FEMALE SPEAKER: Authors at
Google New York is pleased to
have Professor Ying Zhu come
and speak to us today.
Please welcome Professor Zhu.
[APPLAUSE]
PROFESSOR YING ZHU: Thanks
for having me here.
I think I will start by
actually, instead of talking
about China Central Television,
I wanted to show
you something else, which
I think you're
familiar with, actually.
So this is an interesting
video clip of Korean pop
singer, Psy, doing his
"Gangnam Style"
song and dance sequence.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
[MUSIC - PSY, "GANGNAM STYLE"]
[END VIDEO PLAYBACK]
PROFESSOR YING ZHU: Now,
according to Wikipedia, as of
January 1 of this year, this
music video has been viewed
over 1.1 billion times.
I just clicked a couple
more times into it
on YouTube, of course.
And this is the site's
most watched video.
Now, the question is, what does
this slice of K-pop have
anything to do with Chinese
media or China Central
Television?
Well, nothing much.
And this missing link is
precisely what I wanted to
call your attention to today.
What the South Koreans have
accomplished via this funky
music video is what the Chinese
state media have been
craving for to promote name
recognition and make people
desire what you desire--
in other words, that is to
project China's soft power.
But Chinese media have yet to
come up with such a pop hit to
boost its soft power.
Now, the lack of recognition
or desirability of Chinese
soft power is not due to lack
of trying, as billions have
been spent in promoting China's
soft power globally.
And the Chinese government
invested $7.8 billion alone in
2009 to facilitate
Chinese media's
global soft power campaign.
And all the money has gone to
major state-run media firms,
including China Central
Television.
Now, the global image campaign
was launched by the Chinese
state over a decade
ago, back in 2001.
The goal was to change China's
international image which was,
for the most part, negative.
The Chinese Communist Party
warned Chinese media
practitioners that it would be
unrealistic to expect the West
to promote China's cause
and perspective.
But a decade later and many
billions after, the overall
international image of China
continues to be, to put it
mildly, uncool.
Even the Chinese president, Hu
Jintao, acknowledged a year
ago the dismal record of Chinese
soft power, telling
the Party that, quote, "The
overall strength of Chinese
culture and its international
influence is not commensurate
with China's international
status," end quote.
So what was his solution?
Well, not Psy's "Gangnam Style"
K-pop, that's for sure.
The popular and the grassroots
have no place in
China's image campaign.
In fact, the satirical and
rebellious "Gangnam Style"
might even be considered
unseemly to China's censors
and cultural guardians.
Instead, Hu Jintao encouraged
the development of Chinese
national culture rooted in
Confucian tradition capable of
countering Western cultural
influence.
So a state-manufactured and
managed Chinese national
culture is the prescription the
Party has in mind for the
people and for the rest
of the world.
Never mind that the world
might not be all that
interested in what the
CCP has to preach.
But this sort of heavy-handed
approach is nothing new.
Now, in China, culture is to
enlighten rather than entertain.
And then the media is to guard
the purity and quality of
Chinese culture.
And the media, of course, must
also serve the Party.
Now, to be fair to the Chinese
Communist Party, the
subservience of culture
to politics is
not the party's invention.
It is rooted in a much longer
tradition of Chinese
aesthetics that defines art and
culture as the good and
the beautiful.
The Chinese cultural tradition
puts a greater emphasis on the
responsibility of art in the
normalization of society, as
opposed to a Western tradition
of art as a critical vanguard
or individual expression.
Now, to this end, Western
culture is often perceived as
a source of decadence and evil
for polluting the purity of
Chinese culture.
And thus, China has time and
again waged wars against the
cultural vulgarity and
degradation seen, again, as a
result of Western cultural
pollution or erosion.
The K-pop video can easily be
condemned as vulgar, a cheap
knockoff of Western-style
pop music.
Now, in January of last year,
the Chinese president, Hu
Jintao, urged Chinese cultural
policymakers to, quote,
"clearly see that international
hostile forces
are intensifying the strategic
plot of westernizing and
dividing China, and ideological
and cultural
fields are the focal areas
of their long-term
infiltration," end quote.
