Chinese media, advertising, and urban life.

Beijing Morning Post
November 20, 2009

The Beijing Morning Post, a daily published by the Beijing Daily Group, underwent a major redesign this week, switching from broadsheet to tabloid format and thoroughly overhauling its content.

Established on July 20, 1998, the Beijing Morning Post was the capital's first commercial morning paper and became the first to print in full color. But in today's newspaper landscape, it has to contend with the much more visible and influential Beijing Youth Daily and The Beijing News without the security of an exclusive distribution deal like the one the Beijing Daily Messenger has with the subway system.

The switch to a smaller format is reportedly intended to make the paper easier for commuters to read.

On today's front page is a photo of Zhang Hui greeting the public after winning his lawsuit against a traffic law enforcement squad in Shanghai's Minhang District Court.

On September 8, Zhang thought he was doing a good deed by giving a ride to a man complaining of stomach pains who flagged him down at the side of the road, but he ended up being slapped with a 10,000 yuan fine for operating an unregistered taxi. Zhang's ordeal turned the attention of the online and offline media onto the local squads' practice of offering rewards to civilians who turned in illegal cabs. Many critics found that the techniques used constituted entrapment.

Although the authorities retracted the fine on October 26, Zhang pressed on with his lawsuit to help other victims gain justice.

Zhang's victory means that the Minhang district traffic enforcement squad will pay his 50-yuan filing fee.

Southern Weekly
November 19, 2009

The Southern Weekly, one of China's more aggressively investigative newspapers, was the only print media outlet to get an interview with Obama. Central government controlled Xinhua and CCTV did not get one-on-one interviews with the American president.

The interview was published in this week's issue which came out today.

You can read a translation into English of the interview on Daily Telegraph Shanghai correspondent Malcolm's Moore's blog.

This afternoon, several journalists and news assistants at foreign media organizations reported on Twitter that their copies of the paper arrived today without the front page, on the back of which was the Obama interview. As Malcolm Moore points out, the interview "appears to have been carefully checked by the Propaganda ministry. Nothing controversial was published."

So who removed the front pages from the news bureaux' subscription copies, and why?

Who knows, but well-known Chinese journalist and blogger Michael Anti noted "Media, if you wanna understand complexity of Southern Weekend's Obama interview, pls translate this tweet"

Obama interview

Rendered into English (with some help from Anti), the tweet in question by shifeike is:

Analysis of the results of Southern Weekly's intimate contact with Obama: The Central Publicity (neé Propaganda) Department is furious, state media is jealous, Southern Weekly is wild with joy, the Guangdong Party secretary is nervous, Southern Weekly editor Xiang Xi cried hard to get a new big chance, [former editor of Caijing Hu] Shuli is depressed. 



The front page is also notable for the large in-house advertisement at the bottom that reads:

"It's not every issue we have an exclusive interview, but you can come here every week to understand China".

Update: The Wall Street Journal's Jason Dean has more about the missing front page.

Update (2009.11.20): Obama wrote a short note to the newspaper:

To the Southern Weekly and its readers ——

I look forward to continuing the ties between our two countries, and congratulate you for contributing to the analysis and flow of vital policy information. An educated citizenry is the key to an effective government, and a free press contributes to that well-informed citizenry.

Was it intended to be printed alongside the interview, in one spots occupied by the bottom-page ads? (JM)

People's Daily
November 18, 2009

US President Barack Obama's visit to China was the only news worth reporting today, at least according to the front page of the People's Daily (and the Guangming Daily, which shared the same layout).

Today's front page headlines:

· President Hu Jintao hosts ceremony to welcome US President Obama to China
· Hu Jintao meets with US President Obama
· Hu and Obama meet the press
· China and US issue joint statement
· President Hu hosts banquet to welcome President Obama
· Wu Bangguo meets with US President Obama

Four accompanying photos illustrate the two presidents' activities.

These and other exciting stories from today's People's Daily can be found on the paper's English-language website.

