Comments on 鈥淓ducation in the Countryside鈥

cctv.com 10-15-2005 17:59

This episode was my first show ever for CCTV, and it was an unbelievable break for me. For years, I had been interested in China, but definitely most interested in rural areas. And through my research, again and again, I saw education as the greatest hope for the challenges that many of these areas face. It seemed meant to be, then, when for my first assignment, I covered education in China鈥檚 countryside.

Overall, I was struck 鈥though not at all surprised 鈥by the sincerity and warmth of the people we met and interviewed. Ms. Ma, for example, the first teacher we show footage of in this piece, made a really deep impression on me. As it says in the program, she gets a monthly salary of about 300 RMB, or about $36. While the camera was not filming, she mentioned to me that from time to time she will notice that one of her students has not eaten 鈥perhaps even for several days. From her already modest income, she will pay for this student to have some food. That kind of selflessness and generosity is always really moving to me, no matter how often I see it.

For another tv program, I was asked who I thought were modern Chinese heroes. One of the first answers that came to my mind was Shang Lifu, the young man profiled in the second part of this program. In person, he had a very humble, non-assuming manner that completely defied how brave and successful he has been with his rural education projects. His background is not unlike many young, talented, Chinese people: he started post-graduate life with a stable job and a decent salary, but as he says, just wasn鈥檛 satisfied. The thing that makes him amazing in my eyes is his unique combination of compassion for rural children and motivation to improve their situation.

Interviewing Andy Brock was another thought-provoking experience for me. As he is using grant money from the British government to fund his project in Gansu, he periodically has the challenge of returning to his legislature and making the case to continue to receive funding. More and more, he is met with a response to the effect of, 鈥楧oesn鈥檛 China have the fastest growing economy in the world? Aren鈥檛 there plenty of places that need our help more than this economic powerhouse?鈥And I think this raises a lot of interesting topics. Countries and individuals choose to give aid to different causes for different reasons, and I think it鈥檚 impossible to say, objectively, contributing to cause A is more worthwhile than contributing to cause B; it is a decision that can only be made by the people involved in a given situation. At the same time, it鈥檚 difficult to come so close to a topic such as this 鈥to actually shake hands with the people whose fates are changed by this investment 鈥and say that it鈥檚 no more worthwhile than other projects. Here, my bias is clear.

Interviewing Zheng Jinxia was a memorable experience for me for a more lighthearted reason: she was the first person I had ever interviewed, on camera, in Chinese. It was her first interview, in any language, ever! As our cameraman, Li Yi, was setting up the shot, Ms. Zheng was so nervous that she started to tear up a little bit. I made the very silly mistake of saying something like, 鈥淗ey!! This show is going to be broadcast all over the world!! Isn鈥檛 that cool?鈥Of course, that did nothing to calm her nerves. And as soon as the words were out of my mouth, my stress level went way up, too. What you can鈥檛 see from tv is that throughout the interview, we ended up holding hands to try to calm each other down.

Editor:Liu  Source:CCTV.com