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pop psychology



The following article is from The Vancouver Sun newspaper in Vancouver

BC, one of Canada's most respected dailies.  Its website is at

http://www.vancouversun.com/.



B.C.'s Chinese papers faced hot summer of news



Ken MacQueen Vancouver Sun



Picture Of: Rob Kruyt, Vancouver Sun files / PRINTING: Press worker

Dennis Lun checks the colour balance on a run of  the Ming Pao daily

newspaper, which is based in Richmond.



Picture Of: Steve Bosch, Vancouver Sun files / BOAT PEOPLE: Group of

Chinese migrants recently arrived on this ship before being taken off

vessel in Nootka Sound off the west coast of Vancouver Island and

transferred to Esquimalt for processing.

Picture Of: MEET THE PRESS: Federal Immigration Minister Elinor Caplan

(above) fielded questions from the media on the waves of Chinese boat

people arriving on the British Columbia coast.

Elinor Caplan is running late. The federal immigration minister has

left a Canadian Club luncheon at the Hotel Vancouver to field questions

about the waves of Chinese boat people washing up on B.C.'s coast.

Reporters are given 20 minutes -- the minister has other commitments

and a bad case of laryngitis. Reporters with the biggest bellow get

Caplan to squeak out a response, although the quality of question seems

inversely related to the volume in which it is asked.

Not playing the game are reporters for Vancouver's three

Chinese-language daily newspapers. They quietly take notes or chat with

the immigration department officials at the back of the hotel meeting

room.

This is a huge story for their readers, but there is no need to shout

about it.

If he had hollered a question says David Tsou, an editor and reporter

for the Chinese-language World Journal, he would have asked Caplan what

happens if the smugglers try to overwhelm Canadian authorities with a

wave of ships.

"What if they send five or 10 ships?" says Tsou, packing up his

notebook and his unasked questions. "It would be impossible to deal

with."

B.C.'s Chinese-language press has a style all its own, less overtly

aggressive than the English-language media, perhaps, but fiercely

competitive.

It has been a wild summer for news, much of it hitting home to the

readers of B.C.'s Chinese-language dailies: Ming Pao and Sing Tao, both

offshoots of respected Hong Kong-based parents; and the smaller

circulation World Journal, whose parent newspaper is in Taiwan.

Also competing for front-page space has been an ugly summer of

sabre-rattling between China and Taiwan, and the helicopter crash near

Squamish that killed four members of a Burnaby family of Hong Kong

immigrants. More uplifting was Wednesday's appointment as

governor-general of broadcaster Adrienne Clarkson, a wartime refugee

from Hong Kong, and, in the words of a Sing Tao headline, a "shining

star for Chinese."

Yet, the boat people story predominates, filling the news columns and

the letters pages.

"We joke we're going to rename our paper Boat News," says Victoria

Chang, one of Richmond-based Ming Pao's lead reporters on the story.

She has interviewed several of the migrants, bringing out vivid aspects

of their voyage to B.C. from Fujian.

Thursday, she wrote that Fujian smugglers are teaching their human

cargo techniques for convincing Canadian immigration officials of their

refugee claims. The "snakehead" smugglers are also falsely claiming

that Canada plans an amnesty that would allow potential refugees to

stay in Canada.

It was Ming Pao news editor Susanna Ng who broke the story last month

of a third migrant ship headed for Canadian waters, a scoop that the

competition scrambled to match. She says each successive wave raises

concerns among some Chinese-Canadians of a backlash from the community

at large.

Ming Pao, the newest paper in the market, established its western

Canada edition in 1993. It has made an aggressive entry into the

crowded Vancouver market, targeting much of its appeal to newer

immigrants without ties to the more-established Sing Tao, published in

B.C. since 1983.

At stake is a lucrative share of the Chinese-Canadian market in the

Lower Mainland, the region's largest visible minority with an estimated

245,000 adults. Both Ming Pao and Sing Tao, which publish seven days a

week, are so stuffed with advertising they often outweigh their

English-language competition, The Sun and Province.

Chang says interest in the story has driven up circulation. Ming Pao

and Sing Tao, both with production, advertising and editorial staff of

more than 100, have provided blanket coverage.

World Journal, with its Taiwan focus and a handful of reporters among a

local staff of 60, has played the story less prominently among its

coverage of international news and content from its New York and Taipei

headquarters.

Still, readers of all three papers say they provide aspects of the

story not found in the English-language media.

Vancouver city councillor Don Lee, an immigrant from China in 1949,

admits he could spend most of his day reading the competing mountain of

Vancouver papers.

The Chinese-language papers seek less controversy in their reporting,

quoting statements verbatim without adding dissenting voices, he says.

"I feel that the Chinese-language newspapers are more community minded,

and they try to be a little more factual." English-language newspapers

seize on political miscues or unusual aspects of an event to draw

readers into the story, he says.

As for columns and public letters, "the three [Chinese-language]

newspapers are very similar in approach, I think they all point out

that we should tighten up the Canadian immigration policy, particularly

regarding refugee status."

Commentator Gabriel Yiu, a one-time columnist at Ming Pao, says the

Chinese-language papers were initially more timid in their response to

the story, although their news coverage was extensive.

None of the three has a Canadian-written editorial page and its

freelance commentators waited to read the public mood before venturing

opinions. "It's because they don't want to offend people," Yiu says.

Media coverage of the boat people has been closely -- and critically --

monitored by the Vancouver Association of Chinese Canadians, a small

but vocal human rights organization.

