China Digital Times

CHINA NEWS SECTION: Podcast

• Photo: A baby drinking milk

  

  

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  • September 13, 2008 10:12 PM

• Keane Shum: Why the Games Bring Out Ugly Side of the Chinese

  

  Keane Shum, a young Australian of Chinese background who is studying in the United States and is currently working in China for the Olympics, writes in the Age:

  The slogan for the Beijing Olympics is “One World, One Dream”. It is plastered in huge print on billboards across China, but no one can tell me which “one dream” it is that we are all supposed to be chasing. And as the nation fires up its Games preparations, it’s also starting to look less like we all come from the same “one world”.

  I am working in Beijing for the summer. More than anything else, this is because I wanted to be here for the Olympics. I wanted to be a part of what is supposed to be a seminal moment for my people. My parents are Chinese originally from Hong Kong and Indonesia who migrated to Australia in the 1960s. I was born in Sydney. I have never lived in mainland China full-time and may never do so, but because I am Chinese, what happens in China happens to me. Ethnicity runs deep in this country, among its people, and across the oceans of our diaspora. I want China to win the most gold medals. I want Chinese brands sold in American department stores.

  But in the past six months, Chinese nationalism has started to scare me. I was shocked at how fiercely young Chinese fought back against Tibet supporters. I have been saturated by the Chinese media’s self-congratulatory glorification of the response to an earthquake that should not have killed 70,000 people. As I get the chance to work on the Olympics and watch them, I am not elated, as the Chinese Government tells me to be, but, instead, disappointed.

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  • July 30, 2008 8:39 AM

• CDT ChinaCast: Interview with IRN’s Peter Bosshard

  

  This week CDT ChinaCast focuses on China’s role in Africa by talking with Peter Bosshard, the policy director of International Rivers Network(IRN), a California-based environmental NGO. Bosshard and IRN have worked with global groups and communities to stop large and destructive dam projects.

  They were quite successful until facing a real challenge from China, which has started building large dams in place like Africa.

  Bosshard says, when China builds the dams, it is so destructive that no-one else wants to work with them. He gives an example of the Merowe dam in Sudan. This project forced over 50,000 farmers to move from the Nile valley where they have lived for generations into desert where nothing can grow. Bosshard raises the questions for China: Who will benefit, and who will pay the price for the dam projects China has built in Africa?

  Listen to the interview here.

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  • January 29, 2008 10:00 AM

• CDT ChinaCast: Interview with a Reporter from Burma

  

  
  This edition of CDT ChinaCast goes a little farther afield as we speak with an experienced reporter from Burma about the recent Burma crisis. Because of strict censorship and media control in Burma, we won’t use his name of our source or go into too much details of his background.

  Since the incident happened last month, he is currently overseas, has been trying to connect with his reporter friends in Burma everyday. First he chatted with them online and got photos and the updated news. But only until September 26, when the Burmese military started to crackdown on the demonstrations, shot monks and people on the street, and cut off access to the Internet. Then the communication became difficult. He called his friends but could only have short conversations, as there was the third ear.

  In this Q & A with CDT, he points out the message that can be learned from this event. As he says, “the Burma military went too far this time…” He also tells us that citizen journalism made a big difference to bring the latest news and images out. Thus, unlike in the past, the military was not able to cover up their crackdown, which sadly is still continuing. He also talks about China’s important role countering the Burma government. As the Burmese junta’s only major life-line, China could have shaken up the government by sending them a strong message. Yet what happened was disappointing.

  Listen to the interview here.

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  • October 12, 2007 9:40 PM

• ChinaCast: Andreas Lorenz on Germany’s Late China-phobia

  

  This week’s edition of CDT ChinaCast’s Foreign Correspondents Series features Andreas Lorenz, Beijing correspondent with German magazine Der Spiegel who came back in 1999 after serving the magazine in eastern Europe and southeast Asia. He left China in 1991 largely because of more “exciting” change, especially politically, in the former Soviet bloc countries and a sudden cooling of interest in China after the June 4th student movement.

  Here he talks about his attention on China’s environmental consequences overseas, his meetings with both the Communist party secretary of Tibet and the Dalai Lama in India, his observation of the latest mindset shift among Germans, who now always want to ask him, “Do we need to fear China?”

  He also expressed frustration with the difficulty in getting access to Chinese officials, the orchestration of Chinese press conferences, especially the annual op with the premier. But he had a good interview with Pan Yue, the outspoken deputy minister of the State Environmental Protection Agency.

  Listen to the interview here (NOTE: sound quality is not superb and you may need to turn the volume up).

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  • May 20, 2007 11:19 PM

• ChinaCast: Federico Rampini’s Communist (and China) Bond

  

  This week’s edition of CDT ChinaCast’s Foreign Correspondents Series features Federico Rampini, Beijing correspondent with Italy’s la Repubblica and former visiting professor at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

  Here he talks about his experience with communism in his college years and how that played a role in his coming to China. He just published a book in Italy, titled “The Shade of Chairman Mao,” in which he tried to answer a “big question”: while China is one of the most capitalist countries in the world, some people still have admiration for Mao. And he observes that China’s “authoritarian regime,” in the short run, is sustainable so much so that other countries, like India and Vietnam, are attracted by the China model.

