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Making It the Real People’s Magazine

[INSIDE CHINA]
A special interview of Mr. Huang Liangtian, chief editor of the popular Commoin People magazine in China 

While Common People magazine has long won the hearts of countless citizens in mainland China for its bold stand against social injustice and the Chinese communist government’s persecution of its own people, this same daring publication has offended the authorities. Not long after the November 2006 edition of Common People was published, the Chinese Internet police once again blocked its website.

One reporter from Common People revealed that this is the fourth time the website has been blocked. Speaking of the magazine and its chief editor, the reporter said, "As a reporter, I just have to do my job well—to write a good story. The fate and future of the magazine falls on the shoulders of Chief Editor Huang. In order to speak for justice and righteousness on behalf of the common people, he has been working under enormous pressure. He has so many troubles that he keeps to himself. He tells us very often that, as individuals, we each have to have morals, and as a media we have to have integrity. We have to produce news that is true, to report on the news behind the news, to put aside propaganda to do real news. Were we to be dismissed tomorrow, with such a leader, we would still have a sense of pride."

Following is the transcript of an interview with the chief editor of Common People magazine, Huang Liangtian, on November 4, 2006.

Q: I heard that the Common People website has once again been blocked?
A: Yes, we are already used to it. This is the fourth or fifth time.

Q: What do you think is the reason behind it?
A: I’m not sure of the exact reason this time. The Public Security Bureau told our Web server company that our magazine is too liberal.

Q: So has the magazine stopped publishing?
A: Not yet. They have not told us clearly to stop, because this magazine is still a government publication. In mainland China, all the publication numbers belong to the government. It’s the government who administers them all. We just want to make our government magazine more like a true magazine.

Q: What do you think makes it a true magazine?
A: Well, to speak the truth and not garbage or lies. This is the basic requirement of a magazine. A lot of the media in China are just propaganda tools. After I became the chief editor of Common People, I constantly tried to report the truth to our readers.{mospagebreak}

Q: When did you become involved with Common People? Were there any changes in the style and content of the magazine after you took over?
A: Common People used to be called The Chinese Countryside. It is a government publication by the Chinese Agricultural Bureau. It used to be for the purpose of cultivating the so-called "socialist new people," as the Party calls them [Note: This is a term of Chinese communist propaganda, which means making the people armed with the "socialist ideology" of communism.]. A few years ago, for some reason, it was renamed Common People for the purpose of promoting a socialist ideology among the people and propagandizing things such as socialism around the country.

Two years ago, the government arranged for me to become the chief editor of this publication. However, I am a scholar, so I decided to make this magazine a true news magazine. I want to report on things that people do not know about and to inform them of things they haven’t heard.

However, I never thought, even so, that there would be so many difficulties.

News should be open, and so should our publications. We should report on whatever our readers and the common people need. We should give them the information that they want to know.

As a media, we should not be political puppets. However, in mainland China, all the media are simply political toys. And this is determined by the party nature of Chinese Communist Party news.

Many of us cultured people or media workers have been fooled by the propaganda into thinking that we are also politicians. In fact, we are simply people with culture, and each cultured person should have his or her own independent character.

Q: In the atmosphere of political pressure in mainland China, how do you think you can be an independent person of culture?
A: One needs enormous courage to speak the truth.

Many media divide their readers into two categories: bad guys and idiots. The media seem only to attack the bad guys and educate the idiots. There is no true education or culture involved. There is only propagandizing and struggle.

In fact, these media are very ludicrous. The people are all in the know and the truth is already in their hearts. Every reader has a yardstick in his or her own heart. They each have a right to choose what they want.{mospagebreak}

Our goal is to try our best to create the things that readers need, to allow their agreement with us to come from inside their hearts. This is my guiding principle as the chief editor.

In reality, it is very simple and easy to say, but hard to do. Simply because all the other media are like that, we have thus become the odd one out.

Q: What kind of pressure does the regime put on you?
A: Well, they have all sorts of unwritten "commands" passed down through informal methods. Sometimes they’ll ask me to have a chat with them, sometimes they’ll ask a friend to pass the message, or sometimes they will have a meeting with me so I can listen to their instructions.

These are some of the things they might say, for example, "As a governmental publication, you should do this and that, and you’ll be fine. Otherwise, if you persistently decide to do this or that, things will ‘get messy.’ Why do you have to treat your readers as if they are smart people? Can’t you just treat them as if they are idiots? They are the masses, the common people. The goal of Common People is to educate the public. The purpose of educating them is so that they will become the next class of socialists, support the Communist Party, support socialism, and praise the Party and socialism."

