Take a look at this website, which has posted six years’ worth of People’s Daily front pages reporting on the opening sessions of the annual National People’s Congress meetings. The Christian Science Monitor blog writes:
No wonder these pictures have been circulating on the Chinese blogosphere under the title, “How hard is it to be pictures editor at the People’s Daily?”
What is astonishing is that China as a country is in constant motion: Everything about this place, from its economy to its social mores, is changing with extraordinary speed. Yet the men and women in charge of inspiring the masses seem to be stuck in a time warp somewhere circa 1955.
In one sense, perhaps, the cookie-cutter front pages are an accurate reflection of the “news” they are covering: the “National People’s Congress” is a fake-democratic rubber stamp parliament.
How little real news it generates is clear from the banner headlines in red, running down each page: they are identical, for six years in a row, except that the number of the parliamentary session changes with time, as do the names of the Politburo Standing Committee members on the podium.
