Reports from Shanghai
My colleague and friend from Shanghai, Wang Weijia, passed me a link this evening to some broadcasts from UC Berkeley's graduate journalism school.
Several of them brought back vivid memories and further inspired my will to document the fascinating city on video. One, on Shanghai's startling growth and consequently alarming rate of evictions, is excellent; due, at least in part I am sure, to the journalist consultations with Weijia.
The link is here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
wp-srv/photo/emergingvoices/
index.html?nav=cwleftnav
The one grievance I had with those I watched is that the segment on migrant workers is much too skimming, and unusually celebratory. I find it extremely difficult to believe - given the faces of migrant workers I saw, sat beside, and slept propped up against - that not one of them has anything negative to say about their situation.
One Shanghai jazz musician told me that there is a statue with melted, drilling eyes, symbolizing migrant discontent. And no one travelling for any length of time in China can ignore the train stations clogged with workers, the obvious wretchedness of - at least - some of their situations, of farmers forced of their lands, of 20 hour train rides home being unpleasant (as opposed to jovially accepted, which is how the report portrayed it). Some Chinese are afraid to seem upset about their situation.
The eviction story showed passionate, Shanghainese temper at its best; the migrant worker story showed Chinese ambivalence at its worst.
The most telling situation I can recall anecdotally, is the corner, street-level block near my apartment in Pudong, Shanghai, which was being transformed into a restaurant by migrant workers. By day, they worked in the small, dust-clogged area; by night, they slept in the same place but covered with mosquito nets. I saw one man saw glass on the sidewalk - shirtless, in sandals, with a limp cigarette hanging from his mouth, as sparks flew around his ankles. They would shower in the street and eat their meals from vendors around the corner.
I know how hard it must be for a foreign journalist, especially a student journalist, to work in Shanghai. I just think that this particular piece smacked of ignorant-orientalism; with a story angle that reflected a lack of local knowledge, quotes that did not account for dissent, a focus that ignored homeless migrants and safety issues; but I think, foremost, that I am personally bowled over by an exclusion of any visuals from the Shanghai Railway Station, to which a visit would drastically alter anyone's - even a foreigner's - interpretation of China's "newly mobile workforce."
Several of them brought back vivid memories and further inspired my will to document the fascinating city on video. One, on Shanghai's startling growth and consequently alarming rate of evictions, is excellent; due, at least in part I am sure, to the journalist consultations with Weijia.
The link is here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
wp-srv/photo/emergingvoices/
index.html?nav=cwleftnav
The one grievance I had with those I watched is that the segment on migrant workers is much too skimming, and unusually celebratory. I find it extremely difficult to believe - given the faces of migrant workers I saw, sat beside, and slept propped up against - that not one of them has anything negative to say about their situation.
One Shanghai jazz musician told me that there is a statue with melted, drilling eyes, symbolizing migrant discontent. And no one travelling for any length of time in China can ignore the train stations clogged with workers, the obvious wretchedness of - at least - some of their situations, of farmers forced of their lands, of 20 hour train rides home being unpleasant (as opposed to jovially accepted, which is how the report portrayed it). Some Chinese are afraid to seem upset about their situation.
The eviction story showed passionate, Shanghainese temper at its best; the migrant worker story showed Chinese ambivalence at its worst.
The most telling situation I can recall anecdotally, is the corner, street-level block near my apartment in Pudong, Shanghai, which was being transformed into a restaurant by migrant workers. By day, they worked in the small, dust-clogged area; by night, they slept in the same place but covered with mosquito nets. I saw one man saw glass on the sidewalk - shirtless, in sandals, with a limp cigarette hanging from his mouth, as sparks flew around his ankles. They would shower in the street and eat their meals from vendors around the corner.
I know how hard it must be for a foreign journalist, especially a student journalist, to work in Shanghai. I just think that this particular piece smacked of ignorant-orientalism; with a story angle that reflected a lack of local knowledge, quotes that did not account for dissent, a focus that ignored homeless migrants and safety issues; but I think, foremost, that I am personally bowled over by an exclusion of any visuals from the Shanghai Railway Station, to which a visit would drastically alter anyone's - even a foreigner's - interpretation of China's "newly mobile workforce."
posted by iain.e.marlow at 3:04 PM
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