By Fu Chau Yin
In the early spring this year, a morning sleet in Beijing made me excited. It was not an ordinary tourist experience. More specifically, I was given a chance joining hundreds of reporters to cover the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).
Like an ordinary reporter, I had to complete the work assigned by my superior. My main duties were shooting photos, jotting notes and recording what the targeted NPC deputies and CPPCC members would say. And of course, I must finish the news story writing no later than 8pm on the same day.
Journalism students will work as serious as they possibly can if a press card is given to them. Thanks to the Journalism Education Foundation Hong Kong for sponsoring and organising the Two Sessions news coverage in Beijing, a group of journalism or media students from six Hong Kong universities encountered for the first time in life the intensity and fierce of news reporting in an unfamiliar place.
By Professor Andy Chan
One of the astonishing experiences was that before the opening of NPC, there was a press conference. Li Zhaoxing, former foreign minister, was to chair the conference as spokesperson for the last time, and it was anticipated that numerous reporters would swarm him for more when the press conference was over.
“I declare, this is the end of the conference,” said the spokesperson. I rushed immediately to Li Zhaoxing no later than other reporters. In order to get a favorable position, all of us jostled against one another. The scene was very chaotic. Some of them even climbed up on the table. I just kept pressing the camera shutter with hope that I might capture any “decisive moments” by chance.
After the chaos, I found that two rows of flower pots on the front stage were pushed over, water glasses and microphones on the table were all knocked over. One of the security guards upbraided reporters for violating the rules. He even said that the reporter who rushed first to the front stage would be blacklisted.
In addition, when every time delegates came out from the CPPCC and NPC meetings, reporters waiting outside of the Great Hall of the People rushed to swarm them in order to get quotes and pictures.The most interesting thing was : you could hear many reporters asking the same question – “who is it?” And the answer was “I don’t know” most of the time.
Undoubtedly, the most difficult thing for me was recognizing people’s faces. Although some people’s faces looked familiar to me, I just could not remember their names and thus failed to ask appropriate questions. Such weakness reminded me of the importance of recognizing people’s faces.
