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Date: |
Wed, 15 Sep 1999 11:35:37 -0400 |
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victor wong <victorywong@yahoo.com> | Block
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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.
The article you just read is from The Vancouver Sun newspaper in
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