Interview with Professor Kang Liu
Professor Kang Liu kindly agreed to answer a few questions for Play the Game for Open Journalism on Chinese culture and the role of the media.
Professor Liu is based at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He earned his PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and has taught at Pennsylvania State University before joining Duke. He has also held posts at Nanjing University, Shaanxi Normal University (Xi’an), Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing Normal University, Sichuan University, Chongqing University, University of Tibet, and Shihezhi University of Xinjiang.
Professor Liu’s research covers Chinese media, globalization, Chinese culture and literature, Marxism, aesthetics, and cultural studies. He writes extensively in both English and Chinese. His English books include Aesthetics and Marxism (2000), Globalization and Cultural Trends in China (2004). His Chinese books include the bestselling Demonizing China (Yaomohua Zhongguo de beihou, co-author, 1996), Bakhtin’s Cultural Theory (Duihua de xuansheng, 1993), Globalization/Nationalism (Quanqiuhua/minzuhua, 2003).
He has published many journal articles and book chapters in the U.S., China, Europe and Japan, and lectured in numerous universities and institutions in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. His recent research focuses on globalization and Chinese television, the Internet, media and ethnic cultures, media and social change in China.
Click here to view profile and contact details for Professor Liu at Duke.
Play the Game for Open Journalism: Is China a nation or an empire of provinces? Is it possible to identify a single unifying Chinese culture?
Professor Kang Liu: Very briefly, China is a modern nation-state with all the political institutions and structures. However, as we know it was for hundreds of thousands years a secular empire, which only began its modern transformation in the early twentieth century after the Republican Revolution of 1911.
It has a unique cultural identity centering around the cultural heritage and tradition of Han (the majority of Chinese population) yet conglomerating more than 50 ethnic cultures and their diverse traditions.
PTGFOJ: Is the existence of counter-cultures in Chinese towns and cities comparable to that in the West?
KL: Chinese culture is highly homogeneous in the sense that it coalesces towards a cultural center - such as Confucianism, while local and regional differences seem to be less contentious than most Western nations. The Chinese written language has served as a unifying force for ages breaking linguistic barriers across the vast territories and localities of China.
PTGFOJ: Is there a fundamental difference in the role of a Chinese journalist and a journalist working for a Western news outlet in terms of the cultural expectations placed upon journalists in these societies?
KL: Yes Chinese journalists are expected to serve as "mouthpieces" of authorities, political, moral, ethical and so forth, over and above being "objective" observers or news events and reporters.
Such a political and moral obligation and responsibilities often bestow more authority on Chinese journalists than their western counterparts, but they can also impede their independent reporting free from authorial interventions, which in today's China largely come from the state control and censorship of the press.
PTGFOJ: Can a journalist maintain ‘face' yet still report accurately and without deference to authorities?
KL: As I mentioned, Chinese journalists usually have the double responsibility of being a political and moral authority (a social conscience) and an objective and independent observer and reporter and this double-edged role often creates great deal of difficulties for them to maintain face and fairness to all, the general public or political power and other power blocs.
PTGFOJ: Is self-censorship based upon commercial pressures and public opinion in the West in any way comparable to government censorship of news outlets in China?
KL: In a way they are similar, in the sense that censorship is necessary and indispensable in journalistic practice in the world today, whether being self-censorship or more overt government interference. Journalists and news media all set the goal of overcoming censorship as their ideal of professionalism. However, ideal is not reality and compromises are being made as an integral part of the media practice.
PTGFOJ: In what level of esteem do average Chinese citizens hold the foreign and domestic press?
KL: Chinese citizens in general defer to the government authorities and usually accept the authority of the state-owned, domestic media, while questioning the objectivity of foreign press especially in view of the consistent biases that western press have shown towards China.
However, educated Chinese (college students or college graduates) in urban areas have much stronger suspicion of the state-owned domestic media than rural residents. With the growth of the urban population and dwindling of rural population the demand for more independent, diverse media outlets has been on the rise. The Internet has precipitated the diversification of the press in China.
PTGFOJ: How controlled is blogging in China? Is the blogosphere a good way to find Chinese voices or is it a controlled environment, both through government and self censorship?
KL: The blogosphere is a fairly accurate index of Chinese public opinion now - though heavily monitored and censored on some extremely sensitive political issues.
We should always bear in mind the demography of the Internet users or "netizens" in China, largely consists of well-educated young urbanites aged between 15 to 35. Undoubtedly these netizens are becoming the backbones of Chinese society and will be the leaders of China in next 10 or 20 years. Given their relatively young age profile the censorship still largely comes from external pressures of the government, rather than from within their own mind or self-censorship.
One often notes the emotional outbursts of the netizens, especially when confrontations with western forces occur - the Olympic torch relays in Paris and London, the western media's coverage of Tibet riots in March 2008 are just a few recent examples.
