[Air-L] Media Ecology -- PRESS ON (WSJournal)

[jcu]

  Beijing Uses Media to Shape Nation's Mourning
  Entertainment Put
  On Hold Amid Grief;
  Bloggers Fall in Line
  By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER and LORETTA CHAO
  May 20, 2008; Page A8

  BEIJING -- At 2:28 Monday afternoon, a country that seems to be in 
constant motion came to a standstill. For three minutes, traffic froze, 
construction workers halted their drilling and workers stood silently 
outside their offices in white shirts that read "Press On."

  The moment of silence, part of a three-day period of national mourning to 
mark the 34,073 confirmed dead from the roughly 8.0 magnitude earthquake 
that shook Sichuan province exactly one week before, came on a day of more 
grim news: The official Xinhua news agency reported that a series of 
mudslides had killed 200 rescue workers.

  The mourning reflects both a tremendous sense of loss and the government's 
desire to ensure that emotions are channeled properly. Even as concerned 
citizens around the country cried in honor of the dead pictured on 
television, some survivors in Sichuan found their grief turning into anger.

  During the official mourning period, the government has taken the unusual 
step of effectively shutting down entertainment in China -- silencing 
karaoke parlors, forcing entertainment programming off Web sites and TV 
stations, shutting down online games and suspending TV and online ads. The 
last time China undertook such a long national period of grieving was when 
Mao Zedong died in 1976. Historians say it is the first time such an event 
has been held in honor of regular citizens, rather than government leaders, 
according to Xinhua.

  The mourning period helps the grief-stricken nation "have some sense of 
psychological closure," said Dali Yang, the director of the East Asian 
Institute at the National University of Singapore. "It's all the more 
important because there's no national religion and the Chinese Communist 
Party cannot bring in a priest to help the healing process."

  The government is using its control of old and new media to shape the 
conversation. Party-run coverage from broadcaster China Central Television, 
including repeated footage of flags being lowered to half-staff, replaced 
normal programming on many broadcasters. Foreign broadcasts of HBO and other 
entertainment channels were replaced with a message that said they had been 
cut off "in order to express our heartfelt condolences for the victims of 
the disastrous earthquake."

  Chinese newspapers, some of which provided their own aggressive coverage 
last week, relied more on stories from Xinhua. Newspapers across the country 
used only black ink on their front pages.

  And on the Internet, the largest portal and video-sharing sites shut down 
some of their entertainment offerings in accordance with a government order. 
An order sent to some Web sites, as reported by a blog known as the 
Shanghaist, required them to "immediately report and give priority to 
reports on the national mourning days."

  Chinese bloggers, sometimes critical of government efforts to regulate 
speech, largely expressed solidarity with the idea of a mourning period; 
technology commentator Hong Bo, known as Keso, posted on his blog an ancient 
Chinese poem about crying.

  "It's pretty amazing that the government can do this," said Bill Bishop, a 
Beijing-based Internet entrepreneur. "I think it just shows some people may 
have gotten a little complacent about how the media work in China; it shows 
where the power really does still lie."

  The quake relief effort has received 10.8 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) in 
monetary and in-kind donations. The government hasn't yet said how much of 
that came from Chinese nationals. Office buildings, shops and restaurants 
all over the country held their own fund-raising efforts Monday. A 
Sunday-night telethon on China Central Television raised 1.5 billion yuan.

  The quake has cost companies 67 billion yuan in direct losses so far, 
according to the government.

  A retired soldier who joined mourners in the moment of observance along 
Beijing's Wangfujing area said he had been trying unsuccessfully to get a 
team of volunteers together to go to Sichuan. "I want to say to the people 
of the affected areas, 'Don't be afraid. The party, the country and the 
whole nation's people are all helping you,'" he said, as his eyes filled 
with tears. "I hope they can rebuild their homeland as soon as possible. I 
feel very proud to be Chinese."

  In Beijing's Tiananmen Square, hundreds rallied after the moment, carrying 
Chinese flags and shouting "Go, China," a phrase usually used at sporting 
events.






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