紐約時報受逐記者：Seeking real voices in China

Seeking real voices in China

Raymond Zhong, a Times technology reporter, is part of a group of American journalists who were recently expelled from China. He wrote about his two years reporting in the country. Below is a condensed version of his Times Insider article.

Access to regular people in China might be the part of foreign correspondents’ jobs there that the Chinese authorities find hardest to control, though they certainly try. With a dose of charm and persistence from a reporter, people do open up, despite the country’s rigid curbs on speech and thought.

Raymond Zhong was one of several U.S. journalists in China recently ordered to leave the country.  Yuyang Liu for The New York Times

Even face to face with people in China, it could be tough to have real conversations. People ended interviews when they started to seem hazardous — too personal, too political. This is how the authoritarian system keeps a lid on criticism: It gives everyone reason to think that personal matters are political, that they can get in trouble just for talking about their own lives and opinions.

Often enough, though, I found people in China who were relieved that someone was finally listening.

Hog farmers pleading for aid from the local government after their herds were devastated by an incurable plague. Truckers whose incomes had been gutted by new, Uber-like apps that brought Silicon Valley efficiency to their happily inefficient industry.

I’m leaving China more convinced than ever of how much ordinary people can teach us about a place — which might be one reason the government was so eager for us to leave.