And he said further that,
quote, "We should deeply
understand the seriousness and
complexity of the ideological
struggle, always sound the
alarm, and remain vigilant,
and take forceful measures
to be on guard
and respond," unquote.
Now, though reminiscent of Cold
War rhetoric, this sort
of militant talk is nothing
new in China.
And to be fair, the West has,
over the years, harbored
similar apprehension and
distrust towards China,
particularly China's rise
in the past decade.
So the feeling is
somewhat mutual.
Let's just put it that way.
Except that in China, the
state can quickly enact
policies that aim to deter
Western cultural pollution.
And in October 2011, China
banned scores of racy and
overtly materialistic
entertainment shows on
prime-time television in an
effort to curb excessive
entertainment, exemplified by a
Chinese dating show on local
satellite television, "If You
Are The One," in which a
provocatively dressed young
woman are paraded on stage,
blatantly embracing
materialism.
I think I have that
queued up here.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
-[SPEAKING CHINESE]
-Wang Peijie is the executive
producer of "If You Are The
One."
-[SPEAKING CHINESE]
-The show is a window
through which we
can look at our society.
-Reality TV shows like "If You
Are The One" have become
common on Chinese television.
The winning formula has
attracted fans and ad revenue.
-[SPEAKING CHINESE]
-I think the conversations
between the male and female
contestants reflect the
attitudes and concerns of
people in their 20s,
30s, and 40s.
I think they authentically
represent the current state of
things in China.
-But the sometimes racy and
materialistic content has also
attracted the attention
of China's censors.
This type of content is
relatively new for China.
In the past, television's main
purpose was to spread
propaganda.
[END VIDEO PLAYBACK]
PROFESSOR YING ZHU: We don't
need more propaganda here.
Now, these material girls and
boys from other reality
programs have seriously offended
Party comrades and
conservative cultural
commentators and viewers alike.
And new rules were promptly
issued, forcing all satellite
TV stations across China to
cut vulgar entertainment
programs, essentially reducing
weekly entertainment programs
to two during prime time.
Furthermore, and as a
counterprogramming strategy,
at least one show during prime
time must be about promoting,
quote, "traditional Chinese
virtues, core socialist
values, and advanced
cultures," unquote.
Now, the battle against Western
popular culture is
equated with ensuring China's
cultural security.
So it's a serious matter.
The Chinese state's cultural
anxiety was keenly felt in
2011, a year when "Avatar"
pretty much dominated the
Chinese box office and Lady
Gaga was a household name,
popular among the Chinese
young and old.
Now, actually, to demonstrate
Lady Gaga's popularity in
China, I wanted to take the
liberty here to play a clip
from Hunan Satellite TV's
rendition of Lady Gaga's 2009
hit, "Bad Romance." Only that
the song is now sung in
Hunan's Changsha dialect and
no less by a senior choir.
And bear in mind that in this
region of China, the word,
gaga, means grandmother.
I'm not sure if the Lady would
be pleased with this kind of
connection, the connotation,
the image of
grandmother and Lady Gaga.
The second is part of Hunan
Satellite Television's
Mid-Autumn Festival Gala.
Mid-Autumn Festival, some of you
might know, is an occasion
for family gathering and
reunion in China.
And the choir changed Gaga's
lyrics to be about the elderly
empty-nesters' yearning for
the grown-up children and
grandchildren to come
home and visit.
Let's have a sample of this.
This is going to be
very interesting.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
[MUSIC - "BAD ROMANCE"]
[END VIDEO PLAYBACK]
PROFESSOR YING ZHU: So
you get a taste.
So, is this Western culture
pollution or Eastern cultural
appropriation or subversion?
And to use Lady Gaga to preach
for Confucian family values
seems to me pretty cool,
especially coming from a group
of very euphoric senior
citizens.
Regardless, the Chinese
authority was not amused by
the flood of Western-infused
Chinese programs produced
mostly by China's provincial
TV stations,
therefore the crackdown.
But the crackdowns
do hurt Chinese
television, bottom line.
Now, state-owned and controlled
Chinese television
is by now financially
self-reliant and operationally
autonomous.
So when it comes to chasing
ratings, it functions just the
same as the US commercial
networks.
You have Three Blind Mice, I was
told, since a decade ago
with networks competing
for ratings.
