Brief Introduction of China in Jiayang Fan’s work

尘世客

I started to know about Jiayang Fan from his mother’s experience and some subjective comments about China. Jiayang Fan is a Chinese-American who immigrated to the United States when he was a child, and he is a columnist working for The New Yorker. As a journalist, I think he can describe an event, person and social phenomenon in China in a more objective, fair and pure way in The New Yorker. Comparatively speaking, I prefer his reports on the situation of Chinese Americans (racial discrimination). After all, he has a better say and a more comprehensive and profound understanding of the country where he is raised. Unfortunately, we see more reports about China, where he left when he was young, and one-sided reports about China that seem to rely on the unequal information with American, which are surmised from his knowledge of Chinese and obtained from his family connections in China.
Jiayang Fan has enjoyed his reputation as a writer for The New Yorker, but not as much as his predecessors Peter Hessler and Evan Osnos. However, as a Chinese American writer, I think I can use three words to comment his reports on China issues: “skimming over the surface”, “esoteric writing” and “less objective”.
Why is “skimming over the surface”? If you eve read his articles carefully, you will feel that his reports lack depth. He seems to have interviewed wide-ranging people and gained a large amount of information, but all the descriptions are superficial and the conclusions drawn are just stereotypes. Reading his articles always reminds me of one of some copywriter’s routine: first getting a general idea of the event you want to write about, then selecting a few topics, next looking for interviewees in accordance with the topics, and writing when getting enough information. Generally speaking, Jiayang Fan lacks the pureness and profoundness that he can learn from his predecessor Peter Hessler. His writing about China’s economy and society has mixed with obvious “politicized” elements, making it feel like putting on a conventional coat for China from an American perspective.
When it comes to “esoteric writing”, Jiayang Fanis proficient in it. What is it? It is also known as sublime words with deep meaning, which refers to the euphemistic and subtle expression of the author’s subjective views through detailed descriptions, rhetorical devices (such as vocabulary selection) and material selection, without direct elaboration on the views of people and events. Most of Jiayang Fan’s articles about China are obviously mixed with an ideological or political elements. For instance, in the interview of the author of “The Three-Body Problem” Liu Cixin, he mentioned the Chaos of Hong Kong, China’s epidemic, Ningxia Yinchuan wine, Meitu Xiu Xiu..... In general, Jiayang Fan is obviously “catering to Liu’s pleasure”. The central idea of all reports is that there are various problems existing in China, which is also the projection of western countries’ views on China. We can see that the characteristics of his articles are that his reports on China are not as good as those about the situation of Chinese Americans, and even his articles about food are more vivid and interesting than those about politics.
Why do I think Jiayang Fanis “less objective”? As an ethnic Chinese, he should have been in a better position than Peter Hessler and Evan Osnos to get closer to Chinese people and better understand Chinese life. However, it can be seen that since Jiayang Fan moved to the United States as a child and lives in New York, he became a “foreign guest” when reporting on China. Is China really the “culprit” of the “earth civilization” and the epidemic that he wrote through sublime words with deep meaning? As a matter of fact, everyone has an evaluation criteria in mind. As he lives in a different country, position and environment, his perspective is very American thinking, obviously deviating from the objective road. He takes the attitude of “overgeneralization” to describe a Chinese event, instead of describing his current point of view like an observer of The Times. Kunda Dixit, editor-in-chief of The Nepal Times, has ever said that as journalists, we should be “objective observers” and insist on fairness, but not objectivity. In my opinion, whether objective or fair,[url=https://vocus.cc/article/62904cc4fd89780001f6f57d]Jiayang Fan[/url] has absolutely failed to do so. It is difficult to make clear the national conditions and changes of China today. When reporting on such a large and complex country and society as China, no one can assert that they can accurately grasp the overall situation and make objective and accurate reports. He can sing the praises of American democracy and freedom as he sees it, without demonizing China.
For the duration of the severe epidemic in the United States, medical resources were limited. Jiayang Fan’s mother was treated differently due to her skin color and age. We all know that he once sought help on Twitter. As a matter of fact, facing such unfair treatment, what ethnic Chinese need most at this moment is reflection. As a member of so-called senior intellectual in a democratic state, Jiayang Fan may be fortunate enough as his claims were eventually addressed, but other Chinese-American might not be so fortunate.