Friday, October 29, 2010

Film looks at US news coverage of China

For many, it was almost like being sent to the moon, tasked as they were with reporting on an unknown giant that was part rival, part ally, a new documentary about US reporters working in China shows.

In Taipei to present a segment of his Assignment: China — a multi-part series on US news coverage of China from the 1940s up to the present — Mike Chinoy, former senior Asia correspondent for CNN, said that despite China’s growing importance in global affairs, the world’s second-largest economy still doesn’t get the attention it deserves.

The series, reported by Chinoy and produced by the US-China Institute at the University of Southern California, is part of an ongoing effort to address that knowledge gap by giving voice to the pioneering US reporters who ventured into uncharted territory and, through their articles, broadcasts and photographs, shaped how the US came to see this enigmatic country.

Segment four of six, shown at a special dinner organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei, the European Chamber of Commerce in Taipei and the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents’ Club held at the American Club on Tuesday night, looks at the first generation of US reporters dispatched to Beijing following the normalization of relations between the US and China in 1979.

This article, published today in the Taipei Times, continues here.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

First, I'm sure Mike doesn't need random readers to jump to his defense, but the accusation that he's "a secret agent for the chicommies" is laughable. A brief perusal of his articles on this (not "that") blog should suffice to tell you that.

Second, the use of the demonstrative pronoun "this" (rather than the evidently WRONG "that") is used in the perfectly correct sense to indicate "the thing immediately under discussion".

Are you a native speaker of English? Putting aside the dismally poor grasp of cogent essay writing generally seen in the Chinese-speaking world (which is a topic for another day) I could see an argument for using "that" if the article had been written in the Chinese language, but in THIS article (i.e. the English article being referenced), "that" would be bizarre and unnatural. In fact, it would make it sound like the writer was putting China on a glorious pedestal, far from the grasp of common slobs like you and me.

Third, regarding the "legends" you mention as being completely unknown to you: have you tried Google? Admittedly Jay and Linda Mathews are surnamed Mathews (not Matthews) but I'm fairly sure that your unfamiliarity with these people stems from your professional background rather than the lack of a "t".

Anonymous said...

censorship in Taiwan? unbeleivabel!

J. Michael Cole 寇謐將 said...

Anon2 — You'll find a lot of comments disagreeing with my views on this site. The reason I deleted your comments is that you've consistently been idiotic. Post something intelligent and properly written, and I'll be happy to keep your messages, however much you disagree with me. It's not censorship, it's ensuring a modicum of quality on my site.

Anonymous said...

Thats exactly what Beijing said to Lui Xiaoboh before they locked him up. see? you cannot have it both ways, sir. either you belief in free speech or you belief in my way or the high way. maybe i am not a Native speaker of English like you guys hear but so what? can't i have a voix too?

you should restore my originale submssioned comment. just to be fair. readers can already surmise from anon 1 cooments that something was erased.

but okay, professor sir, i will go away, if that is intent of you

Anonymous said...

Thats exactly what Beijing said to Lui Xiaoboh before they locked him up. see? you cannot have it both ways, sir. either you belief in free speech or you belief in my way or the high way. maybe i am not a Native speaker of English like you guys hear but so what? can't i have a voix too?

you should restore my originale submssioned comment. just to be fair. readers can already surmise from anon 1 cooments that something was erased.

but okay, professor sir, i will go away, if that is intent of you