗?”那个时候,我的脑海里面总是会浮想起杨恒均笔下的那个卖咸鸭蛋的老太太,虽然生活清贫,但是她还在担心着遭受金融危机冲击的美国人民,因为在她看来,他们比她更苦。
  老太太眼中的美国是怎样来的?为何很多中国人谈起这个世界,心目中只有美国?我想这归功于媒体的的塑造。美国——这个充满了问题的大国,可以作为一个太有说服力的例子,告诉大家,看看所谓的西方,就是我告诉你的这个样子。但媒体不会告诉大家,即便枪击案发生之后,美国人没有问责政府的声音,那是因为,政府是民众选出来的,有些责任是选民自己选择的结果,比如持枪的合法化问题,于是,自己承受选择的结果。如果要改变,也就是继续进行讨论,看这个社会最终能够达成怎样的共识。
  我在想,如果同一天,香港发生了河南这样的事情,那美国枪击案在新闻的篇幅上会占多大的比例?我可以想象,对于香港媒体以及香港民众来说,这个时候,已经没有时间和精力去关心美国发生了什么。同样的,当美国发生了这次枪击事件之后,美国之外的地方,再大的事情,对于美国媒体和美国民众来说,也变得微不足道。这里面的道理很简单,本地媒体自然首要关心本地发生了什么。如果说香港太小,那么对于美国媒体来说,康州死去的孩子,那是关系到所有美国人的事情。
  从人道的精神来看,这个世界各地死去的孩子、受伤害的孩子,都让人心痛,也因为这样,山东的大学生为美国的孩子守夜,没有可被批评的地方。但是,当我们在为遥远地方的生命而痛惜的时候,为何不管是媒体,还是我们自己,对于距离我们更近的生命,显得如此的漠然?
  我一直觉得残酷,但同样也是事实: 一场发生在中国的矿难,或者其他的事故,如果死亡没有达到一定的人数,已经不再会占据媒体的太多版面了。这些事故,大部分并没有报道的限制要求,而是媒体自己放弃了,很重要的一个理由:因为读者也好,观众也好,大家不会有关注的兴趣。
  不要怪媒体,因为这样的判断是准确的。问问自己,如果同一天,中国和美国同样发生了矿难,死亡了同样多的人,你更想在电视还有报纸上看到哪一个场景?
This post appeared on the front page as a direct link to the original article with the above link .

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