To impress us, how hard can the state media try?

Notes of the translator: This is an article about the performance of Chinese media in the COVID-19 epidemic. The original article went viral but was quickly removed in China. It was originally written in Chinese and I spent several hours translating it into English. A Chinese version is available here.

No poetry after Auschwitz¹, yet plenty of jokes during COVID-19.

It is, by all means, cruel to tell jokes during a time when a whole nation is undergoing grief. Yet I just cannot help it.

After the article on Han Wang (cnhan.com) calling people to “warm the heart of the mayor of Wuhan”², the state media is again producing great pieces. This makes me, one of the working class, cannot held my will to speak up.

A snow storm hit Wuhan on 15 February. The riparian city, which rarely receives any snow, had its first snow this year.

A perfect photo for the occation suddenly appeared online.

Under an apartment building in Wuhan, someone wrote two big Chinese characters on the snow:

“Zhong Guo!” (means China).

On top of it rested a tightly clenched fist (a sign of strength in China).

The source of the information is Chinanews.com. It’s a major media organisation based in Beijing. The photo is credited to a photographer called Zhang Chang. He risked his life to capture this precious moment of China. His bravery should be admired.

As I was almost moved into tears, another post by Wei Fang Jin Ri (Weifang Daily, a local news agency of Weifang in Shandong Province) almost shocked my jaw off.

Hey, Zhang Chang the photographer, somebody is pirating your work!

As I scroll on, the same photo appeared again and was claimed to be captured in another appartment block of Liaoning Province. They even told people the profession of the people who made the painting to be realistic.

I figured this must be the parallel unverses.

The civilian detectives soon worked it out. Only one of the appartments had air-conditioner, so it cannot be Wuhan!

The professionals were analysing the snow cover on the road. Snow in South China cannot be this dry, and it could not be melting in Northeast China. The snow cover was thin and melting at the edge, so it must be in Shandong!

Relying on the power of technology, another netizen found a street photo and came up with a conclusion: it was indeed Shandong!

Now someone have secretly deleted their posts. There seemed to be some virtual slaps on the face of Zhang Chang the photographer.

During a disarster, it’s very normal for the media to cover some positive news in order to cheer people up. But do they need to think about people’s intellectual capabilities first?

Coincidentally there are more cases like this.

Recently if you search on Baidu.com (a Chinese search engine) “run away after leaving behind 10000 yuan“³, you would be amazed by how rich the Chinese people have become and how fast they could run.

Nobody knows why it had to be 10000 yuan. Anyhow it seemed that people all over the country has joined the game of leaving money behind. The protagonist could be an old people over 80 or a child around 10, but they were all fast-paced and had perfect skills of leaving no evidence of their identity. They could escape from the police’s hunt, leaving behind also a mysterious back.

The most impressive one was that person in Yunnan Province, who left behind 10000 yuan in the office of the CPC secretary general of the county.

This dude mush have joined the White Lotus Group⁴, otherwise how could he managed to get around all the guards of the county government?

After reading all the news coverage, I can’t help asking a question: what are the requirements to work for the state media?

I think these stories have stolen from me my secret recipes for my writing classes back in primary school. At that time, there was always a topic for you to write on: something that you cannot forget. People wise as me could always come up with several templates that were widely used⁵:

• An old granny fell down on the streets …… and I went off for school happily.
• There was a one yuan coin on the street …… and I smiled at the little red flower.

I might be still young at that time, but I am fully aware that I should leave at the end without letting other people know my name.

It is the same with these stories from the news. People who left money behind would proudly say: “I’m Chinese, so please give it (the money) to the country!”

What roles should the media play during a disarster? I dare not say too much here as I am only running my We-Media.

But what role has the media played so far? I can say a little more on this.

Not long ago, Han Wang (cnhan.com) has laid foundaton for its fame in history by that article of “warm[ing] the heart of the mayor of Wuhan”. But this drama has been continued with evern greater scenes.

For those who have forgotten the previous scenes, let’s fill you up a little bit.

On the date, 11 February, when the article was published on Han Wang, the confirmed cases in Wuhan had already reached 42,708. The internet had already been filled with desperate calls for help of Wuhan citizens.

A girl, whose sick mother was rejected by hospitals for lack of beds, had to strike a kong on her balcony for help. What a desperate scene.

To Mr. Zhou Xianwang, mayor of Wuhan, people were filled with discontent and fury. However, Yang Jian, a columnist of Han Wang decided to speak up for Mr. Zhou:

I […] saw the tired eyes of the mayor, through which I also saw firm will which is so touching. When a person in a high position as him is striving hard against the epidemic, why don’t we stop critising and try to warm his heart?

I’m not going to comment on other points such as the cheesy pun of “striving hard against the epidemic” (note: the original pun in Chinese could not be kept in translation), but the mentioning of him as someone in a high position is filled with disgusting boot-licking.