Chengdu Evening News
November 17, 2009

Today's Chengdu Evening News aims to stir up some controversy with a feature on the new disaster movie 2012, which opened last week.

"Should 2012 be stopped?" asks the headline at the bottom of the page.

Hong Jiantao (洪剑涛), an actor best known for his role in a sitcom about military cooks, had such a strong reaction to the film that he called for it to be pulled from screens. He posted the following to his blog at 6:21 in the morning of November 14:

When I finished watching the movie I regretted it, particularly for the additional mistake of bringing a child with me. This is a movie cooked up out of ancient rumors, so let's not discuss whether or not is finely crafted or impressive! Let's speak only of its social influence: it really is far too shocking. I've read reports over the past few days saying that the movie caused a panic — and even suicides — in some places it was shown. I didn't believe it, and thought all that was simply commercial hype. But ever since 9:30 last night when I finished watching the film, I haven't been able to get to sleep. I'll nod off for a few moments but then I'm startled awake by my dreams, which consist entirely of horrifying scenes. Overseas, this film would definitely be given a restricted rating, but our cinemas have not done that. Instead, they've been shouting all the way to the box office. They don't stop any children from watching. I'm an insider in this line of work, and I know full well that it's just a story and that everything on the screen is created on a computer, but I could still not help being convinced that disaster was really about to strike. Really, you absolutely cannot take children with you to watch this movie. A teenage girl sitting behind me was so scared she started crying, and my own palms were slick with a cold sweat. I advise the departments in charge of film to strictly limit the age of audiences who watch the film, and they ought to warn audience members with weak hearts to avoid going. Future generations should not have to face the future with hopelessness and decadence for the sake of a miniscule speck of profit. And the treatment of China in the film, both scenes and dialogue, were not friendly, and could even be seen as mocking. I home that my words may be echoed by netizens in general and reach the attention of the those in charge of film administration.

Although China's portrayal in 2012 has generally been seen as positive, the decision to make the country's citizens and military instrumental in a plan to salvage the remnants of humanity has also been interpreted as a cynical ploy on the part of the film-makers for a large box office in China.

Additionally, some critics have pointed out that China's role in the plot is to provide massive amounts of manpower in the form of unskilled laborers who not qualified to be saved on the arks they themselves help to build.

The newspaper report quotes a few sentences from a blog post by Tan Fei, a well-known film critic. Tan laughed off Hong's warning about the dangers of 2012 and put his own spin on the portrayal of the PRC:

Carsick Cars taken from Sound Kapital. Credit: Matthew Niederhauser

This postcard from New York (via Beijing) was contributed by Nick Frisch

Last week, New York witnessed an astonishing wave of Chinese music – or two overlapping waves, to be precise. Best-known to Danwei readers might be D-22 club staples Carsick Cars, PK 14, and Xiao He. They kicked off their inaugural tour of the US playing two book launches in New York on Wednesday and Thursday (full disclosure: your correspondent authored a chapter in one of the books). By Friday night, indie New York was buzzing and the bands packed venues in Brooklyn and lower Manhattan before taking their tour national.

At the über-hipster Glasslands venue in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg, one bearded, bespectacled bouncer looked positively astonished: “I’ve never seen a crowd like this. There’s a line out the door!” Another source of astonishment: “Wow! There are Chinese kids with tight pants and guitars who play music like our music!” Indeed; though Glasslands was certainly the hipsterati’s spot to see and be seen last Friday, it wasn’t immediately apparent that the crowd’s appreciation rose beyond the “Woah! Dude! Novelty! Cachet! China’s hip!” level.