Now, what is different is that
in China, one network is
granted greater leverage
in market share.
And that network is, of
course, China Central
Television, the only national
TV network in China.
To understand how China Central
Television obtains its
leverage, one must understand
China's overall TV structure.
Now, China has the so-called
four-tier television
structure, where television
stations are set up at the
national, provincial, county,
and city levels.
And both national and local
regulators operate their own
TV stations and serve audiences
within their own
administrative boundaries.
Now, as a result, television
stations, broadcasting
bureaus, and governments at the
same administrative levels
are closely linked in economic
and political exchange.
And CCTV is the only broadcaster
that is allowed a
nationwide coverage, although
the arrival of cable and
satellite television would
challenge the neat structure.
So how does satellite television
work in China?
Well, in China, each provincial
TV station is
allowed to operate one satellite
TV channel with
signal coverage capable, or
theoretically capable, of
reaching the entire nation.
But because of the
administrative boundaries and
local protectionism, provincial
satellite TV
stations must negotiate with
each other to expand their
satellite channels.
And local broadcasters have
managed over the years to
extend their regional reach,
their independent satellite
and cable distribution deals
with other provincial
broadcasters.
It's a bread and butter issue.
Now, the essential regulator
that oversees China Central
Television is the State
Administration of Radio, Film,
and Television, or
SARFT in short.
Now, SARFT is motivated both
politically and economically,
understandably, to boost
CCTV's market share.
And how does it do it?
Well, there is the must-carry
policy that guarantees
CCTV-1's national coverage.
CCTV has altogether 24 channels
under the big
umbrella of CCTV China
Central Television.
And CCTV-1 is by far the most
significant channel that
carries network news and other
culturally significant programs.
Now, carrying CCTV-1 is
considered a political mission--
an undeniable obligation and
responsibility of local
broadcasters.
Then there is the exclusive
information available to only
CCTV-1, and then the crackdown
on programs utilizing local
dialects that appeals
to local audiences.
As the financial stakes grew
higher, local stations
rebelled, challenging CCTV's
market dominance by producing
entertainment programs that
would attract audiences
nationwide.
And they used
entertainment-oriented Hunan
Satellite TV for what has
emerged as CCTV's formidable
challenger.
If you recall, Hunan TV is the
one who made all these video
clips of grandmother and parents
act up just to make
sure you go home and visit your
parents, so that they
don't act up.
So in 2004, Hunan Satellite TV
debuted a singing competition
show with mobile phone voting,
modeled on "American Idol."
And the show "Super Girls"
became an overnight rating
sensation, promoting CCTV to
launch a campaign attacking
Hunan Satellite Television,
calling it a rogue broadcaster
with culturally vulgar
programs.
And a top official from SARFT
echoed CCTV, complaining about
what he saw as an excessive
amount of low-quality and
lowbrow reality shows on
Chinese television.
And he wanted to strengthen
the Party's supervision of
entertainment programs and to
restrict the number of reality
shows allowed on TV.
And SARFT eventually announced
a ban on airing talent shows
during prime time, which is
somewhere between 7:30 to
10:30 in China.
The ban started in 2007.
And under the new rules, the
programs must be no longer
than 90 minutes and offer no
prizes to attract contestants.
And "Super Girls" was suspended
in 2008 when the
Beijing Olympics pretty much
preempted everything.
And then in 2009, Hunan
Television made an attempt to
relaunch "Super Girls," only in
the different name "Happy
Girls." This time it's
called "Happy Girls."
OK, so let's see if "Happy
Girls" can fail better here.
Take a look at these
restrictions.
So SARFT promptly handed down
strict conditions for Hunan TV
to run "Happy Girls." The
draconian directives made even
my then-preteen daughters wince,
who complained quite
wisely, I should say, that,
quote, "This is ridiculous.
Reality TV is all about
expression, not the
suppression of raw emotions,"
end quote.
Now, here is a segment from the
now much-subdued "Happy
Girls," which is actually the
opening of the championship
competition in 2011.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
-[SINGING IN CHINESE]
-[SPEAKING CHINESE]
-[SINGING IN CHINESE]
-[SINGING IN CHINESE]
-[SINGING IN CHINESE]
[END VIDEO PLAYBACK]
PROFESSOR YING ZHU: So how
is this for C-pop?
