I was pretty shocked at the bang-bang men in the feature story who are fighting their way to get rid of poverty. The Seattle Times provides me with a new angle to observe these have-nots-they are associated with the China’s urban rise, which is rarely seen in Chinese media. The unanticipated information I got from this Western media leads me to rethink the problems underlying in the Chinese media.

I’ve read a bunch of stories about the bang-bang men but they have never concerned me as much as this feature story. Before reading the story from the other side of the world, all I know about those bunk men, portrayed in a nutshell, are portrayed as “fine”. I read that that they are caught up in discrimination in some way, but I was told that it is not that big a deal. I read that they are overloaded in some way, but I was told that they are hard-working and positive about their life. I read that they are lack of care, but I was told they will soon have a bright future-I’ve never noticed their dull eyes after sunset, their shabby basement boardinghouses burrowing three stories and the tasty air at home ( Can it be called “home”)!

Chinese people are overwhelmed by the message that Western media tend to be fussy about China and they prefer covering embarrassing stories or negligible anecdotes of this eastern country to meet the pleasure seekers’ demands of novelty. So, they tend to inadvertently shrug off all of the foreign media’s opinions of China, even though some of which are valuable, to say the very least. Moreover, censorship is practiced on many levels so that the government can avoid certain “frenzy”. What is beyond my mind, however, is: Can we really build up a “harmonious” society without learning about others’ remarks or suggestions for us, some of them may be false though? 

My government, dare I say it, should to be blame for the denial of the truth about China to its people. It hates muckrakers, but what they fear most is whistle blowers. “Got to keep the dark side things out of people’s sight” is part of the philosophy of Chinese government’s propaganda. I can understand that the government doesn’t want to disappoint the public, but I feel sorry that it tries to fool the public to achieve its goals. It is so sad that Chinese people are still living in the “the public be fooled era”, What is more insufferable is that some of them even try to defend the government’s propaganda. They argue that China is not the only country in the world where media is used and strategically deployed as part of political empowerment, so it is not to blame if it doesn’t want to make a change. Furthermore, they believe that there is no absolute freedom of speech in the context of journalism. Now that no news is “true” news, why should other people bother to be that fussy? I would not say that I am furious at those people’ connivance of the government’s propaganda, but I would say they would be remorseful if one day they found out that they basked in the glitzy “achievement” of their beautiful country for so long that they know even much less about their motherland than foreigners.