PK14 taken from Sound Kapital. Credit: Matthew Niederhauser

More’s the pity: following the always-entertaining, always-gruff Xiao He, PK 14 turned in a terrific set. Carsick Cars, darlings and avatars of the Beijing scene, came off a bit lackluster compared to some recent D-22 and Yugong Yishan shows. But you wouldn’t have known it from the chatter in the crowd: scenesters know a hot trend when they see one, and lavished more praise than was really called for. But Jeffray Zhang and his band finished strong: their signature closing anthem “Zhongnanhai” brought forth a shower of unlit cigarettes to the stage, a sure sign of Beijing rock savants in the crowd.

Meanwhile, in the higher-toned confines of Carnegie Hall (full disclosure, again: this writer was in town working for them), that prestigious institution was wrapping up its “Ancient Paths, Modern Voices” China festival, which concluded Tuesday night. The program represented several generations of artists who learned their craft at Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music. The legendary “class of 1978,” named for the year they started at the just-reopened school, included big names like Tan Dun, Chen Qigang (of Olympic ceremony fame), Chen Yi, and Zhou Long. Of more recent Central Conservatory vintage was Lang Lang, who played Rachmaninov’s 2nd Piano Concerto during Tuesday night’s festival finale. And at the youngest extreme, Li Shaosheng – born in 1988 – had a piece premiered in Alice Tully Hall under Carnegie’s aegis. Carnegie’s PR machine worked overtime, scoring several glowing reviews from the New York Times.

Tian Zhuangzhuang's earlier films, including The Horse Thief (盗马贼), On Hunting Ground (猎场札撒) were well received and put him in the category of "ethnic minority" film directors. However, after making The Blue Kite (蓝风筝), which dealt with the Cultural Revolution era, he was forced to stop making films for ten years. He headed back to the Beijing Film Academy, his Alma mater, where he remains a professor.

Tian's new film, The Warrior and the Wolf (狼灾记) is based on a short story by Japanese writer Yasushi Inoue (井上靖), part of the collection Tunhuang, named after China's western region.

Yasushi Inoue wrote from a deep interest in China and its ancient history, creating fiction that stemmed from his knowledge of the country. He also participated in national level Sino-Japanese events. Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien (侯孝贤) suggested The Warrior and the Wolf to Tian Zhuangzhuang, but it took ten years to complete his thought processes on the film; it wasn't political like The Blue Kite, but it was erotic. The protagonists, a war general of the Warring States period, and an ethnic minority widow, engage in seven days of sexual passion until they turn into wolves.

Time Weekly interviewed Tian and wrote about the film before its release last month and ran an interview with Tian, in which he talked about the commercial aspect of film in China and the film industry as a kind of mafia.

Not only was The Warrior and the Wolf discussed, but so was Tian's position as one of the least commercial directors in China and whether this was undermined by his new film.

The interview is translated below.

Time Weekly: You have constantly talked about your “changing directions” but the actors and the storyline of The Warrior and The Wolf feels a little like a commercial film, how do you see this drop between the production and the audience?
Tian Zhuangzhuang: The ideas of the person making the films and those watching the films are different, the former is about making films in a very professional way. Filmmakers have to keep their individuality as much as possible within the confines of the profession, examples are Zhang Yimou’s Hero and Jia Zhangke’s Still Life, these two films are completely different, but both directors were very professional, so investors will approve, and the market will also approve. If Jia Zhangke used the budget for House of Flying Daggers to make Still Life then it’s obvious that the money is dirty money, but if Zhang Yimou used the money for Still Life to make House of Flying Daggers, I think he'd only be able to make a knock-off version. The profession of an investor is to find the best combination for attracting an audience, complete the film within the budget and then realize anticipations in the market. So Old Jiang (Jiang Zhiqiang 江志强) set out the team and actors for The Warrior and the Wolf from the position of an investor; he has his own ideas.

TW: You once said that “whatever the subject matter, if I do it I can't make it commercial.” Won’t investors get nervous?
Tian: Actually I was too simple in my discussions about commercialism, I was simplifying too much. Commercialism is something that can be professionalized, and this
kind of “professionalization” can have many, many forms. If you dissected Hollywood's commercial films, it depicts emotions, history, and inspiration. If we analyzed carefully it’s easy to see that there aren’t too many commercial factors there, and there isn’t a lot of technical skill, for example, in The Bridges of Madison Country, Pulp Fiction: how could they be counted as commercial films? They’re so against the norm! There aren’t any huge stars, or a structure, but why did so many people watch it? Why did it sell so well?