  A huge fan of running marathons in the past, he had to quit this hobby since being based in China, due to the severe air pollution. But he loves his job, and takes it, along with traveling, as another big hobby. Not until he arrived in Beijing on a permanent basis did he learn that many cities in China have a high quality of life, especially Beijing, Shanghai and other “exciting, vibrant” cosmopolitan areas. And he is eager to stay in China as long as possible, so that he will be able to witness, and write about, political change, which he believes will happen some day.

  Listen to the interview here.

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  • March 26, 2007 9:10 AM

• Chinacast: Interview with The New York Times’ Howard W. French

  

  

  New York Times features writer and amateur photographer Howard French holds forth in one of the most voluminous editions of the Chinacast Foreign Correspondents Series so far. Based in Shanghai, French covers a wide swathe of China through a staggering variety of lenses”the Internet, business, demographics and social dislocation, mass incidents and marginal politics. He’s been a foreign reporter for the New York Times since 1990, with previous postings in West Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Before coming to China, he was the newspaper’s man in Tokyo. He talks to us about the shock his first dining experience in China, drowning in the abundance of China stories, and whether or not he’ll be able to cope with ayi withdrawal once he goes back to the US.

  Listen to the interview here.

  See some of French’s recent work for the New York Times and his blog, A Glimpse of the World, with links to his photos of Shanghai’s dying old neighborhoods.

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  • March 12, 2007 12:00 AM

• CDT ChinaCast: Interview with Yomiuri Shimbun’s Ryoichi Hamamoto

  

  This week’s edition of CDT ChinaCast’s Foreign Correspondents Series features Ryoichi Hamamoto, former Beijing bureau chief for Yomiuri Shimbun. Hamamoto reported for Yomiuri for 30 years, including seven years covering China. Hamamoto’s interest in China goes back to his high school time when he became fascinated by Chinese characters. That experience lead him to foreign studies and Chinese language studies at the University of Tokyo. He joined Yomiuri Shimbun after his graduation. After he worked locally in Japan for 6 years, he started to explore international reporting. His first assignment was in Indonesia, then he had two assignments in China. First he worked as a correspondent, then he became the Beijing bureau chief. Right now Hamamoto is a senior research fellow in Yomiuri Shimbun Research Institute and he’s planning to write a book about China’s contemporary revolutionary route.

  During Hamamoto’s two assignments in China, he experienced two important eras, the Hu Yaobang Era and the Jiang Zemin Era. He collected some bullet shells from Tiananmen Square in 1989. He reported on the conflicted anti- Japan issues in China. His interview with a leader of an anti- Japan website made him feel it is difficult for Chinese young people to understand modern Japan. Then how will Sino-Japan relations move on?

  Listen to the interview here.

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  • February 26, 2007 11:59 PM

• CDT ChinaCast: Interview with Kyodo’s Yosuke Watanabe

  

  This week ChinaCast moves its Foreign Correspondent series outside the familiar territory of Western journalism by talking with Yosuke Watanabe, Bejing bureau chief for Japan’s Kyodo News Agency. A senior foreign correspondent at Kyodo”one of the agency’s elite coterie of “China Hands”"Watanabe has worked in Shanghai, Hong Kong and, most recently, Washington D.C., where he witnessed the 9.11 attack on the Pentagon. He has been in Beijing since 2004.

  In his conversation with CDT editor Josh Chin, Mr. Watanabe talks about being a Japanese reporter at a time of high-tension between Japan and China, the surprise of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Beijing last year, and the popularity in China of the novelist Haruki Murakami.

  Listen to the interview here.

  Read an article by Mr. Watanabe on China’s taste for Japanese fiction.

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  • February 12, 2007 7:14 AM

• CDT ChinaCast: Interview with Marketplace’s Jocelyn Ford

  

  
  This week’s edition of CDT ChinaCast’s Foreign Correspondents Series features Jocelyn Ford, former China correspondent for American Public Media’s Marketplace Beijing bureau. Ford reported for Marketplace for over 10 years, including five years covering China. Most of her stories focused on the dramatic social and economic changes in China, the vast gap between rural and urban areas, and clashes between people as they struggle to live in a complex and changing society. Ford is also one of the few foreign reporters who has worked within the Chinese state media. In this edition, our first live recording in a studio, Ford will talk about the work environment at China Radio International, the Chinese national public radio station, where she found a lack of creativity and abundant censorship. Her live show about people’s reactions to September 11 in China created problems for her and caused her to leave her job.

  Listen to the interview here.

  - Listen to some of Jocelyn Ford’s reports, such as her stories about Land rights in China .

