Massey graduate absorbs modern China

Laura Jackson, a Massey University journalism graduate, undertook a work placement at the Shanghai Daily in September and October 2009 with the support of our media programme. Laura is now a reporter at the Manawatu Standard in Palmerston North.

When I stepped off the plane into Pudong International Airport in Shanghai, the smell and heat told me how far from home I was before I even heard the Mandarin.

It was September.

I had left Wellington in layers of wool, long pants, and feet in warm socks in thick boots.

It was autumn in China, but it was far hotter and more humid than our warmest Kiwi summers.

In amongst my discomfort and fatigue I saw a sign with my name on it and relaxed for the first time since stepping off the plane.

A woman from the Shanghai Daily newspaper, where I was to work for the next two months, was waiting for me with a driver who spoke no English but whose smiles and curious stares gave us an instant rapport.

As he drove me into Shanghai on the packed motorways, the enormity of the city was over-whelming. More sky scrapers than I had ever imagined dominated the city, the peaks lost in the smog, and the dark night giving an eerie look that reminded me of Batman’s Gotham City.

I was finally dropped at my hotel, where none of the staff spoke any English, shown by my soon-to-be colleague how to use the air-conditioning machine, as all the buttons were in Chinese symbol, given the address of the Shanghai Daily, and told to come at about 10am on Monday.

So my first weekend in China was spent alone, struggling with my Lonely Planet phrase book, struggling to order food from menus I could not read in a language I could not speak, and purposely not straying too far from my hotel so I didn’t get lost.

After what felt like months, Monday rolled around.

Using my laptop to find the Chinese symbols for, “Can you please order me a taxi,’’ I got to the Shanghai Daily for my first day on the job.

However, the office wasn’t quite as ready as I was.

None of the staff I came across knew who I was or why I was there, and the editor Christine was in a meeting that was expected to last for some hours.

I introduced myself to an American polisher, a woman who smoothes over the English writing in the paper to make it more readable, which proved a good move.

The delightful Vicky introduced me to everyone on the paper, got me settled in to the features section along with an Australian journalist, until Christine was free to come and meet me.

It turned out the features section was exactly where she had planned to put me much to my relief as the team was a great group of people.

People who helped me move from my hotel to a hostel where the staff spoke fantastic English, helped me book tours and gave me advice on how best to enjoy Shanghai, and became like my Chinese family for the few months I called Shanghai home.

After day two I decided Shanghai life was for me.

Through my work in the features section I got to review the best restaurants in Shanghai, do numerous wine-tasting articles, met a number of interesting New Zealanders who had broke through to the Asian market, and even do a story on the rise of polo players in China.

I soon learnt the motto of many Chinese in Shanghai – life is to be enjoyed.

And for a New Zealander, being able to get massages and manicures and pedicures for as little as NZ$10 was something I found very hard to walk away from.

Journalism in China was also a relaxed affair. Our role it seemed was to make friends with as many Public Relations people as possible, attend any event we were invited to, and gladly review the products, foods, shops that they told us about.

But amongst the gift bags and facials, I uncovered insight that will stay with me forever and has already proved useful back in my New Zealand newsroom.

To be in the country while it celebrated 60 years since the founding of the republic was an experience journalists from all over the world would have benefited from.

The pride Chinese have for their country is something New Zealanders will never have for their own homeland, or ever fully understand.

And the lack of understanding the rest of the world has of China is not lost on those who live there.

Colleagues shared with me their thoughts on the way our society lives, our democratic procedures, and criticised it and gave an opposing view I could never have seen before, yet could completely understand.

To have the opportunity to be in a country with views, systems and structures so different from my own was priceless, as was the opportunity to hear the side of the story we will never be taught in school.

My time in China has given me a skill set I am incredibly thankful to Asia:NZ for.

I made close friends with a number of the staff who I remain in contact with and have vowed to go back and visit as soon as I can.