Yanzhao Evening News
November 16, 2009

US President Barack Obama arrived in Shanghai yesterday, and many of today's papers put him on the front page today. One popular image, shown here on the cover of Yanzhao Evening News, shows Obama carrying an umbrella.

Weather continued to be a big story as the northern half of the country recovers from from the storms of the past week.

The paper's top headline shouts that Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei Province, has mostly returned to normal: the second ring road is drivable again and food prices have stabilized.

The good news means that citizens can enjoy snow sculptures and other wintry delights, like this spectacular shot of mountains outside of the city.

Slow motion and time lapse video from the last snowfall in Chinese capital, by Janek Zdzarski.

Obama's "townhall" meeting with Shanghai youth will be streamed live on the Internet at the following URLs: whitehouse.gov/live ， america.gov/mgck and apps.facebook.com/whitehouselive.

欧巴马总统与中国青年面对面: 11月16日，星期一，12:45至14:00。
可通过 whitehouse.gov/live ， america.gov/mgck 或 apps.facebook.com/whitehouselive 观看该活动。

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A librarian at China National Library is seeking a Latin teacher. Please email jhsbook@126.com to apply or for more information.

Mirror, November 13, 2009

US President Barack Obama will make his first visit to China from November 15-18. To mark the occasion, he's changing his name.

"Obama" is transliterated in the Chinese press as 奥巴马 (àobāmǎ), but a promotional poster distributed yesterday by the US Embassy uses 欧巴马 (ōubāmǎ). Today's Mirror ran a detailed look into the situation:

A Mirror reporter learned from the US Embassy that the use of ōubāmǎ was due to the fact that the transliteration was closer to the English pronunciation than àobāmǎ, which has long been used in the Chinese media.

But on the Embassy's official website, the reporter found that both versions were used in press releases.

But according to Susan Stevenson, press spokesperson for the US Embassy, the US government was standardizing the Chinese translation of the president's name to clear up the current confusion between the two transliterations, and from now on it would use ōubāmǎ exclusively.

The Xinhua News Agency keeps an archive of transliterations, and the Mirror confirmed that, like media organizations across the mainland and in Hong Kong, Xinhua has always rendered Obama as àobāmǎ. But a former polling station volunteer told the newspaper that on Chinese versions of last year's presidential ballot in New York, Obama's name was transliterated as ōubāmǎ.

There are competing Chinese transliterations of "Barack" too, 巴拉克 (bālākè) and 贝拉克 (bèilākè), as the Mirror presents in a somewhat confusing introduction:

Searching for the two versions, this reporter discovered that there is no consensus, even in authoritative media outlets like Xinhua. As is well-known, President Obama has the same name as his father, and "Barack" comes from Swahili, the largest local language in Kenya* and means "blessing from God."

Because the name comes from a local African language, it can be spelled in English as either "Barack" or "Barak." Therefore, both transliterations are possible.

So how should Barack Obama's name be transliterated?

Beijing Evening News
November 12, 2009

Beijing saw its third snowfall in twelve days this morning.

Because the snow reached other areas of the country as early as yesterday afternoon, the city's morning newspapers could only feature photos of heavy accumulation elsewhere, leaving the capital's snowfall for the evening editions.

Today's Beijing Evening News ran a front-page photo of a snow-covered bridge in Shichahai neatly framed by a railing.

Snow tends to add to the city's charm, blanketing the eaves of traditional-style buildings and muffling the sounds of traffic, even as it increases gridlock and causes headaches for residents.