Pretty cool?
Well, the Chinese cultural
guardians would have none of
that either.
Now, let's march on.
Now, as CCTV is busy bothering
local stations, it is
confronted with yet another
formidable challenger.
And this time, it's something
called the internet.
Though television remains the
Party's most manageable
vehicle for cultural
engineering, even the Chinese
state can't control
consumer behavior.
CCTV has largely become
irrelevant to the young and
educated population who has
pretty much opted for the more
open cyberspace.
At the end of last year
projected that the number of
Chinese watching entertainment
programs online would surpass
445 million.
CCTV has tried to woo audiences
back by importing
popular movies and TV dramas
from the UK and the US.
And the most recent lineup
includes, surprisingly, "V For
Vendetta," featuring
an anti-hero with
anti-authoritarian and
totalitartian powers, and yes,
"Downton Abbey."
Now, let's dwell on the
internet a bit.
The internet has been a very
positive force in compelling
Chinese state and the
media to open up.
The internet has made it that
much harder for Chinese
authorities to shut out
undesirable news or keep it
out of the traditional
media in China.
And in keeping the news of,
let's say, collapsing schools
in Sichuan or collapsing
governments in the Middle East
out of the state media when
millions of people can access
them online would further drive
people away from the
traditional media.
So the Chinese state gets it.
But the compulsive censorship
regime will
not give it a rest.
The internet and the social
media are subject to very
sophisticated monitoring
and filtering.
Now, official campaigns were
launched in China a decade ago
to effectively push for internet
self-censorship,
equating diligent
self-censorship with upholding
corporate social responsibility,
proper
professional codes of conduct,
and also individual
self-discipline.
You have to be self-disciplined
to censor
yourself, in other words.
And these days, sensitive terms
are routinely blocked.
A search in Chinese about a
recent protest in Guangzhou
against political censorship
yields not much results.
And in December last year, many
of you know probably Sina
Weibo, the Chinese version of
Twitter, enacted a seven-day
delay function for
sensitive terms.
Imagine not getting a result
for seven days.
Gosh, Google would
go bankrupt.
And I suppose it's
the modern day
version of the Pony Express.
And to think about it, it could
be a useful tool to
deter my daughter from
getting online.
So Facebook and Twitter
are censored.
So is YouTube, which leads back
to the piece of K-pop we
sampled at the beginning
of my talk.
The Ministry of Culture in Korea
actually gave an award
to Google for YouTube's
effectiveness as a platform
for spreading Korean
popular culture.
And Psy's "Gangnam Style" song
exploded in large part because
his video went viral
on YouTube.
But YouTube is off limits
in China, of course.
Now, despite China's great
firewall, sensitive
information does manage to
find surreptitious and
guerrilla style online existence
through various
transgressive tactics such as
code-breaking, multiple
blogging, creative use of terms
and phrases, and et
cetera, et cetera.
And also, censorship has had
little impact on the
tech-savvy professionals and
rights activists who actively
seek out and also spread
information by
circumventing the wall.
Although, recently, China
started to crack down on
foreign VPNs and other
circumventing technology,
which makes it harder
to climb the wall.
But censorship cannot prevail.
It cannot eliminate dissent.
It would only ferment further
discontent as cohesion would
eventually lead to rebellion.
Now, by trying hard to fend
off Western media and
information from coming in,
the Chinese state somehow
imagined that it would
be able to push
its own media overseas.
And in the case of CCTV, it
launched its official English
channel on September 25, 2000.
CCTV International rapidly
expanded its foreign language
services in the last few years,
adding Spanish, French,
Russian, Arab, and African
channels to its cocktail of
foreign language services.
And then came CCTV America.
On February 6 of last year,
before an official visit to
the US of Xi Jinping, China's
incoming president, CCTV
launched its American outpost,
CCTV America.
And on February 11, CCTV
America's panel showed "The
Heat," which, by the way, is
hosted by Michael Walter, gave
a preview of Xi Jinping's
upcoming stopover in Iowa, the
leading soybean producer
in the US and
big supplier to China.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
-When Chinese Vice President Xi
Jinping's itinerary to the
United States was announced,
it included stopovers in
Washington, DC, California,
and also Iowa.
