A Chinese journalist, Tian Hong, visited La Crescent for three days during early August. Her visit is part of a much longer stay arranged by the World Press Institute at Macalester College in St. Paul.
The 29-year-old reporter, who comes from Shanghai, a city of 13 million people, works for China’s largest daily newspaper. So it was quite a cultural shock for her to visit a small village like La Crescent and tag along with the handful of us at Houston County News. After looking at postcards of the modern Shanghai skyline, it occurred to me that Shanghai and New York have more in common than New York and La Crescent. Indeed, Tian e-mailed me when she reached Seattle. She noted that Seattle is a lot like Shanghai.
Tian believes that Americans know little about China, and that the Chinese are more knowledgeable of the US. As I can speak no Chinese, and Tian speaks fluent English, that was certainly the case with the two of us. But we found many similarities. Some of those similarities, especially those that infringe upon freedom, disturbed me.
We had fun comparing notes about newspapers and life in general. These were my notes:
China — Shanghai has 8 daily newspapers, and it is not uncommon for people to read them all on a daily basis.
US — Most major cities have one daily newspaper, sometimes two. A majority of Americans read at least one daily newspaper, but the number who read even one has slipped some.
China — Newspapers are tightly controlled by the state, and are considered a mouthpiece for government.
US — Newspapers cooperate with government in some instances, but are antagonists to government in many cases.
China — Journalists are not allowed to print many things. The government does this for “good” reasons
US — Journalists are not allowed to print many things, thanks to government passing laws to keep many things secret. The government does this for “good” reasons. Journalists can not print many other things, because of lawsuits.
China — Government hides its mistakes from the media.
US — Government hides its mistakes from the media.
China — Reporters compete to break a good story, and are often courageous about challenging the powers that be.
US — ditto.
The biggest difference between the two countries that I discovered?
China — You need a permit to start a newspaper in China.
US —No permit required. If you want to start a newspaper, you simply do it. This was a wonderful new idea to Tian, who said she would like to start her own newspaper someday.
We’ve continue to “give away” a lot of our freedoms in this country, and the many similarities between the “free” United States and “repressive” China unnerved me
Tian showed a great respect for the cost of freedom when I took her to see the new Houston County Veteran’s Memorial. She read the inscription and then repeated the phrase out loud, in English, twice.
“Freedom is not free.”
“Freedom is not free.”
Then she looked me in the eye and said “That’s good.”
It was a moment when I knew that this Chinese newspaper reporter and I had a lot in common.