After Tuesday's snowfall, Huang Jiwei, a writer who keeps a blog on literature and popular slang, offered up a gallery of photos of the snow-covered city. He prefaced it a quote from the poet Yin Lichuan, "When it snows, the northern capital becomes northern peace," a line that plays on the capital's current and former names: Beijing (北京) vs. Beiping (北平).

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Editor - Shanghai

Shanghai Family, the leading English-language magazine for expatriate families in Shanghai, is looking for an editor to add to our team.

This job can be as big or as focused as you want. You can concentrate on writing, editing, and shaping content, or work more broadly across the team on growing the business in planned ways. Whatever your bliss and ambition, there are a few skills and qualifications you must have:

* 2 to 4 years of independent writing and editing experience publishing in online or print media under regular deadlines.
* A thorough understanding of the needs and interests of expatriate families living in Shanghai.
* The demonstrated ability to develop content ideas and research stories and topics.
* An ability to oversee publication production, including artwork, layout, and printing.
* You must be able to commit to at least one year (10 issues).

TO APPLY FOR THIS POSITION:

Please send resume and two or more writing clips to: editor@shfamily.com, with “Editor" in the subject line.

The Beijing News
November 11, 2009

Today's edition of The Beijing News weighs in at a hefty 264 pages.

Launched on November 11, 2003, the newspaper celebrates its sixth anniversary with a 172-page feature on the economic outlook for 2010. Twenty-two economists, from Mao Yushi to Martin Jacques, offer their thoughts on trends for the upcoming year.

A separate section looking back on notable reports from the past six years includes an interview with Dai Zigeng, president of The Beijing News. The first question describes how the newspaper came to be:

Reporter: The Beijing News is six years old. Looking back, what were the circumstances that led to the founding of the paper?
Dai Zigeng: The paper's former incarnation was Life Times, which lasted for five years and not only failed to carry on but ended up owing the printers a lot of money, becoming a burden for the Guangming Daily. At the end of 2002, Xue Changci, the editorial committee member in charge of the paper [now editor in chief of Guangming Daily] looked me up to ask whether the paper could be rescued. I said the possibility existed, but what was really needed was to change the format and do a redesign, and start it over again. Later, I went with them to various places, primarily in search of partner. At the end of June, 2003, I had the unexpected opportunity to be in Guangzhou talking to then general manager of Southern Metropolis Daily Yu Huafeng. At the time, SMD was looking to expand, and we quickly came to an agreement and decided on a preliminary direction.

But many people in the Beijing newspaper sector were not very optimistic about The Beijing News, because at the time the city already had around ten newspapers, and they thought the market was saturated and there was no longer any room to squeeze in. Others were dubious that a paper run according to the Southern Media ideal would fit in in Beijing. Some friends in sponsoring organizations advised that using the financing I had to start an economics or consumer newspaper, or a weekly with detailed market analysis, would have a brighter future.

The Beijing News
November 11, 2003

But we were determined to run a metropolitan newspaper. Our reasoning: first, the quality of the existing metropolitan papers in Beijing was not very high, and was particularly poor in satisfying the reading needs of middle- to high-end populations; second, market competition was not too fierce, nothing like what it was around Guangzhou; third, as a cosmopolitan city, Beijing possessed an advertising market with latent potential; fourth, Southern Media's newspaper philosophy was quite well-suited to jointly-run newspapers — I'd been in Guangzhou for many years and had personally witnessed the Southern Media Group's strategies for advancement and expansion; fifth, Southern Media was talent-rich, something no other outlet could match — they not only could plan and act, but they were willing to fight, and they had rich practical experience; sixth, Guangming Daily could lend the power of its advantageous political position, enhancing the resources and advantages I mentioned previously.

The Beijing News debuted with a cover photo of former US president Bill Clinton embracing "AIDS boy" Song Pengfei, a young man who contracted HIV through a hospital blood transfusion and became a well-known advocate for the rights of persons with HIV.