It turns out Vice President
Xi is keen to revive old
connections and meet with
friends he made when he spent
some time in Iowa
27 years ago.
He visited the Hawkeye State
as part of an agricultural
delegation from the
Northeastern
Hubei province in 1985.
Vice President Xi spent two
nights in the home of an
American family, toured
farms, and even
watched a baseball game.
He also met Iowa Governor Terry
Branstad, who says Xi
Jinping was pleased by the
warmth and friendly reception
he received back then and feels
a sense of kinship with
the people of Iowa.
Branstad visited Xi Jinping
during a visit
to China last September.
He says the Vice President saved
his itinerary from his
1985 Iowa trip and inquired
about a number
of people he met.
Iowa is also critical
for another reason.
It's exporting a record amount
of corn, soybeans, and pork to
meet a massive surge in
demand by China's
growing middle class.
Look at the exponential
growth in trade
over a 10-year period.
In 2000, Iowa's exports to China
totaled $45 million.
By 2010, that rose nearly 13
times to $627 million.
What does that do for
the job market?
Unemployment in Iowa was at
5.6% in December of 2011.
The US national average
at the same time--
8.5%.
[END VIDEO PLAYBACK]
PROFESSOR YING ZHU: Now, CCTV
America's vast financial
resources have brought or bought
veteran news people
from the US, UK,
and Australia.
But it remains to be seen if
viewers, too, can be bought or
brought along.
And CCTV America is highly
skewed towards reporting
economic and financial news.
And when it comes to political
news, it actively engages in
major events elsewhere
except in China.
When it comes to political
news about China, CCTV's
America branch is highly
disciplined, sticking to the
Party's script and reporting
only what is permissible.
It is very much on the
Party's short leash.
So when the journalist strike
against the censorship at
China's Southern Weekend became
headline news around
the world, CCTV America
kept silent.
And Al Jazeera, on the other
hand, has created their brand
name for producing intriguing
news about the Middle East,
which is actually what CCTV
America aspires to be when it
comes to news about China.
But political editorial makes it
impossible for CCTV America
to function as a credible and
valuable news about China.
Now, I'm going to wrap
it up a little.
Now, China's top-down,
state-orchestrated soft power
campaign has so far shown little
impact in altering how
the world perceives China.
The soft power campaign has
failed to account for the
power of the grassroots
and the popular.
The paternalistic Chinese state
does not get it that if
the Chinese back home do not
want to be lectured to, the
audiences abroad would hardly
want to have the same patience
or to listen in.
Now, I'm not suggesting here
that the "Gangnam Style" pop
is the only way or even a viable
way towards accruing
soft power.
China can certainly produce its
own brand of soft power,
fusing cultures high and low.
But whatever it produces, it
must resonate with the
grassroots and be capable
of unleashing individual
creativity and aspiration.
And when the leaders do lecture,
it wouldn't hurt for
them to lighten up a little--
perhaps show some emotions and
be a little more animated.
And I want to show you a clip
here, particularly delivering
New Year's greetings.
Let's see how the Chinese
leaders deliver the New Year's
greetings here.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
-[SPEAKING CHINESE]
[END VIDEO PLAYBACK]
PROFESSOR YING ZHU:
And you know what?
What the CCP needs, actually, is
the "bouncy, irrepressible"
Joe Biden, to quote
Maureen Dowd.
Here is Biden in action.
Let's take a look at what the
Biden in action was like.
[VIDEO PLAYBACK]
-Hey, mom.
-Hey, what's the story?
-How are you?
Good to see you.
I'm Joe Biden.
Come here.
Look at this smile--
God love you, get over here.
Come on, sis, get in here.
-You've got a million
dollar smile.
-There's a lot to smile
about today.
-You betcha.
-Good-looking bunch.
Spread your legs, you're
going to be frisked.
I want you next to me.
[LAUGHTER]
-How are you, John?
It's good to see you.
Come on, let's do this.
[INAUDIBLE]
Ah, leave him there, will you?
You got a smile that
lights up the room.
Look at your smile--
lights up the room.
You got a smile that lights
up the whole chamber.
-Thank you.
-Mom, you could come by me.
Mom, how are you?
-Oh, great.
