China Hands

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Features Book Review Great copy for 25 years CHINA HANDS THE GLOBE AND MAIL IN PEKING B. MICHAEL FROLIC 1,125 words 10 November 1984 The Globe and Mail GLOB E19; (ILLUS) English All material copyright Thomson Canada Limited or its licensors. All rights reserved. CHARLES TAYLOR, EDITOR McClelland & Stewart 352 pages, $16.95 REVIEW BY B. MICHAEL FROLIC In 1959, soon after his arrival in Peking, Frederick Nossal, The Globe and Mail's first correspondent in China, provided us with a staggering image: "Today I saw tens of thousands of them - trudging, toiling, lifting, laughing . . . from a distance they looked like an army going into battle - a blue- clad army with their red banners leading them toward the enemy - by propaganda, by pleading and by persuasion, the Communist Party has harnessed a labor force so large that one's imagination boggles at its potential." After his initial euphoria had worn off, Nossal began to write more critically, eventually concluding that "facts alter, depending upon whether you are inside or outside the Bamboo Curtain." Eight months later the Chinese authorities called him in to announce that Nossal's reports "had not been in all respects accurate." His visa was not renewed and The Globe Peking bureau was closed until 1964. In 1967, David Oancia, third Globe correspondent in Peking, became an unwilling participant in the Cultural Revolution, providing us with a vivid glimpse of China in turmoil: "For almost 45 minutes they pummelled the car and shouted anti-Soviet and anti-imperialistic slogans at us. Then a new group arrived and with clubs and bars they began to pound the car. They smashed the windshield, the rear window, bashed in the roof and dented the luggage compartment and engine covers . . . Then they began to spit at us." Who can forget "the little Canadian," John Fraser, eighth Peking correspondent, standing in front of 10,000 Chinese in 1978 to tell them about Deng Xiaoping's views on democracy in China? Globe foreign editor Don Manley cabled: "GREAT STUFF STOP KEEP IT COMING STOP LOTS OF INTEREST REGARDS MANLEY." Fraser recalled that "my head was pounding from emotion. As I went down the escape route Chinese people stepped out to shake my hand and several actually embraced me in warm bear-hugs. Someone shouted in fractured English: 'You are a brave man, Fu Ruizhe' (Fraser's name in Chinese). 'The Chinese people thank you.' I never felt less brave in my life . . ." What images] What stories] China has been great copy. The twists and turns of the Chinese Revolution are dispatches that practically write themselves, columns that beg to be read by Canadians who are fascinated with the exotic quality of Chineseness and the abrasive power of Communism. Who would have dreamed that a Cultural Revolution could have happened, with Red Guards running rampant through the streets in the name of socialism, and 800 million Chinese caught up in ideological frenzy? Who would have expected that a dozen or so years later a totally different China would emerge, riddled with capitalism; that Communist Party members preach that "to be rich is a good thing"; that foreigners can now routinely move about China, working, studying and sightseeing? The past 25 years in China have been extraordinary, and China Hands, based on the written accounts of the 11 Globe correspondents resident in Peking, captures the flavor and massive sweep of the events during this period. Charles Taylor, the author and second Globe correspondent in Peking (1964-1965), has chosen to let The Globe correspondents' dispatches speak for themselves. China Hands essentially is a guided tour of Globe reporting on China since 1959. Nossal, Taylor, Colin McCullough, Norman Webster, Ross Munro, Fraser, Bryan Johnson, Stanley Oziewicz and Allen Abel, they are all here, familiar names with insights and stories that have become part of the Canadian record. Taylor emphasizes the continuity and balance that 25 years of reporting can produce. He observes that "throughout the period there was no shortage of pundits who pontificated on China from afar or on the basis of brief visits. But The Globe and Mail maintained a bureau on the spot and staffed it with inquisitive observers." He argues that while many foreigners only "see a shadow play produced for them by the Chinese authorities . . . most emphatically this is not the case when the foreigner is a trained reporter with an awkward passion for the facts." Many "China hands" who are not journalists will disagree with this premise. They argue that while The Globe's Peking reporting was better than American reporting from Hong Kong, it, too, was a shadow play, cut off from the realities of Chinese daily life. How many of The Globe's "Gang of Eleven" spoke more than a few phrases of Chinese, had even one Chinese friend, knew much about Chinese history and culture, was able to venture very far from the hermetically sealed foreign ghettos of Peking? The news that came to us from China was essentially spooned out to journalists by Chinese authorities or was the result of informed gossip. Rarely, except in the case of a Fraser or an Oancia, did events permit the reporter to crack the veneer of ideology and culture that covers up the many "other Chinas" which also exist - the Chinas that are seen and experienced by the rapidly growing number of Canadians who work and study in China and who are in possession of "facts" about China of which the reporter can only dream. This in no way denigrates the achievement of those 11 correspondents. In spite of great difficulties, they produced a record that has served us well. To be able to describe what is going on in a country of one billion people, based on one's experience in Peking, and make it credible to readers back home may be the ultimate in "shadow plays." Today, new sources and new perspectives are available to our reporters. China is more open and our correspondents have greater mobility. While they still lack proficiency in Chinese language and culture (unlike many correspondents from other Western countries currently resident in Peking), they are now in possession of far more information about China. Their stories have more depth and they actually engage in limited encounters with Chinese individuals. With a continuing Chinese emphasis on "facts" they may in the future be able to dispel some of the lingering Chinese shadows. The next 25 years look promising, although we should do well to heed the warning of the present Globe Peking correspondent, Allen Abel, that "in China, anything is possible." B. Michael Frolic, chairman of the department of political science at York University, was first secretary of the Canadian embassy in Peking in 1974-1975, and has lectured at Peking University. He is the author of Mao's People, and is currently preparing a book on Canadian-Chinese relations since 1949. Document glob000020011125dgba03rf4

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