China’s annual Congress: seen one, seen ‘em all
For six years, the ruling party's propagandists have run virtually identical photos – and headlines – of the annual gathering.
By Peter Ford | Staff writer 03.17.09
BEIJING – For an immediate, and hilarious, insight into just how wooden and unimaginative the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda apparatchiks are, take a look at this website.
Don’t worry about the Chinese characters, just scroll down through the pictures. They show you the (nearly identical) front pages of the People’s Daily, the ruling party’s official organ, on the opening days of the “National People’s Congress” for the past six years, beginning with this year’s session, which took place this month.
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.
All the headlines say “Wu Bangguo hosts (he’s the individual in the left hand photo), Wen Jiabao gives the government work report (he’s the one in the right hand photo, behind identical banks of pink lilies, year after year.)
If China’s leaders want to brush up their image through new media projects, as the Monitor reported last month, they might start by livening up their communications operation.
<< Salvador’s sleazy campaign ads | MainComments
2. tom zhang | 03.17.09
Regarding the comment on China’s annual Congress: seen one, seen ‘em all , I sent wrong link, here is the correct, “ALL Chinese Newspaper, the Same Face!”
http://www.chinatoday.com/entertain/all.newspapers.same.face.htm
3. ZHANG | 03.17.09
It’s a style. The example of (the link in the first paragraph) is not quite convictive, because it’s not a Chinese pop newspaper. It’s just an organ of the party and the readers are supposed to be familiar with the past contents and to read the new contents carefully.
4. HJG | 03.17.09
If a photographer were to take a photo of every imperial court session starting in Han dynasty, one would realize that other than taste in colors (black+red–>yellow), nothing has changed in two millennium in China. It’s funny but that’s just how it is. China has her cookie cutter template for what government and sovereign authority ought to look like. Then again, the same can be said for USA as well. At least I don’t see the different from one congress meeting to the next. Well, okay, once in a while you get cool stuff like impeaching your president for sleeping with some random girl or having your treasury guy kneel in front of the house speaker. Hey but other than these entertainment it’s all pretty cookie cutter to me. I don’t see why China’s case is so unique and strange.
6. Lucas | 03.18.09
I have a friend working with one of the major Chinese governmental newspapers and he told me a few years ago that one editor almost got fired for getting the sequence of the leaders’ pictures wrong. Some guy was supposed to appear before some other guy. This illustrates just how much people will read into the format and the layout of these “official newspapers” and it is a big big deal in China.
Then imagine you are the front page editor of the People’s Daily. Do you really dare to make any changes to anything when you know people will closely scrutinize your front page for anything that may be interpreted to mean a change in the regime? It may be wise to simply follow last year’s format. People reading that day’s paper and finding out that it is exactly like last year’s will understand that everything remains the same.
When you deal with People’s Daily, you should remember it is not really a newspaper. As a matter of fact, you will be surprised that it is not for sale at any newsstands in China. People do not read People’s Daily for news, well, actually ordinary people do not read it at all. It is a window for people interested in politics to sense the regime changes of the communist party and for that purpose you must read very carefully between the lines to decipher what they are really saying. It is exactly like what people used to do when Greenspan said something about the economy using his Greenspan style sentences.
After a certain incident happens, the fact that the news is/is not picked up by the People’s Daily, the tone of the report, on which page the news is presented are all very big deals. In the past ten years, there were several stock market crashes and booms in China just because a certain column article on stock markets either claiming that the stock market was ok or arguing that it was overheated appeared on the front page of the People’s Daily. Investors all knew that represented the “official view” of the central government on the stage of the stock market.
Final note, if you want to read real newspapers in China, you should pick up real newspapers and magazines like South China Metro Daily, South China Weekend, Caijing and many others. They are more modeled after western papers. Although they are still controlled by the government, they do enjoy a great deal of latitude and freedom as long as they do not touch upon certain sensitive issues, the list of which has significantly shrinked over the years. Many reports are now candid and to the point and criticism of government actions is routine.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
Leave a Comment
We do not publish all comments, and we do not publish comments immediately. The comments feature is a forum to discuss the ideas in our stories. Constructive debate - even pointed disagreement - is welcome, but personal attacks on other commenters are not, and will not be published.
Tip: Do not write a novel. Keep it short. We will not publish lengthy comments. Come up with your own statements. This is not a place to cut and paste an email you received. If we recognize it as such, we won't post it.
Please do not post any comments that are commercial in nature or that violate copyrights.
Finally, we will not publish any comments that we regard as obscene, defamatory, or intended to incite violence.
1. Tom Zhang | 03.17.09
This comment is 120% true — you can see the this funny picture about China — “All Newspapers, the Same Face!” — http://www.chinatoday.com/entertain/car_tractor.htm