-You look like his sister.
Get over here.
Look, in my house, it
was real simple.
There's mother's, and then
there's something else, and
something else, and then there's
mother's, and then
there's mother's.
Come on, mom.
Take a chance.
Ruin your reputation here.
Mom, do you realize that in
parts of Arizona, you just
risked your reputation?
[INAUDIBLE]
-As they say in Southern
Delaware, mom, you've done
good with this one.
As they say in Southern
Delaware, you've done good,
boy-- good, girl.
As they say in Southern
Delaware, you've done good.
[END VIDEO PLAYBACK]
PROFESSOR YING ZHU: I wish
I could continue
just playing this.
And the Joe Biden can be very
good soft power, actually, for
the Chinese state.
Now, let's get serious
here as I wrap up.
Now, to think of the fundamental
problem is that
the Chinese state has no moral
authority in imparting
cultural values here.
And ultimately, what needs to
be fixed is not just China's
draconian image alone.
For China's charm offense to
work, it has to shake off its
repressive and authoritarian
reputation.
And for that to happen, it will
need to lift political
censorship to allow
for a very vibrant
civil society to emerge.
It also needs to dismantle the
state monopoly of the media so
that information channels are
open to dissent, diversity,
and competition.
After leaving behind the
totalitarian state of Mao's
era, China glided through a
relatively open phase with
rapid economic growth and
political exploration only to
arrive today at a toxic cocktail
of authoritarian and
plutocratic rule where money
and power converge to guard
interests of a few.
And for China's soft power to
work, China has to first
respect and empower
its own people.
And that's today's talk.
Thanks very much for having
a good ride with me.
[APPLAUSE]
PROFESSOR YING ZHU: Want
me to take questions?
AUDIENCE: I was impressed in
your book with the response of
the senior CCTV individuals,
and how they were trying to
balance commitment with
the different
venues they had to satisfy.
How do they react to
this whole coming
out and soft power?
PROFESSOR YING ZHU: Well,
I think a lot of Chinese
journalists--
some of them are very
idealistic.
And they really do tie their
success and their aspiration
with the success and aspiration
of China and globally.
So they somehow do tie their
fate with the fate of China.
So they're also very
patriotic.
And so they do want to see China
prosper and to become a
respectable global player.
But how China is to
reach that step--
I think that's another issue.
I think they, too, have
their own ideas.
And some of them have to
struggle with very strict
censorship where
they can't even
express their ideas freely.
And a lot of them have
to exercise routinely
self-censorship.
I use self-censorship as just
a descriptive term.
I'm not condemning
self-censorship or being
judgmental about it,
but that's the
reality that they face.
I think, again, there's a
certain aspiration there, but
there's a huge gap between
the reality and what
they aspire to be.
AUDIENCE: I wonder if you know
about the Southern Weekly news
that just broke today about--
PROFESSOR YING ZHU: Yes.
The New York Times.
AUDIENCE: Yes.
The Chinese journalists are all
coming out saying, we're
speaking for freedom
of speech.
PROFESSOR YING ZHU: Yes.
This is a very exciting
moment.
This is actually a
watershed moment.
The Chinese government
called these
demonstrations a mass incident.
In this case, this is the first
incident that people
actually come out and gather
together to demonstrate
against the political
censorship.
And this is a very
exciting moment.
And in fact, I was
accepting Boston
Globe's interview yesterday.
And the question was
posed to me, and I
expressed my optimism.
I think this is unstoppable.
The world has opened,
and China has opened
itself to the world.
And China cannot retreat and
go back to a dark age.
I hope that the new leader
will stand back and think
twice before they crack down
on these demonstrations.
But again, I think it's a great
moment, and I personally
felt very excited about that.
AUDIENCE: I think you did
mention Al Jazeera as being
the antithesis, if you
will, of CCTV.
What are the short and
medium-term steps that CCTV
can become as reputable and as
far-reaching as something as
Al Jazeera?
PROFESSOR YING ZHU: Well, when
the image of China changes,
that's the only time
you can do that.
Two things.
One is the image of
China changes.
And also, China lifts
its censorship.
They're all interrelated.
You cannot do without
the other.
