Page 2 of 2 Beware the 'old China'
syndrome By Sunny Lee
some
websites are banned here, foreigners can feel
quite free and safe living in China.
To
some, the journalist's behavior may seem very
detached from the experience of other expatriates.
Also, his concerns for safety were perhaps
overstated and even unwarranted. But psychologists
say perception is more important than fact.
Perception becomes reality and truth. Beliefs,
right or wrong, underlie many of the
actions
people take.
From this view, if that was
how the journalist perceived China, if he believed
he was being watched and behaved accordingly, then
that gives something to Beijing to think about.
Even if he was merely paranoid, he was not alone.
A British journalist in Beijing has a
software program installed in his office computer
that erases his website-visit history. He performs
the function meticulously a few times a day. A
friend of his, who works at another news agency in
Beijing, once in a while gropes under his home
phone and unscrews the machine to see whether
there is any bug. These are new habits they have
developed since they came to China.
A
foreign journalist was late for work. When he got
to the office, he was scolded by his boss, who
said in a relieved yet wary voice: "I thought you
were arrested."
It seems certain, then,
that some foreign journalists in China live with
some anxiety. Whether their concerns are valid or
not, as long as they feel such needs in China,
their apprehension needs some attention.
Otherwise, the Chinese will always be the "usual
suspects" for everything that goes wrong for them,
as seen in the following cases.
When the
final Asian Cup soccer game between the Chinese
and the Japanese teams was held in Beijing a
couple of years ago, a few bored Japanese
journalists who were covering the sports event
tried to amuse themselves. One of them said:
"Maybe we should go to the Chinese crowd and cheer
for the Japanese team. Then we'll be beaten by the
Chinese people. And that will be news!" They all
laughed. Of course, they didn't really mean to do
it.
As soon as they arrived at the soccer
stadium, one of them received an urgent call from
the news bureau. On the line was an anxious voice
from their boss: "You guys are not planning to do
anything funny there, right?"
It shocked
them. They were baffled about how their boss knew
about their conversation. After some
brainstorming, they reasoned that their office was
tapped. They came to think that their boss was
warned by the Chinese to prevent any "mishap" at
the soccer game between two arch-rivals amid high
nationalist tensions.
Perhaps the Japanese
were just searching for reasons that were easy for
them to comprehend. Maybe they couldn't accept the
peculiarities of coincidental occurrences in life.
Maybe.
A foreign journalist was told by
another colleague that she saw his office-building
lights were on in the wee hours of the day, when
there wouldn't normally be any people working.
"Better be careful!" he was told. "Maybe they are
searching for something in your office."
Such stories are surprisingly numerous
among some foreign journalists, circulated from
mouth to mouth. Maybe all their concerns are
unwarranted. Maybe China simply has a
disproportionate number of stressed-out
journalists who suffer from a kind of paranoia
syndrome.
But as long as foreign
journalists, who function as a primary gateway to
let the world know more about China, have such a
disapproving image of the country, that's simply
bad for China's efforts to improve its
international image.
The Chinese
government is said to be assisted by the public
relations company Ogilvy & Mather to improve
its image. Maybe its program should include why
there is so much paranoid behavior displayed by
foreign journalists in China and why the country
is failing to win their hearts and minds.
Earning support from foreign journalists
should be at the top of Beijing's
post-reform-period wish list, as this could
significantly improve its international image. It
is especially relevant now as the Middle Kingdom
is all hyped up for its biggest ever global
coming-out event next year.
Perhaps some
journalists suffer from the "old China" syndrome
and their worries about surveillance is
unwarranted. Are these foreign journalists really
misunderstanding China? Are they getting China
wrong?
Sunny Lee is a
writer/journalist based in Beijing, where he has
lived for five years. A native of South Korea, Lee
is a graduate of Harvard University and Beijing
Foreign Studies University.
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2007 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
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