I think Yang is in total lack of the CCP spirit. Wasn’t he taught the article, To Serve the People⁶, in primary school?

What are the following scenes?

On 13 February, the leaders of both Wuhan, the municpality, and Hubei, the province, were both replaced. The CCP secretaries of both the municipality and the province were taken down. As soon as they left, the local media of Hubei changed their faces.

They stopped warming their hearts. The anchors put on a stern face and started critising the former leaders harshly.

At crucial moments concerning human lives, they were still taking their time in taking “the old three actions” of putting up notices, filling up forms and reporting information. As if these would stop the epidemic from spreading.

Their formalism and indecisiveness, together with their bureaucratic mode of thinking, are even more horrible than the coronavirus itself.

They have made people’s heart cold, brought bad atmosphere into the Party, given rise of the epidemic, and therefore are even more detestable and ferocious than the virus.

Wonderful criticism.

Let’s look at the dates when such criticism was published. Why do they have to be after the time when the former leaders were replaced?

At this time, a common saying appears before my eyes: When a wall is about to collapse, everybody gives it a push.

And another one as well: The wheel turns and the Heaven has spared no one.

Mr. Zhou, when they were warming your heart today, they are going to dig the tomb pit for you tomorrow. So take care.

Chaplin, the artist, once said, [sic] the cores of all jokes are tragedies⁷. This quote is perfect for my article.

A look at the performance of the media during the epidemic shows that –

Some lacked preciseness.

People’s Daily reported without validation that Shuang Huang Lian⁸ was capable of controlling the coronavirus, which led to the panic buying of the medicine and a surge of stock values of the companies producing it.

Some misinformed.

China.com.cn edited a video interview of Prof. Li Lanjuan, a epidemiologist, which misinformed the public about the possibility of pets getting infected. This caused many pet dogs/cats to be burried alive.

Some are doubly guilty for calling black white.

Chang Jiang Ri Bao (Yangtze Daily) labeled Weibo posts of citizens calling for help as “rumours”. This caused the pleas for help from Baibuting⁹ ignored and the community became an isolated island.

The list could continue if I wish. But after seeing all these, I cannot feel worried about the media of the country.

I would recommend regular medical checks for employees of the media industry. They should be checked not only for memory, but also intelligence, and last but not least, their hearts.

As the epidemic spreads, the Japanese government has announced today that it has entered an early stage of a epidemic.

Yet as early as 9 February, NHK has published a 54 minute documentary. The caption says: we are telling everyone all the known and unknown facts of the virus.

What a shame, I am learning the situation in China through Japanese media.

During the epidemic, too much is worth media attention, the goodbyes between loved ones, the persistance of the living, and the glory of humanity.

There is too much to reflect on, the regulation of the society, the control of diseases, and political institutions.

News of today is history of tomorrow.

Who would know that, in a magic year of 2020, instead of truth and virtue, what we are leaving the future generations are meaningless sacrifice, hypocritic heros, and what’s more, a fallacy of babies speaking human language when they are only 20 days old.

Notes

¹ This refers to the famous quote of Theodor Adorno: “To write a poem after Auschwitz is barbaric”. After the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, poems of encouragement and compassion were written on the boxes of donated medical supplies from Japan. Yet the official newspaper sponsored by Wuhan municipal government, Chang Jiang Ri Bao (Yangtze Daily), pubished a commentary against such action, claiming that it was a barbaric action and Wuhan people would prefer simpler slogans such as “Add oil, Wuhan” (literal translation from Chinese, meaning “Go Wuhan”).

² Han Wang (cnhan.com) is a website run by local media groups sponsored by the government of Wuhan. It published an article calling people to “warm the heart of the mayor of Wuhan” during the height ofthe epidemic, despite that the local government is believed to be responsible for the outbreak of the virus. The website became unaccessible afterward with the domain directing to a landing page saying the website has been set up correctly (accessed on 18 February, 2020).

³ News coverages said that some people left behind money at police stations and ran away fast immediately without leaving their names.

⁴ The White Lotus Group was a religous and political group in Chinese hisitory. More information could be found at this page on Wikipedia.

⁵ This is a cliche topic and pupils would make up stories such as helping an old granny who have accidentally fell down, or taking a lost item to a policeman, after which the pupil should always leave without telling others his/her name.

⁶ It is speech written by Mao Tse-tung in the 1940s. More information is available at this page on Wikipedia.

⁷ It’s a literal translation as I did not find the original quote from Chaplin.

⁸ Shuang Huang Lian is a Chinese medicine. People’s Daily reported in its Weibo posts that it’s effective in controling the virus without varifying the news, which turned out to be ineffective.

⁹ Baibuting is the name of a local and historical community in Wuhan. After the outbreak of the epidemic, the government still allowed (allegedly asked) the community to continue its tradition of holding banquets of tens of thousands of people for the Spring Festival, which spread the virus further.