|
Foreign media on China
Daily Telegraph hoaxed by spoof "character of the year" storyPosted by Joel Martinsen, December 17, 2008 12:07 PM
 Messy reporting An article in today's Daily Telegraph recapping the major problems that China has faced in 2008 leads with the following:
According to Yunnan-based blogger Hecaitou, these "intellectuals" belong to the China Committee of Chinese Aesthetics (中国汉语美学委员会), which revealed ("chaos") to be 2008's word of the year after it garnered the most votes out of 2,937 total nominations. Unfortunately for gullible readers, there's no such committee in China. Hecaitou's blog post cites a joke news agency and describes a ceremony in which "abbot Hecaitou of Dali's Tianlong Temple" inscribed the chosen character. The joke is inspired by an annual ceremony at Japan's Kiyomizu Temple, where a monk wrote out the character ("change") this year. Last year, Hecaitou chose ("rising prices"), and in 2006 he named (an obscenity) as the word of the year. Ironically, Taiwan's United Daily News has just announced that 乱 beat out ("cheat") and ("tragic") to become the word of the year. However, the character was chosen by a public survey, not an intellectual debate, and this is the first time the paper has chosen a "word of the year." The Telegraph is in good company: Xinhua's Reference News got hoaxed not long ago by a spoof German news story about poor migrant bankers in China. Update (2008.12.17): The framing for the article has been reworked to eliminate the reference to the character of the year. A screenshot of the original article is available above. Update 2 (2008.12.18): Hecaitou responds. ESWN translates. Update 3: A mea culpa by the story's author, who keeps a blog at the Telegraph. Links and Sources
|
Partner Links
Jobs in China
Recent Comments
AllSeeingE on
Send a postcard to the future
Peter Andr on
Cats and dogs in the animal cruelty law
hanmeng on
Al Jazeera on potential dog meat ban
singingblu on
2012: a disaster movie not suitable for children
NINGT on
Goons and thugs
Len Chiu on
The body in the lake
Christie on
Pole dancing: for fitness, not about sex
Media Partners
Visit these sites for the latest China news
China Media Timeline
Major media events over the last three decades
Danwei Model Workers
 Recommended blogs and new media
Books on China
 Diamond Hill by Feng Chi-shun: Feng's memoir Diamond Hill describes an era of gambling and gangsters, Suzie Wong and squatter villages, fires and food stalls, and the Kowloon Walled City and its white powder. "A time when people were poor, but life was rich," he says. The world that he grew up in no longer exists, but his book - the first ever on the Diamond Hill refugee settlement, in either Chinese or English - offers a candid picture of what life was like for most Hong Kong residents in the 1950s.
William A. Callahan's China: The Pessoptimist Nation: China: The Pessoptimist Nation shows how the heart of Chinese foreign policy is not a security dilemma, but an identity dilemma. Through a careful analysis of how Chinese people understand their new place in the world, the book charts how Chinese identity emerges through the interplay of positive and negative feelings in a dynamic that intertwines China's domestic and international politics.
The WTO ruling: a half victory at best: In August 2009, a World Trade Organization panel ruled against China's system of monopoly control over entertainment products. Was this the victory supporters hailed as the dawn of a new day for American and global entertainment companies in the China market?
Front Page of the Day
A different newspaper every weekday
From the Vault
Classic Danwei posts
+ Street hawker cries of Beijing (2006.12): Yang Changhe demonstrates hawker's cries in a video shot by Muzimei. + New Weekly: Do Chinese kids know anything about traditonal Chinese culture? (2004.06): Q: Do you know what China's four great inventions are? Paper, printing, the compass and gunpowder 49.3% know all four, 37.3% get one or more wrong, 13.3% don't know at all (2004.06.12) + Some questions about SARFT's full-stop for Red Question Mark (2007.09): SARFT axes Red Question Mark (红问号). He Dong (何东) responds.
Danwei Archives
Danwei Feeds
Via Feedsky
 (on the mainland)or Feedburner  (blocked in China) Main feed: Main posts (FB has top links) Top Links: Links from the top bar Danwei Jobs: Want ads Danwei Digest: Updated daily, 19:30 |
 |
Chinese media, advertising, and urban life. |
|
tweet
facebook
bookmark
HaoHao
digg
Comments on Daily Telegraph hoaxed by spoof "character of the year" story
Oh the celebrated Daily Telegraph. Thanks, Danwei.
To be fair to the Telegraph, the story itself wasn't actually about the 'word of the year', it was about the genuine chaos which inspired it. Sure, the opening paragraph implies that the journalist believed that the China Committee of Chinese Aesthetics was a real organisation, but this was really just a gimmicky intro to get to the real story: that China's year has actually been quite 'messy'. So, a prime example of a lazy journalist taking inspiration from a blog he's read to lure readers into reading his article, but not quite as ridiculous as Reference News taking an obvious spoof and presenting it as a real story.
Nice try Malcolm, you got had.
Anonymous, you comment lets me remember a proverb
五十步笑百步
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BA%94%E5%8D%81%E6%AD%A5%E7%AC%91%E7%99%BE%E6%AD%A5
Self-criticism here: link
I had high hopes for 囧 , but those boring people chose 乱 instead...
Thanks, Malcolm. I've updated the post (and subscribed to your blog).