Executive-director Victor Wong says the first response of both English-

and Chinese-language newspapers was to "criminalize" the boat people by

using loaded language and pictures of the arrivals in handcuffs and

behind fences.

In the English-language press, Wong took issue with terms like "aliens"

or "illegal immigrants." He is equally critical of the Chinese-language

press, especially Sing Tao, which regularly uses the term "human snake"

to describe the boat people, as well as "snakehead" to describe the

smugglers.

"They are refugee claimants," says Wong, "they do have, at least

temporarily, legal status in Canada."

However Paul Tsang, chief editor of Sing Tao's B.C. edition, says his

newspaper's coverage has been balanced and fair, and not significantly

different from his English-language competitors. "A news story is a

news story," he says. "We all treat it the same."

He defends the term human snake as a valid description, first used

years ago to describe illegal immigrants arriving in Hong Kong from

China.

"We did use this term again in our newspaper here because they are

illegal immigrants from China," Tsang says. "You can call it slang, or

whatever, but I think it's a proper description."

Wong speaks Cantonese, but is unable to read the complex Chinese

characters of the newspapers. Still his association tracks the papers

carefully, as does the B.C. government.

He says the Chinese-language press has done a better job of explaining

the "broader perspective" of the dilemma by tapping their sources in

China or by explaining in exhaustive detail the refugee determination

process of Canada and other countries.

He admits, though, to being taken aback by the "more harsh" tone of

letters carried by the Chinese-language papers.

"There are only a handful of letters who are more sympathetic or

supportive [of the boat people]," he says.

He blames a "classist attitude," saying some in the established

Chinese-Canadian community see the poor rural boat people as "an

embarrassment," and an uncomfortable reminder of their immigrant past.

"My pop psychology says these people on the boats remind those who are

so angry in the community of who they were before . . . of a more

difficult time in their life, and they hate it. And they transfer the

hate onto these people."

Wong says he wishes these issues were debated more fully beyond the

Chinese-language press. Rather like the immigration minister's news

conference, though, the questions remain unasked and unanswered.

WHAT THE PAPERS SAID:

Some headlines from B.C.'s Chinese-language press:

Friday

Ming Pao

- "Fourth Snake Boat arrived Vancouver Island last night, carries more

people than the past three boats.

- Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson's great-grandfather was once a

coffin maker.

- [Almost] 30 per cent of Greater Vancouver's population is Asian,

highest nationally.

Sing Tao

- China agrees to crackdown on illegal migrants, Raymond Chan [Canadian

secretary of state for Asia-Pacific] urges assistance on deportation.

- An analysis of governor-general designate's name [exploring the

various versions and spellings of Adrienne Clarkson's Chinese family

name and why she abandoned it for Clarkson, the surname of her first

husband.]

- Snake boat arrives West Coast of Vancouver Island.

World Journal

- [President] Jiang Zemin threatens Beijing may take 'limited military

action' against Taiwan.

-Canadian official will go to Fujian to catch snakehead; China Foreign

affairs minister agrees to crack down illegal smuggling.

SATURDAY

Ming Pao

- Canada-wide warrant issued for another 32 boat people, fourth boat

carries 170 people.

- Chinese-language movies for boat people's entertainment.

- SUCCESS [immigrant service] assists Vancouver General Hospital to

provide Chinese language service.

Sing Tao

- Mix-up Immigrant and refugee, [Immigration Minister Elinor Caplan]

hears [Ethnic] media comment patiently. [Told part of reason for the

public uproar is public confusion over immigrants and refugees.]

World Journal

- Canadians across the country urge Canada to intervene in East Timor,

[Foreign Minister Lloyd] Axworthy says Canada is taking the lead role.

SUNDAY

Ming Pao

- Beijing first war preparation meeting in 20 years; Jiang instruction:

transportation must cooperate with Taiwan attack.

- RCMP will visit Fujian to stop smuggling wave.

- [Hong Kong Chief Executive] Tung Chee-hwa will visit Canada next

spring.

Sing Tao

- 10 young boat people disappear.

- Left wing sees Chinese boat people problem; worries opportunity for

racism.

- Vancouver John School starts [for those convicted of buying sex].

Students should pay $400 fee.

World Journal

- Clinton urges China to work for peace for their descendants.

- Continuous Chinese smuggling ship arrival triggers public backlash;

Canada's generous policy faces challenge.

MONDAY

MING PAO

- Jiang Zemin agrees to cooperate with Canada to stop smuggling wave,

Chretien insists human snake [boat people] can apply for refugee

status.

- CBC live broadcast, 10,000 people phone-in to talk about boat people

problem, federal wait-and-see attitude; Canadians are angry.

- Sharing experiences, solving problems Richmond Chinese-speaking

single mothers' group founded.

SING TAO

- Refugee claimants crossing Canada border, Chretien iterates boat

people will get fair hearing.

- CBC discusses Chinese boat people problem, [MP] Sophia Leung travels

to China to talk about human snake smuggling.

- Richmond Computer City bankruptcy

WORLD JOURNAL

- [Local] Taiwanese Medical Association hopes Taiwan could enter

International Health Organization, to mobilize local physicians, MPs

and public.

- Small effort to help Turkey earthquake disaster victims, Buddhist

compassion relief Tzu Chi Foundation raises $5,000 in Chinatown.

Translations by Gabriel Yiu.





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