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November 8, 2022

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Budding reporter’s journalistic dreams receive a boost

By Andy Boreham | 00:24 UTC+8 November 8, 2022 | Print Edition

I’VE attended the China International Import Expo every year since it first began, and I must admit that some aspects of it have become a bit like the movie “Groundhog Day.”

But this year I experienced something new: one of the expo’s volunteers, a young woman who dreams of working as a journalist, wanted to ask me questions about my job.

While me and my team were filming the usual piece to camera in the expo news media center, Zhao Yunqiao, a fourth year student at my old university, Fudan, approached me and asked if I had time to answer a few questions.

Usually this kind of request will come from local journalists who want to know what foreign journalists think of the expo, of Shanghai, and of China. And usually, once I tell them I’ve lived in China for nearly a decade and work for Shanghai Daily, they are at least a tad less interested.

So I was more than willing to chat with Yunqiao about working in journalism, but I had one condition: she had to agree to be interviewed by me, too.

Originally from Chengdu, Sichuan Province, Yunqiao is getting ready to graduate from her bachelor’s degree at Fudan University. Soon she’ll take a gap year — something quite uncommon here in China — before returning to Fudan to study a masters in journalism.

This is her first time volunteering at the expo, and she has been thrilled about the opportunity it gives her to talk to foreign journalists about their work, something she is also recording for a vlog about her experience.

“I want to do a vlog about how Chinese and foreign media reporters work, live and experience the import expo,” she told me. “So far I’ve met and chatted with about 13 foreign reporters, including you. I really want to know what their experience has been like, what the focus of their reporting is, and things like that.”

She said that these conversations have helped a lot with her understanding of life as a journalist, and the kinds of work she may encounter in her future career.

“Being able to talk with journalists is really exciting and makes me happy,” she smiled. “When I chatted with them, I talked about my future career direction and they gave me a lot of encouragement.”

Even though she’s confident about what she wants to do in the future, Yunqiao said she sometimes worries about whether she will succeed. A few of the journalists she interviewed for her vlog helped set some of those concerns aside.

“Some of them told me they think I will make a great reporter, just from seeing how I interviewed them for my vlog,” she smiled. “First and foremost, I felt very encouraged and inspired.”

Yunqiao also learned through her conversations just how similar reporters in China and reporters overseas are. “I think regardless of where a journalist comes from, they all cherish looking into the eyes of their interviewees and listening to their real and specific life stories.”

Being able to chat with foreign journalists is a unique situation, specifically brought about by the import expo, she told me.

“CIIE is a window for our country opening up ... an exciting opportunity for Chinese and foreign friends from all over the world to come together. I think this kind of connection, this kind of openness, is something that every single person in the global village cherishes and yearns for.”

And Yunqiao dreams that one day, journalism will take her to the four corners of that massive village.

“I look forward to being able to work all around the world,” she said with a gleam in her eyes. “Oh yes, I’m definitely looking forward to that!”

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