I reckon if I manage to sell this job to you, I don’t see any reason why I can’t make a fortune flogging dead skunks on Tiananmen Square. Ok, that’s enough, I’m banning cynicism for this post. Believe it or not, I strangely enjoy working at Xinhua although not when we are understaffed. The link below will take you to what I consider (without exaggeration) to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-07/20/content_6404122.htm
In the first line, please replace “is seeking” with “urgently needs”. Two of my foreign comrades departed the battlefield recently which has left two of us drowing in news stories and features about the People’s Liberation Army’s 80th anniversary. Due to the shortage in manpower, we are currently working alternate night shifts, which start at 6pm with the sight of 15 stories that have piled up throughout the day. This is unpleasant. And in case people are doubting the strength of their career prospects after working at Xinhua (ahem), one of my former colleagues left to star in a Chinese drama series opposite Ni Ping and the other is being showered with yuan as general manager of a management training company.
As this is a promotional piece, I see no problem with only listing the positives about being a sub-editor at Xinhua. (You will notice that the word “polisher” is absent from the job advert in an attempt to make the position sound more important. In fact, here me out on this one, the job is indeed a sub-editing role - with the power to reject stories or recommend stories to be written. Stop scoffing at the back. Still like to use the term “polisher” though - sounds like a relaxing pastime.)
1) After two weeks, you will notice a newfound ability to reel off a series of impressive statistics on an eclectic range of subjects such as the number of visitors to Tibet in the first quarter, domestic car sales and foreign direct investment. Seriously though, knowledge of China grows quickly.
2) Rejecting (or asking for improvement in) stories that writers have spent a couple of days working on develops your diplomacy skills.
3) (If I can be sentimental for a second …) Opportunity to work with some great people (I don’t mean myself).
4) Chance to wave pay check in the faces of China Daily employees (while conveniently forgetting that China Daily is an infinitely more efficient operation).
Don’t all rush at once.
mingtian | 24-Jul-07 at 4:15 pm | Permalink
I believe you left out a key point in the job description - rotating work hours? Is that true?
JWS | 25-Jul-07 at 12:45 am | Permalink
As one of the rats who abandoned ship, (I’m the one who has traded a Xinhua keyboard for a life in Ni Ping and a free trip home to Canada), I write today to testify that the great highlight of working for the agency is the blog man himself.
Chris is one of the finest colleagues I’ve ever worked with. At twice the kid’s age it’s somehow troublingly to realize that it took me deep into my career to finally work with someone that I get along with so well. He’s funny, different (British after all), serious and good at his work (excluding ‘express mode’ days) and either very well liked or the nemesis of all others on the floor.
He has a way of cutting to the point of a story or conversation or debate and forcing people to actually think about what they are saying. He thinks he’s not diplomatic but he is so much so. Diplomacy isn’t about suffering fools, but it is about making others realize they are without insulting them. Therein lays one of Chris’s great talents.
Chris will ask a question that engages a colleague because he’s really is very interested in opinion of others — like all good journalists. When the reply is weak or nonsensical Chris simply asks “Why do you think that?” He’ll not let them off the hook and challenges every dumb assumption. He does it not with heated argument or a contrary strong opinion, but with simple, straight-to-the-point questions. And that’s when you know he likes you.
At our editorial meeting some months ago, we (including the Aussie in our group – who is also in my annals of great and fun colleagues) tried to impress upon the section heads that Xinhua’s denial stories about contaminated toothpaste were sophomoric, embarrassing, misleading, harmful to China’s credibility, laughable, downright stupid and a lie known to everyone in the room.
We got the talk-around. Xinhua could only quote authentic sources — i.e. its own skewered bureau reports, which we had no power to even politely request them to file. Chris pointed out the New York Times had no problem quoting other news sources from Panama and even Australia and why couldn’t we do the same in light of the lackadaisical efforts from the bureaus? The disingenuous reply was that Xinhua didn’t trust the NYT and the NYT doesn’t trust Xinhua. “They don’t quote us and we don’t quote them,” said someone in a senior position trying to sound reasonable and even open minded.
Of course Chris jumped on the error in the assertion by simply pointing out that the NYT quotes XH all the time. There was something in his timing and the brightness of Chris’s response that quieted the room for a beat to allow the embarrassment to pass. Of course the NY Times quotes XH, only a fool would say otherwise, which is what I’m sure the senior editor was thinking of himself.
Well, that’s a rather long-winded anecdote aimed at trying to impress journalist from a far to come and work with Chris. There are lots of other reasons to apply as the blog man points out, but I can testify he and John Mac are really two very good reasons to come on board.
It’s a frustrating hard and interesting job that needs serious journalistic skills. It’s also a lot of laughs if you don’t mind making fun of a dysfunctional family. Damn I miss you guys.
Cheers,
Lao Bi
Departure now set for Friday and you still owe me a pint…
Chris O'Brien | 25-Jul-07 at 1:25 am | Permalink
Mingtian: It is indeed shift work. With a full complement of polishers, ie four, there will be two weeks of day shifts, one week of afternoon shifts and one week of night shifts.
Chris O'Brien | 25-Jul-07 at 1:50 am | Permalink
Well, Uncle Bill, for f**ks sake. I don’t know whether to feel embarrassed to have approved that comment, give you a large Canadian bear hug with that pint or just polish your grammar. Although I suspect that when you wrote a “life in Ni Ping”, that is what you intended.