Today's cover image shows the aftermath of a bus accident at Beijing's Sihui station. A public bus started up unexpectedly, and as the driver tried to bring it under control, it smashed another bus, toppled a sign, and killed a waiting passenger.

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Accredited journalist office engaged in writing articles for international publications as well as local production of documentary and talk shows, seeks office manager/research assistant. Your duties will include the below:

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This is a great full time position for someone looking to work in the journalist/media fields.

Interested parties should send a detailed cover letter explaining their experience and future career goals, plus a CV, to info@cmmintelligence.com.

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Digital Marketing Planner - Shanghai

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Julia Lovell. Photo by Martin Figura

Julia Lovell teaches at the University of London's Birkbeck College in the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology and has translated Serve the People by Yan Lianke and Lust; Caution by Eileen Chang amongst other Chinese literary works.

Lovell's new book of translation is modern fiction forefather Lu Xun's The Real Story of Ah Q and Other Tales of China, published by Penguin.

Soon available in shops in the mainland and abroad, an excerpt of the Preface can be read at the China Beat. Below is a Q&A with the translator (note: Eric Abrahamsen at Paper Republic also interviewed Julia Lovell).

Danwei: What significance do you think Lu Xun's work has for the younger generations of Chinese people today?
Julia Lovell: Plenty, I think. But I would distinguish between two Lu Xuns: between, on the one hand, the heroic revolutionary Lu Xun (invented by Mao), whose works generations of schoolchildren have been forced to memorise (down to the punctuation, I believe); and on the other, a spikier, tirelessly critical, more realistic Lu Xun. I think that Lu Xun’s legacy of cosmopolitanism and intellectual independence – which comes through in a good deal of his dark fiction and polemical essays – is an important and useful reminder of modern China’s traditions of dissent and extraordinary receptiveness to the outside world.

Lu Xun's complete fiction. Photo: Penguin

Danwei: When you were approached to translate the book, did you factor in how it would appeal to English-speaking audiences? Did you think that it could appeal? Once you have translated the work, was there the feeling that you'd helped to bridge the gap between something that was distinctly culturally Chinese (Lu Xun) and a modern, 21st century western audience?
JL: I had the hope, of course, that I could try to explain to contemporary English-speaking readers why Lu Xun is seen as such an important author in China; I think it’s true to say that up until now Lu Xun has been barely known among general Anglophone audiences (I think the situation is different in other European languages, such as Norwegian, which have a more flourishing translation culture than, say, Britain or the US does).

I thought that Lu Xun could appeal to English-speaking readers for a few reasons. First of all, for his acute commentary on the era that he lived through - to read Lu Xun is to capture a snapshot of late imperial and early Republican China. (As we all know, this year is a big birthday year for China, and Lu Xun’s scepticism is still a useful antidote to the fizzy hype that came out of the PRC on the 60th anniversary of the Communist revolution.) Secondly, he’s a sharp stylist, with a command of tone (surrrealism, irony, black humour) that gives him an appeal beyond China specialists. Anyone who works on modern Chinese culture encounters Lu Xun – he’s kind of James Joyce and Dickens rolled into one. And I would suggest that anyone who wants to get a handle on modern Chinese literature and culture － and particularly on the sense of crisis that gripped 20th-century writers and thinkers – can’t do better than start with Lu Xun, because his characters and themes have established themselves so firmly in China's national imagination.

This video is a spoof "shanzhai" or home made version of this year's 60th National Day Parade in Beijing. (In Chinese without English subtitles).

An interview by Danwei's Jeremy Goldkorn with Yang Yang and Cui Zi'en, two of the organizers of Beijing's fourth Queer Film Festival that took place this summer. Shot and edited by Patrick Carr of Mandarin Film.

Hu Shuli has resigned as editor-in-chief of the business magazine Caijing (财经).

Rumors surfaced on the Internet this afternoon, and the Wall Street Journal has confirmed the news with various sources. The magazine, which is known for its hard-hitting investigative reporting, recently had a number of senior editors walk out over a reported dispute with the magazine's owners.

