Photo courtesy of Sing Tao Daily

When terrorists attacked the Paris satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo and killed 12 people earlier this month, it played out on the world’s stage. The extremists claimed their murders were to protest irreverent cartoons about the prophet Muhammad. 

Like mainstream media, local Chinese news outlets took the opportunity to engage their audiences with editorials to help them digest and analyse the tragic events. On Omni BC’s Mandarin news program, Guo Ding, a producer of the show, took up the topic on his segment called Ding’s view, which delves into everyday hot news issues.

“People didn’t necessarily agree with Charlie Hebdo’s views. It was a different story when the extremists wanted to use violence to achieve their goal,” said Ding, who has years of experience as a columnist for the World Journal, Sing Tao and SinoQuebec for Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto. He also writes columns for publications in the United States, Hong Kong and China.

Ding says that instead of the terrorists’ goal of silencing or intimidating the publication through violence, they got the opposite effect of unifying the nation by garnering global attention.

Although Ding does not agree with Charlie Hebdo’s views, he does support the idea of freedom of speech. He says the station gives him the freedom to speak what is on his mind based on the principle of multiculturalism.

“But my view is not necessarily representing the position of the TV station,” says Ding.

Cultural divide

Ding cites the late American political scientist and Harvard professor Samuel Huntington to shed some insight on why people are taking such a strong stand on cultural attacks.

In a 1993 Foreign Affairs article, Huntington argued that the main source of conflict in the world would no longer be primarily ideological or economic, but cultural. He felt that the clash of civilizations would dominate global politics and that the fault lines between civilizations would be the battle lines of the future.

“We have to find a way to get out of the violence. We need to create a stage of dialogue, a stage of mutual understanding and the cultural harmony. The war is not the solution and we need to get rid of the ‘soil’ for terrorism,” Ding says.

Cultural sensitivity and sensitive topics

Ding mentions the anti-immigration sentiment some Canadians have against the Chinese. However, he says multiculturalism needs to be supported. For example, recently non-Chinese people began to complain about the Chinese-only signs for some businesses in Richmond.

“We need to think about other peoples’ feelings who are not Chinese,” he says. “We have to make efforts to let all Canadians know that the history of Chinese immigration is part of the mainstream history. People would change their mind,” says Ding.

When it comes to sensitive topics, Ding aims to present a balanced picture. When he looks at environmental issues, the solutions generated should take into consideration what effect they will have on the economy. This is something the Chinese are concerned about.

“Is there any alternative out there that is good for the environment that does not shut down the oil industry? You have to have a new industry to replace that when you talk about shutting down the oil industry so Canada can have prosperity,” Ding says.

Sensitivity to hot topics

Guo Ding interviews Bai Xianyong, a well-know writer in China as well as in US | Photo courtesy of Guo Ding

In Vancouver’s Sing Tao newsroom, editor-in-chief Victor Ho says the staff exercises great care when handling potentially explosive topics such as the recent terrorist attack in France.

“For the Charlie Hebdo issue we handled the problematic cartoons very carefully,” says Ho.

The bottom line was that they judged that it was not suitable to emphasize again the Islamic prophet’s image in their paper, he says.

“The real news value is in the terror attacks, not that on the religious hatred/argument. Since we treated the said story along with this guideline, we did not receive negative feedback from readers up to the moment,” says Ho, who is no stranger to handling editorials.

Aside from having over 25 years of experience as a journalist, he was the current affairs commentator for Fairchild Radio of Toronto from 1998 to 2002. In 1994, he had written a media commentary column for HK Sing Tao Daily for over three years before coming to Canada in 1997. He joined the Vancouver Sing Tao newsroom in 2005.

“Sing Tao’s role play is sort of like a bridge between the Chinese immigrants and the ‘new’ society of Canada. We are really the ethnic ‘media’ when East meets West, in terms of immigrant communities of the new land in North America,” says Ho.

Asked about culturally mixed readership Ho says that he prefers not to translate his columns to English as the topics he treats are mainly of interest to Chinese language speakers here in Canada and/or abroad.

The Sing Tao Daily’s readership tends to be age 40 or above, according to Ho. He points out the readers are diligent in calling, emailing, faxing or even writing letters to the editor to convey their ‘keenest concern’ in regards to the newspaper’s coverage.

“Of course they are interested in reading the sensitive topics, like the Charlie Hebdo with reference on those Islamic cartoons in Paris, or even the Falun Kun stories,” says Ho.