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.
CDT ChinaCast is a podcast series of short and informal conversations with journalists, business people, artists and others doing interesting work in China. For the initial series, China Digital Times bloggers will interview foreign correspondents about their lives and work. The interviews do not aspire to find solutions to the many contradictions and challenges facing China in the 21st century – rather, we hope to offer a personal look at day-to-day life in one of the most complex and dynamic countries on earth. How do foreign reporters go about the business of covering China? What are some of the most unusual stories that have come out of the country in recent years? And what do expat journalists living in Beijing or Shanghai do for fun?
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