Deng Zhixin (@xmarden), an editor of the opinion section at Southern Metropolis Daily, wrote that Hu will take up a position at Zhongshan University (Sun Yat-sen University) in Guangzhou:

In an interview, Zhongshan University emphasized that Hu Shuli had accepted a position as dean of the School of Mass Communication and Design as a full-time, tenured professor, and the invitation letter had been issued a few days ago. Note: the school stressed that it was "full-time".

Blogger Hecaitou, who mentioned the rumors earlier in the day, put up a blog post on Hu's change of careers:

News came at midday saying that Hu Shuli will resign as editor of Caijing magazine and move on to become the dean of the School of Mass Communication and Design at Zhongshan University. I'm sure that the media is going crazy contacting people at the university to confirm the news and scrambling to get it as a lead headline in this evening's or tomorrow's papers. If the news is correct, then I should congratulate my classmates at Zhongshan University. Your new dean is a ferocious characters, not some ivory-tower academician. She's got blood on her blade and her clothing smells of gunpowder.

Hu Shuli is a media person, but she cannot continue in journalism this time, probably thanks to the media. Ever since the high-level changes at Caijing came out, Hu became a focal point of media attention wherever she went. If I recall correctly, she even decisively announced a new workplace, future partners, and a new magazine name. Perhaps all of this was true — in China, there has to be an official denial before we're able to determine the truth of a piece of news. But pushing Hu Shuli into that raging storm is tantamount to treating her resignation like a rivalry or breaking off a friendship, a situation that the new boss would be loath to accept. Comparatively speaking, Hu is stepping back to the academic world, out of the controversy for a few years, is probably a generally acceptable outcome for all concerned. The more the media reports on Hu's new magazine, the further it recedes from her. More than a little ironic.

In Chinese society, crafty use of various powers, precise measurement of the bounds of speech, and sensitive preservation of position allowed Hu Shuli to reach the very edge of the limits of speech. So it will be hard for there to be another Hu Shuli; there will not be a Caixin to succeed Caijing. We are accustomed to seeing legendary individuals in the media, and while this may be good fortune for the individual, it is not beneficial for the media. The existence of legendary individuals means that there is an invisible barrier preventing other news people from writing reports that ought to be reportable. It also means that there exist within a single industry multiple standards and values, that there is imperfect competition within the industry. The presence of these legendary individuals for so many years means that we have not been able to read true journalism for that length of time. Falling short vs. being prevented from even attempting: this is the difference between a hero and a legend.

Hu Shuli's resignation totally kills off the possibility of the style of news that would kill her off. The media has its own life force and free will, and the power that once protected and supported it may in the end turn into an obstructive force. And this test of strengths is no purely capital operation or business transformation; what lies behind is something far more complicated that the norms of an industry can tolerate. A model in which media professionals provide knowledge services in return for limited, conditional cooperation cannot be sustained for very long. Within this model, the passage of time and the accumulation of profit will cause both sides to feel that they've put in an unfair share, and that the opposite side has contributed nothing substantial. There will always come a day to fight over "who has the final say," but the victor was decided upon on the day the partnership was set up. Good business, a professional team, and high-quality news content may make it seem like this was a media outlet operating under a free market system. It looked like it could really continue to develop and become an independent media entity that could possibly go public. At issue: Who started this game? Who decided upon the rules?

Starting today, the media may be losing an editor, but a university is gaining a dean. Some of industry's shortcomings were brought out into the light of day. Now everything is patched up, as if nothing at all has happened. The Bible says that there is nothing new under the sun. At the end of every legend, how much have we really progressed? This is the question I would like to submit.

Update (2009.11.10): Jonathan Ansfield at the New York Times has an in-depth look at the situation that led to Hu's departure.

See also: The Guardian, a Wall Street Journal follow-up, Foreign Policy, the AP, the mainland newspaper The Economic Observer and, for contrast, Xinhua.