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  • January 28, 2007 11:59 PM

• CDT ChinaCast: Interview with The New York Times’ Jim Yardley

  

  
  This week’s edition of CDT ChinaCast’s Foreign Correspondents Series features Jim Yardley, China correspondent for The New York Times Beijing bureau. Yardley has reported for NYT for nine years and he has covered China for over three years. In this edition, Yardley will speak of the biggest stories for each year he covered in China. He has traveled throughout China and written on varies of topics, including social unrest, gaps bewteen rural and urban area and the severe pollution problems. One article he did with another NYT reporter Joseph Kahn on China legal system won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize. Personally, Yardley has focused a lot on Chinese environmental issues. This year he took a six weeks trip along China’s Mother River – the Yellow River and found fascinating stories.

  Listen to the interview here.

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  • December 19, 2006 11:51 PM

• CDT ChinaCast: Interview with CNN’s Jaime Florcruz (Part 2)

  

  This week’s edition of CDT ChinaCast’s Foreign Correspondents Series continues to feature Jaime Florcruz, the current Beijing bureau chief for CNN. As we mentioned in last week’s podcast, Florcruz has been in China for 35 years, and he is considered one of the godfathers of foreign reporting in China.

  In our last edition, Florcruz mainly talked about his journalism experience since 1980, especially what he saw and reported on while covering one of the biggest stories: Tiananmen Square in 1989. In this edition Florcruz will speak of the changes in the media environment over the past two decades, and more about the very recent crackdown on both foreign and Chinese media. He says, “A lot is happening behind the scenes…”

  Listen to the interview here.

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  • December 12, 2006 8:44 PM

• CDT ChinaCast: Interview with CNN’s Jaime Florcruz (Part 1)

  

  This week’s edition of CDT ChinaCast’s Foreign Correspondents Series features Jaime Florcruz, the present Beijing bureau chief for CNN. After spending 35 years in the country, Florcruz is one of the godfathers of foreign reporting in China.

  In 1980, Florcruz started work as a news assistant with Newsweek in Beijing. He joined Time Magazine in 1982, and served as its Beijing bureau chief from 1990 to 2000. Florcruz has been eyewitness to China’s entire economic and social reform period. Among his first-hand reporting experiences in China, Florcruz reported one of the biggest stories in China: Tiananmen Square in 1989. He followed the students’ movement and co-wrote a book called “Massacre in Beijing.” He said the young students’ passion, idealism , and nationalism was reminiscent of his own history in the 1970s as a young student leader in his home country, the Philippines. Florcruz ended up staying in China for a prolonged time after the former Philippines leadership blacklisted him for his activism. But Florcruz has not regretted this experience, as he says China is the best news beat in the world. In the first part of our podcast, Florcruz will talk about his early experience in China and his observations in Tiananmen Square.

  Listen to the interview here.

  Stay tuned for the second part of the interview with Jaime Florcruz, which will be posted on CDT next week. In that segment, he’ll analyze changes in China’s media environment over the past two decades and the recent tightening of media control.

  Read some of Florcruz’s reports, such as “China’s communist regime is cracking down on those who seek freedom.”

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  • December 5, 2006 2:31 PM

• CDT ChinaCast: Interview with PRI’s Mary Kay Magistad

  

  
  In this edition of CDT ChinaCast’s Foreign Correspondents Series, seven-year China veteran Mary Kay Magistad of Public Radio International in Beijing talks about rural challenges such as health care and a lack of substantive rural growth, environmental coverage, and positive prospects for the new young generation who don’t have much political baggage or memory of upheavals. She also appreciates being a reporter couple, with the Boston Globe’s Jehangir Pocha, with whom she shares travels and insights into work-related subjects. Her decade-long interactions with hundreds of Chines farmers have gained her deep insight into China’s poor. Even without agricultural taxes, Magistad says, farmers still worry about paying tuition for their kids. The biggest burden, however, is health care. A little girl’s broken arm drove her parents into months of migrant labor and months more of paying off the debt. Something a little more serious could easily cripple a rural family.

  Listen to the interview here.

  Listen to some of Magistad’s radio reports here: 4-part environment series (Part I, print; Part II, print; Part III, print; Part IV, print), China migrant report, Charitability in China, and Global Migration and Immigration (print) for Nieman Reports Fall 2006 Issue

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  • November 28, 2006 2:00 PM

• CDT ChinaCast: Interview with Jehangir Pocha of the Boston Globe in Beijing

  

  In this edition of CDT ChinaCast’s Foreign Correspondent Series, we talk with Jehangir Pocha, the Beijing correspondent for the Boston Globe. Pocha also writes frequently for the San Francisco Chronicle and other publications. He talks to ChinaCast about the harshness of nature for Chinese farmers compared with his home country, India; the “colonization” of Xinjiang; the strong bond among China-based correspondents under the watch of a common “enemy;” and life as part of a journalist couple with his partner Mary Kay Magistad, Public Radio International’s Beijing correspondent. “I am not the one who thinks China will collapse tomorrow,” Pocha says. But he does believe that China needs more political change, which he suggests will possibly happen after the next Party congress when Hu Jintao names his successor. And he has seen progress in regard to more voices from the “eight democratic parties” in the past year or two.

  Listen to the interview here.

  Read some of Jehangir Pocha’s reports, such as “China’s Growing Desert,” “China’s Other Great Wall,” and his web site

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  • November 20, 2006 6:40 PM

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