Nanyang Daily

At the end of 2008. China Newsweek reported that teachers in Nanyang city, Henan, were forced to subscribe to Party newspapers and periodicals such as the Nanyang Daily (南阳日报).

Journalist Zhou Hualei (周华蕾) wrote that State regulations say that the only compulsory subscriptions for Party periodicals are by organizations that are publicly funded. Cadres at county and village level are often given a quota to fill. But teachers in village towns at had to use their own wages to subscribe.

Zhou reported that on average 15 teachers purchase 12 copies of Nanyang Evening News (南阳晚报). In Dengzhou county, this responsibilty extends to the schoolchildren, who are forking out money to support the quota for their teachers.

A translation of the article is below. Note that tangseng meat refers to Monkey King's master (the monk), whose flesh was delicious and a taste would guarantee immortality, so everyone wanted a part of it.

In Nanyang city, Henan province, teachers in the village towns earn roughly 1,500 yuan a year. Every year, they have to use hundreds of yuan from their salary subscribing to the local Nanyang Daily. “This is a political duty. You must subscribe to it, whether you like it or not!” said the headmaster of one school.

The people who announced this system are officials from the Nanyang propaganda department. Their logic: teachers are getting paid by government finances, who support their danwei no matter what (吃财政饭的), so it’s not really forced － it’s paid for using public fees.

“The price has been raised again! It’s even more expensive than the People’s Daily," said one teacher.

In the winter of 2008, the headmaster announced to Xu Xiaobing (许小冰) and the other teachers that they had to subscribe to the Nanyang Daily － the cost for the whole year would be 318 yuan. In 2009, the newspaper’s price had been raised by 90 yuan. Xu Xiaobing’s salary had only been raised by 30 yuan.

Xu Xiaobing is a village teacher from Tanghe county in the city of Nanyang. She can't remember how many years it has been since “voluntary” subscription to the Nanyang Daily started. But she still doesn't understand why she is forced to subscribe to it.

In the afternoon of November 5th, 2008, a distribution meeting for the Party newspapers and periodicals of Nanyang city was convened. The propaganda chief of Nanyang emphasized at this meeting that “Party newspapers and periodicals distribution must be stabilized”.

Party newspapers had the advantage during years of the planned economy, but recently it has been continuously “attacked” by metropolitan newspapers and other kinds of media. In 2003 the National Journalists Association conducted a survey which showed that local Party newspapers had decreased by 40% compared to the 1980s. According to public estimations, Nanyang Daily saw a distribution level of 110,000 in 1991, but by 2008 it was at 140,000 － this is closely related to the compulsory subscription system.

From the information that this China Newsweek journalist has gathered, in the 15 districts of Nanyang city, many teachers have refused to subscribe to the Nanyang Daily [teachers pay more, 318 yuan compared to the 120 yuan that Nanyang residents pay]. The teachers who are rebelling are from the villages, as the ones from the Tanghe township made a complaint, and their duty was relieved.

“A teacher is like a piece of tangseng meat," said Xu Xiaobing. At the end of 2007, every two teachers subscribed to the Nanyang Daily and Nanyang Evening News together. Each person paid 212 yuan, which was 1.2 times the usual amount, and took one newspaper each home. At the out-of-the-way villages, no one reads the papers, and they are stacked up in high piles.

Apart from swallowing their anger, there is nothing else to do. “The situation of village schools is very tight in terms of assignments － one, we are afraid of being fired, and two, we don’t want to be sent far away from home to work.”

Xu Xiaobing does read newspapers, just not Nanyang Daily. “If it was a paper like the People’s Daily which informs me on the policy-making directions of the government, of course I would care. But Nanyang Daily is about the everyday lives of town and county leaders, with lots of ads, and also exaggerated news”.

The home of Xu Xiaobing became famous for its river. In the past it was so clear you could see the bottom, but now this has been compromised due to industrial development. “The newspaper said in the past that a waste water deposit would be constructed in Tanghe, but there has been no news of it since. Waste water is still being put into the river － it’s greasy when you step into it."

Xu Xiaobing is a pseudonym.