China Story is my take on China through facts, photos, films and fiction.

This newsletter started out as the CCTV Follies, a daily review of China’s leading news program, Xinwen Lianbo, a mix of tongue-in cheek-commentary and screenshots. I did that for about two years, learning a lot about what is and isn’t said on the news. I got a good sense of what China looks like according to the self-serving imagination of the communist party, but eventually tired of the incessant propaganda. Despite the drone of misleading information, I enjoyed the pictures, though, and the mix of images with text remains a hallmark of my posts.

My interest in Chinese media dates to the 1980s when I freelanced for foreign news bureaus, most of which partnered, by necessity, with CCTV, Shanghai TV and local media handlers. My production work included credits on “Changing China” for NBC (1986), “China Odyssey” for CBS (1987), “Rape of Liberty” for BBC and “Tragedy at Tiananmen: the Tears of Spring” for ABC (1989) The latter two projects were filmed during the uprising in Beijing but had to be completed in Hong Kong.

Nowadays, I’m not even sure they could be produced in Hong Kong.

After leaving China, I worked for NHK in Tokyo where I wrote and produced “China Now” a TV news round-up co-produced by CCTV and NHK in 1991. I then worked as a freelance writer and producer, and served as a consultant and contributor to the PBS documentary “The Gate of Heavenly Peace” (1995)

I taught media studies at university since the late nineties, including stints doing media research in China and Japan as a Fulbright Fellow and later as an Abe Fellow.

With support from the Knight Foundation, I gave talks and observe studio practices at CCTV and other media outlets in 2001-02. I wrote a few widely distributed memos that helped steward CCTV’s reluctant move from pre-censored taped programs to live TV, at least for its current affairs shows. I argued that the Great Wall wouldn’t come tumbling down if conflicting views were represented on air, and going live had the potential to make the program more interesting. In 2001 was asked to appear as a guest commentator to test the new live format and was a frequent studio guest and commentator for almost a decade after that.

As far as I know, only two programs taken off the air on account of my opinions. One was a discussion with a retired general about China’s disputatious maritime claims, the other a discussion of Mao Zedong’s behavior; both incidents occurred in 2008 around the time of the Beijing Olympics.

I also appeared on camera in “Cradle of the Revolution”, a CCTV documentary about Yan’an, Xibaipo and other historic sites for which I served as consultant. Someone somewhere in the system didn’t like my view on things and essentially gave the order midway in the production to “lose the laowai.” I remained with the crew for the rest of the shoot but was not permitted to appear on air.

The program, including the Yan’an segment in which I criticized Mao for going the way of dictatorship instead of democracy was aired, but soon removed from the archives, replaced by an entirely new documentary on the same topic, presumably a more “respectful” take. Coincidentally or not, both Bo Xilai and Xi Jinping visited Mao’s old stomping grounds while we were filming, and we learned from local officials that the two then-rivals visited the very same sites that we had been authorized to film at.

My engagement media is taking me in new directions these days, with attention to the little ways people express discontent with an unfair status quo. I’ve been featuring photo essays of my back alley walks in Beijing and elsewhere, and will introduce short stories and fiction along with the usual news commentary.

The format has changed but the“Follies” spirit is alive and kicking. It is my hope that this idiosyncratic mix of humor and analysis will be of help in exposing the humorless facade of the powers-that-be.

Phil

Some video and audio links:

-PBS NEWSHOUR discussion of Chinese state TV (China’s Programming for U.S. Audiences: Is it News or Propaganda? May 22, 2012)

-Barbarians at the Gate podcast about the CCTV Follies

-China Project text of interview about CCTV

Philip J Cunningham

email: jinpeili (at) yahoo.com

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jinpeili.bsky.social