Newspapers

Dancers on the cover of Beijing newspapers on a slow news day

JDM060611tbns.jpg
Front page of The Beijing News

Papers in Beijing are generally thinnest on Sundays. The Beijing News, for example, which had 104 pages on Friday plus an 8-page World Cup supplement, had just 32 pages in its two main sections on Sunday. A one-off special 32-page football supplement doubled the paper's normal volume.

The Sunday TBN usually has an international focus, with columns written by Chinese scholars-in-residence at American universities, international political cartoons, and a "Globe" section that features sometimes-uncredited translations of reports from the world press.

JDM060611cts.jpg
Front page of China Times

Interesting about today's selection of papers was the fact that three of them - TBN, China Times, and Beijing Times - chose to forgo disasters and football to run photos of a relatively insignificant Saturday event, the launch of the Beijing Fat Person's Club at the Botanical Gardens.

China Times clocked in at 24 pages today, two-thirds of which were devoted to the World Cup. The "1000-pound Dancing Troupe," a group of four women from Nanjing, appears only on the front page; unlike the other two papers, CT did not provide any text apart from a brief caption.

JDM060611bjts.jpg
Front page of Beijing Times

The club, which will conduct a beauty contest in September, is intended to provide a creative outlet for overweight Beijing residents who are often turned away from participating in other public performances of singing and dancing.

Oddly, for such an small piece of news, there is significant variance between the version reported in The Beijnig News and that in Beijing Times. TBN is fairly upbeat - it quotes a Mr. Yang, representing a sponsoring organization, as saying the club already has over one thousand members. BJT, on the other hand, paints a more dismal picture - the paper quotes one Tao Xue, representative of on of the sponsors, who said that membership is just over 100, of which only three or four came to the activity.

JDM060611byds.jpg
Front page of Beijing Youth Daily.

Beijing Youth Daily and its stable of papers chose different front page photos. BYD ran a photo of a rail line to Fuzhou that had collapsed because of heavy rains.

Of the remaining Beijing papers, Beijing Morning Post ran a photo of a grounded Korean plane, The First featured a picture of repairs to the Badaling section of the Great Wall, and Beijing Daily Messenger ran a photo of a drum performance celebrating Cultural Heritage Day.

Links and Sources
There are currently 1 Comments for Dancers on the cover of Beijing newspapers on a slow news day.

Comments on Dancers on the cover of Beijing newspapers on a slow news day

I sympathize - here in the midwest, we got an above-the- fold story on a duck who pined away and died after the death of his long-time companion...

Post a comment

All comments are moderated and subject to review by Danwei contributors and editors, but well-grounded and articulate comments will be published regardless of which way they lean. Because comments published on any website ultimately contribute to the character of that website, we may decline to publish comments that are irrelevant, redundant, or that do not adhere to generally accepted standards of courtesy; if you are looking for a fight, there are plenty of other venues available online.


Some useful html: <b>bold</b>, <i>italic</i>,
<a href="http://www.danwei.org">link</a>

Media Partners
Visit these sites for the latest China news
090609guardian2.png 090609CNN3.png
China Media Timeline
Major media events over the last three decades
Danwei Model Workers
laomo2008fpA.jpg
Recommended blogs and new media
Books on China
AXL091030storiesforthcoming.jpg
Princess Der Ling: Two Years in the Forbidden City: Two years in the Forbidden City is largely a reminiscence of the minutiae of life for one of history's most powerful women, by one of her court attendants, a Manchu noble's daughter by the name of Der Ling.
Carl Crow's The Long Road Back to China: In 1939 Carl Crow - an American journalist, advertising executive and author who had lived in Shanghai for 25 years until forced out by the Japanese - travelled up the Burma Road from Rangoon to Chongqing on assignment for Liberty magazine - 'the most interesting assignment I have ever been given'.
Front Page of the Day
A different newspaper every weekday
From the Vault
Classic Danwei posts
+ The 'national' in National Day (2006.10): Xiao Feng writes about China's national flavor, national curse, national bird, national car, and so forth, Dongfang Yu writes on the true meaning of China's National Day in the age of angry youth.
+ Don't ask so laowai don't have to tell (2008.07): An essay was written by Geremie Barmé, scholar, filmmaker and author of the new book The Forbidden City.
+ Religion and government in an uneasy mix (2008.03): Phoenix Weekly (凤凰周刊) article from October, 2007, on government influence on religious practice in Tibet.
Danwei Archives
Danwei Feeds
Via Feedsky rsschiclet2.png (on the mainland)
or Feedburner rsschiclet.gif (blocked in China)
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Main feed: Main posts (FB has top links)
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Top Links: Links from the top bar
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Danwei Jobs: Want ads
rsschiclet2.png rsschiclet.gif Danwei Digest: Updated daily, 19:30