Gege— Journalism and Endurance

NAME: Gege
AGE: 33
OCCUPATION: Journalist
AVERAGE NUMBER OF ALL-NIGHTERS PULLED IN ONE WEEK: 1.5

My first week in Chengdu I became interested in writing about the former drivers of Chengdu’s man-powered sanlunche, who, following a 2008 government ordinance prohibiting the iconic pedicabs from operating in Chengdu, have had to find new jobs and embrace unfamiliar lifestyles. I asked my friend Gege, a journalist from here, if he knew how these drivers were dealing with their uncertain futures. Gege responded with a high-pitched laugh— putting his arm around me he said, “that question is so America.”

Gege is chief editor of a major Chinese newspaper. He speaks too fast, chain smokes, and can’t sit still. His commitment to reporting news in an accurate, incisive fashion has earned him a reputation among colleagues for being reckless— crazy, even. When an armed conflict erupted last week near Guogan, a town in Myanmar near the Chinese border, Gege was on a plane headed to the border region within hours. Unsatisfied with simply seeing the refugee camps on the “dull” side of the border, he paid villagers to smuggle him in through the mountains, concealed his identity, and interviewed Guogan’s remaining residents— all while dodging AK-47-toting soldiers on the look out for foreign journalists. He wrote five articles about his time in Guogan, all of which were published. Gege is 33 years old with no kids, no girlfriend, no steady home— and no plans to settle down soon.

I later asked Gege why he found my “American” question so predictable. “You see, journalists will always project the cultural and historical context of their work, and Americans are no exception,” he said. “Maybe in a country like the US, with a relatively stable history and deep concern for individual rights, ten thousand people suddenly losing their jobs would be big news, but in China we would never portray something like this as that serious— this kind of thing just happens so often.”

Central to the distinction Gege was making was rennaixing, a Chinese word roughly meaning “the capability to bear or endure.” Gege continued, “The rennaixing of the Chinese is strong. These drivers will endure,” he said “One look at Chinese history and you can see that we have always had to endure, always have had to have rennaixing. The drivers will find a way— open a store, become workers, open a fast food restaurant, something.”

Reflecting on how trite my question must have seemed to Gege, it seemed fair to assume that different historical and cultural contexts deeply affect approaches to journalism. Gege was quick to mention in our discussions how he believes modern Chinese culture affects Chinese media.

In his opinion, a major result are the government controls that restrict his free space. He has visible contempt for the censors—whose work scouring media all day in search of political incorrectness he says must be “the most boring job in the world”—but the scenario is something that he grudgingly deals with.

Once, Gege traveled to Yunnan (a province in Southwest China) to write a story on the construction of reservoirs in the Southern part of the province. He observed that while many were benefiting from the increased power supply, many peasants were being forced to relocate from their flooded villages to remote mountain areas where conditions were rougher. Upon his return, he wrote – and published – an article documenting the peasants’ rennaixing.

A letter from the Chengdu Propaganda Department appeared on his desk only a few days after the publication.

The department had deemed his work suspicious, even suggesting that he had been working for foreign journalists. In the end, Gege was lucky – his name was cleared after he sent a hasty though persuasive letter to the department proving that no foreigners were involved.

But not all journalists have been as fortunate as Gege. Some years ago, the propaganda department closed down a Chengdu newspaper called Business Affairs Morning Paper. Gege said that there were three reasons for its demise: first, several reports in the paper had pried too closely in investigating the corruption of a local official. Second, Business Affairs was owned by an entrepreneur who also controlled several other media outlets. Although the Chinese government tolerates private ownership of media, private media empires are seen as threatening – and, consequently, the government tends to break up such arrangements. The third and most critical mistake was simply one erroneous character that slipped through the multiple layers of editing. A line in an article was supposed to read:

“40 years of the establishment of Tibet (province)”

But one misplaced character dramatically changed the meaning:

“40 years of Tibetan Independence”

This mistake proved to be the most disastrous. “The golden rule of Chinese journalism,” Gege noted, “is just not to mention the ethnic issues. There are many ways to justify different kinds of articles, but bringing up any ethnic issue will bring trouble.” After the Tibet mishap, Business Affairs was suddenly unavailable for a week. Although it came back temporarily, its fate was already sealed.

Gege has no sympathy for papers like Business Affairs that fail to obey the rules. “Of course I want reform— all of us [journalists] do,” he said, “but if we don’t follow the rules, then our papers won’t be able to live on to actually get the reform. The improvement in the last twenty or even ten years was unthinkable before. If our paper went under like Business Affairs, we would never get to make use of the freedom we have now.”

To Gege, journalism is a fundamental social commitment—a commitment epitomized by the “incredible efforts of journalists involved in the Watergate scandal.” “Our society is like a dark sea,” he said, “and the media is a boat with a bright light. It is our job to point out the dangers approaching us. Nowadays, we reporters can fulfill this duty much better than before, but there is still much difficulty. For now, we just need to follow the rules, survive, and have rennaixing.”

A few days after I asked him about the pedicab drivers, I showed Gege a draft of this blog entry. It was met with the same high-pitched laugh— “You Americans really are obsessed with rennaixing.”

Note: At his request, Gege’s name has been changed and picture not displayed.