Assignment: China - Opening Up

To view Assignment: China - Opening Up with Chinese Subtitles, please visit: http://youtu.be/Yg0ZPDt1lK4

It was 1979. The U.S. and China had just established diplomatic relations. For the first time since the Communists took power in 1949, the Chinese government allowed American journalists to be based in Beijing. Assignment: China, "Opening Up," the new documentary from the USC U.S.-China Institute, is their story.

Based on extensive interviews with virtually all the pioneering reporters who opened the first U.S. news bureaus in the People's Republic -- including Fox Butterfield, Jay and Linda Mathews, Richard Bernstein, Frank Ching, Melinda Liu, Jim Laurie, John Roderick, and many others -- the documentary also contains interviews with Chinese officials who sought to manage the Western media, people the reporters covered, as well as rare archival footage, still photos and previously unseen home videos.

This episode is one of several that make up an ambitious multimedia project exploring the work of U.S. China correspondents and the role they have played in shaping both American perceptions of the country and U.S. policy toward China. Assignment: China segments examine American coverage of China since the 1940s to today.

From the barriers of language, culture and politics, to the logistical challenges of war, revolution, isolation, internal upheaval, government restrictions and changing technology, covering China has been one of the most difficult of journalistic assignments. It's also one of the most important. For over sixty years, what American correspondents have reported about China has profoundly influenced U.S. views of the country, and the policies of successive American governments.

In what one scholar has characterized as the "roller-coaster ride" of U.S.-China relations -- from World War Two ally to Cold War enemy to common foe of the Soviet Union to "cuddly communists" embracing the market to emerging economic superpower and potential strategic rival -- American journalists have played a central role. At varying times, they have been cheer-leaders, demonizers, romantics and cynics -- struggling to understand a complex society with an opaque political system, buffeted by pressure from the authorities in both Beijing and Washington, not to mention pressure from their own editors and the remorseless deadlines of their profession.

Mike Chinoy, the distinguished former CNN Asia correspondent and USC U.S.-China Institute Senior Fellow, is the writer and reporter for the series. He is assisted by USCI Multimedia Editor Craig Stubing and USCI students, who handle much of the research, transcription, videography, and editing.The project was conceived of by Clayton Dube.

The USC U.S.-China Institute's Assignment: China website (http://china.usc.edu/assignmentchina) includes additional materials about the correspondents, their work, and the major developments occurring in China and in U.S.-China relations during this period.

Classroom use of this video is permitted. We would appreciate feedback from viewers. Please write to us at uschina@usc.edu.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• assignment
• china
• opening
• up
• usc
• us-china
• usci
• washington
• beijing
• communists
• deng
• mao
• nixon
• butterfield
• mathews
• bernstein
• ching
• liu
• laurie
• roderick
• koppel
• chinoy
• stubing
• 1979

[bonvoyageagain]

Outstanding and fascinating.