A change of pace for Shanghai journalist

Shanghai Daily journalist Wing Tan is nearing the end of a month-long internship at the Otago Daily Times, supported by Asia:NZ’s media programme.

Clean, green, unspoilt and with broad smiles and “kia ora” everywhere, New Zealand is a country uniquely blessed not only with some of the world's most beautiful beaches, harbours, fiords and mountains, but also friendly, helpful people.

The moment my plane landed on this country, I felt the sunshine came back to my life again. Late November in my hometown of Shanghai was in early winter – chilly winds, grey sky, dusty air and pedestrians wearing respirators, wrapped in thick jackets.

If Shanghai, known as an urban jungle with towering concrete buildings and chaotic traffic, is a rash, frenetic teenager, always filled with dynamism and great ambition, then Dunedin, old and exquisite, is more like a graceful, placid, elder man, who keeps his own slow but firm pace.

When I told my New Zealand colleagues that Shanghai has a population of more than 20 million, everyone seemed greatly shocked. “Wow!” they gushed. When I found my way to the building of Otago Daily Times, located in the city's central Octagon, I gushed “Wow!”

It is a truly old building with red-painted walls, wooden staircase and a clumsy, old-fashioned elevator that creaks as it moves slowly from the ground to the third floor, the newspaper’s home.  The editorial room looks quite like the newsroom of Shanghai Daily – ceiling-high newspaper piles everywhere, reporters busy on the phone, in front of computers, or out for interviews. 

Editors have news meetings twice a day to discuss the news topics for the next day. Before the afternoon meeting, the editor would have a short talk to the reporters in his/her department about what they are working on. I attended the meeting twice, and was quite impressed with its efficiency.

Being a feature reporter at the Shanghai Daily, I was assigned to the ODT's features department.

The first story I wrote was on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in New Zealand. I got to interview Dunedin physician and historian, Dr James Ng, who has written a four-volume study of the New Zealand Chinese, Windows on a Chinese Past, as well as professors in the medical school of Otago University.

I also ventured into a famous Chinese medical centre in north Dunedin, and interviewed the practitioner Diana Mei, from Guangdong Province, China. She has been practising TCM in Dunedin for almost 17 years.

Arranging an interview was much easier than in Shanghai. With a Yellow Page in hand, it's easy to find the right person. And in most cases, people are very nice and willing to do the interview.

“It's even an easy job if you want to interview the mayor,” one of my colleagues told me. “Just make several phone calls, and all will be set. The mayor is accessible to every citizen.”

This made me recall some of my experiences in Shanghai, when I was desperate to arrange an interview with some Mr Big, and all I got was refusals.

After finishing the TCM story, I was partly assigned to the breaking news department, where I helped on quite a few stories, and got to know a lot more about the city.

I've done stories about a documentary film on the elusive moose that are thought to be extinct in Fiordland; a drifting iceberg that passed the Otago Peninsula in 2006; and a horse-riding association for the disabled in Waikouaiti.

When I was doing the iceberg story, I got great help from the Science Media Centre, which facilitates links between the media and science, so the media can easily access relevant scientific information.

Just with a phone call, the centre gave me a detailed contact list for glaciologists and oceanographers who might comment on the drifting iceberg, the maritime officer responsible for navigation warnings for ships and even local tourism agencies that offered iceberg tours.

This service not only greatly facilitates the links between media and science, but also works as an open, public platform that provides firsthand, timely information and materials for media.

If this kind of organisation, not only of science but also other fields, could be established in China, it would be a great time-saver for reporters, who are always busy making calls to the wrong people or departments.

The one-month exchange programme is short, but it has taught me a lot and given me an authentic South Island experience that I'll cherish forever.
Images:
1. Wing Tan with her homestay host Theo.
2. The Otago Daily Times building, with its creaky elevator. (Photo couresty of Wing Tan)