Seriously though, I am hugely flattered as well as most definitely embarrassed, particularly as those “express mode” days are becoming all the more frequent given the seemingly terminal decline of the whole operation - and of course the lack of Lao Bi to direct proceedings on how to actually improve the state of affairs. It goes without saying you are sorely missed. Perhaps, you have inadvertently given me a kick up the arse.
And now for the bad news … your legacy (the pot plants) have suffered a cruel fate. We have been told there is nowhere to put them in the new building. Mr Mac trudged off with one this evening - I might dump the spider plant in Tian Congming’s office.
JWS | 25-Jul-07 at 9:19 am | Permalink
Of course I meant to write life ‘in Ni Ping’ or maybe it was a late night, last minute twig of the sentence. Or maybe you changed it on purpose! Can you fix that for me….
This morning in dawned on me part of why we got along so well. It turns out that it’s not because you’re such a great guy. Isn’t it because we all seem to know we’re having a very unique experience of a life time at Xinhua.
The Brit, the Canuck and the Aussie are as diverse a set of white guys you’ll ever find. This is a good thing if you realize that variety is the spice of life. It really was a challenge trying to figure out how someone could be so thrilled by soccer. I’ve also advanced my linguistic skills now that I understand some brit-speak.
Our Chinese colleagues are also almost all things nice and are certainly different. It’s a test of one’s observational skills as a journalist to allow them the privelege of using journalism as a tool to promote their beloved country.
Applicants should even think about it for a while — does journalism necessarily have to be about throwing muck, breaking bad news stories and editorial independence?
The answer, of course, is yes. It’s a basic principle to print all the news that’s fit.
So an experience at XH makes you think about how your own opinions and judgements were formed — or at least it should. Xinhua, I suppose, is actually good for personal growth.
I also mispoke at the bottom of my ode to Chris. It’s not really a very hard job. It’s basicially only six- hour shifts and the shift work is more a blessing than a curse. On night shift, which ends at midnight, you have a lot of daylight to explore the city.
Cheers, Lao Bi
PS — Those are/where potted plants not pot plants….
John Macdonald | 26-Jul-07 at 5:30 am | Permalink
Actually I took most of the pot plants and I must say that they’re thriving now that they’re getting fed on real coffee dregs instead of that instant muck we drink in the office or that watery stuff Laobi used to give them.
michael | 26-Jul-07 at 9:56 am | Permalink
Yes big bucks compared to China Daily but do they give you a nice flat?
Chris O'Brien | 26-Jul-07 at 10:43 am | Permalink
Michael: No, thank god! A view of the Xinhua tower from my living room would make me cry.
Estella | 26-Jul-07 at 2:30 pm | Permalink
A view of the Xinhua tower from the living room is not that bad… After all it’s a nice hutong block.
I am sure that anyone who tries a job at Xinhua would never forget the unique working environment, and would probably make a lot of friends — whether they are diligent or lazy. And you will miss them a lot when you leave.
Mackers | 26-Jul-07 at 5:41 pm | Permalink
So Xinhua has only four polishers? That explains a lot, as I work for an organization where I see a lot of Xinhua copy.
Chris, if you fancy a change of scenery (and more dosh), email me.
Justin | 26-Jul-07 at 5:58 pm | Permalink
“A hilarious exchange of ideas among XH’s foreign writers! Two thumps up!”
- China Delay
My foreign colleague just told me today how he disgusted waking up to the view of the CD compound just outside his bedroom window every morning. It’s a nice flat. But it’s just way toooooooo… close to the office.
Back to the theme: I wish XH recruits new guys in no time and God bless the blogger and his only colleague
Chris O'Brien | 27-Jul-07 at 10:19 am | Permalink
You are right, Estella, the fluorescent orange lighting is strangely comforting.
Mackers, I can only apologize for the standard of the copy at the moment. As an excuse, a significant proportion of it is being released “sans polish” at the moment which leads to amusing items like this:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-07/25/content_6427912.htm. Thank you for email offer - is it mackers@nytimes.com?
Cheers Justin!
Deejay | 28-Jul-07 at 1:15 am | Permalink
Only four polishers? When I was living at the Friendship Hotel in the early ’90s, the Xinhua polishers were housed there as well, and their numbers seemed to be legion. Cost-cutting, or just a lack of applicants?
Chris O'Brien | 28-Jul-07 at 2:26 pm | Permalink
Actually, four polishers in the English section of the “Home News for Overseas Department” is the most it has ever had (although currently there are two). There are also four native English speakers in the international department. And there are, on average, three foreign translators each in the Spanish, French, Russian, Portuguese and Arabic departments, both for domestic and international news. So, that makes a potential total army of 38. Enough to take over the west wing at the Friendship Hotel, I reckon.
Thomas | 15-Aug-07 at 5:50 pm | Permalink
A Brit, a Canuck and an Aussie? Sounds like the start of a bad joke. My kind of place! Any space for a Saffa?
Chris O'Brien | 15-Aug-07 at 8:40 pm | Permalink
Thomas I think that would complete the set nicely - and if you know any replacement Canadians … And yes, it often is a very bad joke.
Beijing Newspeak :: Another window of opportunity … | 27-Apr-08 at 1:16 pm | Permalink
[...] there. Click here to apply for a spot on the hallowed polishing turf of Xinhua News Agency and here for some (limp) reasons why it might tickle your fancy. I’m travelling outside Beijing for a [...]
Zhang Ze-zi | 27-Apr-08 at 9:29 pm | Permalink
For US$2,140 a month, a new grad may be interest in it if he/she can’t find a job anywhere else and need an “experience” on his/resume. I can understand the quality of writing and reporting of Xinhua now.