Transcript
VIOLA KUO HUANG: The English service of China Radio International is really trying to braid the misunderstandings between the outside world and China. So we have hourly news about what's happening in the world, what's happening in China, and what's happening in some English-speaking areas, regions. Also we have feature programmes called Studio-Plus. This covers about social events and literature, music, film and things like that, and technology developments and stories of Chinese people, and foreigners living in China. And also we have the language learning programmes to learn Chinese in an interesting way. We also have programmes about Chinese literature, telling it in a story-like way so people can understand what's happening. And we have talk shows which are called roundtable.
JOHNNY BLADES: Discussions?
VKH: Yes discussions. People talk about culture and conflicting issues happening in China and around. We have Chinese panellists and foreign panellists who discuss together, finding out different perspectives, viewing events from different cultural backgrounds, and what is coming out is normally mutual understanding. And sometimes people need further discussions, even after the topic. This programme is really, really welcome. And we have business programmes, covering the news globally, what is happening in the stock market and the policies, especially what's happening in the world (how it) could influence not only China but other regions.
JB: When Pacific Islanders can tune into China Radio International these days, will they hear any content about them, about the stories and issues that they are confronting?
VKH: Yes, I would say, because anything which is significant that is interesting would be the content that CRI are interested in. But it wouldn't be possible for CRI to provide a specific service to targetting this audience. CRI is very interested in mapping the whole world, to all the audiences it can reach. But for all the stories that happen in this region, I would say that it comes to one that is very significant only.
JB: How much of a role does the Chinese government play in the daily operations of CRI?
VKH: Well, like all the public service, we have funding. But all the editorial decisions are made by the media practitioners, and they don't intervene with our news. We just do it as other public service, that we choose the stories important to cover.
JB: And what about radio as a format in China, is it highly valued?
VKH: Yes, if you pay attention to all those audience surveys, you would figure out that in some particular regions, and even in some developed countries, radios not dying at all. And they have their loyal listeners, and this is happening even in China. And we have an increasingly numbers of audience, listeners who I would say are loyal to the programmes. This is global. Because some of them have grown up with programmes they like, so they keep close contact with the programmes.
JB: Is CRI expanding digitally?
VKH: well I would say that multi-media approach is adopted by almost all the radio stations. we have some eyes on the website and social media as well. But the basic stories we covered and the basic service we provide is radio programmes. In terms of digital realm, we would say that coming to digital is decided by your audience, by the reception side of your audience.
China Radio International broadcasts globally in 65 languages including Mandarin.