AUDIENCE: So sort of the forces
that created modern
Western ethos and thinking came
out of a bunch of funny
cultural events like the English
Civil War and a bunch
of fairly horrible experiences
that we had in the past.
And those things sort of drive a
lot of things even though we
are often sort of forgetful
of their background.
What do you think the similar
cultural forces or drivers
within China need to be, or
are, to bring China to the
place where you and certainly
most of us
think it ought to go?
Because it's not the case that
China had something like the
English Civil War to wake it up
to certain things that it
was doing wrong.
PROFESSOR YING ZHU: Well,
we have different events
throughout the last century--
not similar in nature, but
the force for change, the
modernization force has been
there all along, too.
It's not going back to history,
thinking about, at
this particular moment,
what one might do,
what one might seize.
Clearly, again, going back
to the internet.
The internet has opened the
technological revolution.
Let's put it this way--
technological revolution.
The internet has opened a whole
terrain for competing
voices to emerge and for
information to go out at a
very fast rate and to really
make it impossible, really,
for censorship to control
the information flow.
And so that's something that
really helps to facilitate
this kind of change.
And don't forget that as
recent as back in 1989,
there's a student movement.
So there is a mass grassroots
demand for change.
And so I'm not sure if I'm
answering your question
succinctly, but I guess I'm not
in a position to really
prescribe certain solutions.
Just suffice it to say that
there's so many incremental
changes out there already.
And it seems to me that China is
at a crossroads, and China
is ready to make that leap.
AUDIENCE: In your book, you were
able to interview many
members of the CCTV family
who responded with
considerable candor.
And I wonder, were they
jeopardizing either their
careers or any personal safety
by being so candid with you?
And I'm wondering if the book
has been banned in China.
PROFESSOR YING ZHU: I will be
interested to know whether the
book is banned in China.
You're right.
A lot of those interviews
were very candid.
And first of all, let me say,
I do not consider these
journalists whom I interviewed
back in
China my research subjects.
They're my fellow journalists.
I felt a very keen sense of
camaraderie with these people.
And so these are not
interviews per se.
These are conversations
conducted at various
occassions over their
own period of time.
I do not just go in there and
put on the video and audio
tape and say, let's talk.
No.
A lot of conversations
conduct over dinner,
even over hot pot.
And so this makes it easier for
people to be less guarded
and open up.
But there is a very fine line.
And I know and they know
there are certain
questions I cannot ask.
Because it's easy for me to
come back, leave China.
But people who are there
have to stay there.
And they have to live,
to make a living.
So it was a very delicate
balance.
I'm very careful not to ask
certain questions that will be
too provocative.
And then also, a lot of the
high-profile interviewees or
my comrades back there, we grew
up under similar cultural
conditions around
the same age.
And so there is a mutual
understanding there, too.
So there's a trust there,
so that they get
to open up to me.
And I can tell you that I did
not really put everything in
that book, because I, too,
have to exercise
some kind of control.
There's an ethical
consideration.
So yes, it's very candid.
But it also walks a
very fine line.
It works within the boundary.
Let's put it that way.
AUDIENCE: As CCTV America tries
to project China's soft
power, what is its metric
for success?
Because even in the US, there's
all these different
news outlets and organizations
and publications, and there's
no real consensus on many
important issues.
So how does CCTV see itself
reaching its goal in terms of
changing America's
image of China?
PROFESSOR YING ZHU: Well, it'll
be interesting if they
actually have a goal.
Well, their goal is very clear--
it's to project its
soft power.
Whether they have a very
coherent strategy, I highly
doubt there is.
And CCTV America and a lot of
CCTV's foreign services really
are straight-jacketed by
the heavy-handed policy
interference.
So they're not left alone to
follow their professional
instinct, to do reporting,
and so on and so forth.
So I don't think it is a real
strategy in capital terms or
in non-capital terms in
a strategy, per se.
There's only goal, only wishful
thinking that if we
have the financial resources,
we can come over and we can
set up an outpost there.
And we can hire your people
to broadcast for us.
And it might soften up this
kind of propaganda tone a
little bit.
But if you cannot really report
the major news items
that everybody else is
interested in, then you really
do not have the credibility.
And if there's a strategy,
I'm not aware of it.
And it's certainly
not succeeding.
[APPLAUSE]