This is what they say. However, I think that this is too easy and too hypocritical. I believe that it is not up to us, as a magazine, to say whether the Communist Party or socialism is good or not. Their actions decide this.

We don’t want to be brainwashing our readers. We hope to bring uncensored news to them, to offer a platform for common people to say what they want to say, and to express their hearts in accordance with the Chinese Constitution. Common People should tell what common people tell each other and spread such information among common people.

Although this is my guiding principle for the paper, it is not in conformance with the typical way that the Communist Party runs other publications.

Q: What is something that you have felt strongly over these two years?
A: My deepest feeling is that it is not easy to tell the truth, but that it is extremely interesting to do so.

We’ve never stopped the magazine—not once. Some issues were delayed; some officials requested that certain articles be removed. This is also the hardest part of my job and my greatest tribulation.{mospagebreak}

Some time in the future, I may be removed from my job, but when I look back, I can say without guilt that during my term as the chief editor, my fellow colleagues and I have never written a single lie or made an unfounded comment in this paper. I have not sold anything spurious to my readers. I have faced up to my own moral integrity, as well as the integrity that should belong to the profession. That is enough.

Q: I heard that many readers called to express their concern after the website was closed?
A: Yes, we received a lot of calls today. Most of our readers are cultured people with a sense of responsibility toward the nation, toward history, and toward the Chinese people; they are concerned with the current state and with the future of our nation.

Since I took over, I have never been concerned over the volume of our distribution. I focus mainly on the quality, so that readers have a sense that we have expressed what is in their hearts and used words that are meant to be said.

Moreover, we also report the truth of historical events uninfluenced by any political or party factors.

Q: Was there any restructuring of the workers when you took over?
A: Not at all. I did not bring a single person with me when I took over. These workers are all the original workers. However, the environment changes people. As long as we cultivate an environment where we dare to speak the truth, all of us will work according to this principle. United, we become a strong force, so we are able to do what we’re supposed to do.

The greatest problem with mainland media is that many media workers have desires to promote themselves— desire for money, power, position, fame, etc., or other fantasies beyond what is appropriate for our profession and for one’s conscience. Things are much easier once one is clear about all of these.

In fact, if everyone is given a more lax environment, we’re all the same. Every Chinese person who goes overseas is so energetic.

Everyone is talking about the ugly Chinese person nowadays. In our current issue, we have an article that specifically discusses this issue. What is the reason behind such ugliness? It is because our system is ugly.

From a certain perspective, we see that the Chinese people become very civilized once they go overseas. Japanese people are normally very polite. However, once they come to China, some of them become very rude; it is the same with Americans. Therefore, we cannot simply point our fingers at the Chinese people. We cannot say that there is something wrong with our race. It is a problem with the system. The Chinese people in Taiwan, Singapore, and elsewhere, are all very polite. They share the same heritage as us, so why are they different?{mospagebreak}

Perhaps it is because of our discussion on this issue that the website has been blocked.

Q: How did you manage to persevere for the last two years under such pressure?
A: A person becomes strong when he lets go of attachments and desires. Once a person is righteous within, the pressure is also reduced. If you stand straight, you’ll be able to bear the pressure. If a person is crooked within, only a small push will make him fall.

I feel very proud of my fellow colleagues. They have done a lot of things that I would never have thought of. We all have the courage to speak up for the truth.

Q: Will the new Xinhua News Agency’s regulations or the government’s regulations on sudden events have any effect on the magazine?[1] A: I don’t think so. The government has its own regulations and the news department has its own regulations. Nowadays, the media has become very advanced. Not everyone is blind. It is not a wise move to blindly regulate the news.

Q: Will you suffer additional pressure for accepting our interview?
A: I guess so, but it’s all right. I am responsible for every single sentence I say. I will still continue to do what I deem necessary. The Common People magazine will still serve its readers as usual.

As long as I am still the chief editor, I will do all that I can. I will try my best to see that the website is soon up and running. I have the confidence and the capability.

Q: Thank you very much for accepting our interview. We hope that Common People will be able to overcome this difficulty and to flourish.
A: Thank you very much for your interview. Please pass my message to all friends outside mainland China: I will not let them down!

Translated by CHINASCOPE from The Epoch Times.

Footnotes:
[1] On September 10, 2006, Xinhua, the Chinese Communist Party news agency, published a new set of government media restrictions, entitled "Measures on Administration of Release of Press Information in China by Foreign News Agencies." The new regulations require foreign news agencies to be examined and approved by Xinhua News Agency, and go through agencies authorized by Xinhua News Agency before publishing any news in China.