Reporting from China: One billion stories and growing
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3. AP in China 60+ years ago: one man with a typewriter covering a revolution, filing stories from the caves of Yan’an
4. AP in China today: five bureaus, 50+ people, covering 1.3 billion people with infinite stories That’s me!
5. Reporting Challenges censorship + hindered access + violent crackdowns + cultural differences AP reporter David Wivell = a journalist is China’s third most dangerous job
8. What comes to mind when you hear the words modern China?
9. 1.3 billion people - pollution - 457 million web users - 600 million urban residents - fasted train in the world - 300 million smokers - Facebook is blocked - 863 million cell phone users - mass migration - solar energy, wind, biomass energy - skyscrapers - poverty - 190 billionaires - one-child policy - GDP growth - 300 million farmers - 26% of rice comes from China - largest active army in the world with 3.4 million people - 5,000 prisoners executed yearly - Communism - U.S. pays $220 billion worth of Chinese goods annually - deadly drywall - trade wars - 31 million cars built a year - developing country -
10. Who is the average Chinese? What are their challenges? What are their fears, goals, hopes, and desires? What do they care about? How do they impact the world?
11. In China, 7 million students graduate and enter the workforce each year, without adequate experience more than 2 million struggle to find jobs
12. Chinese students have grown up on rote learning and the ruling Party has long discouraged creative thinking lest it lead to challenging authority.
14. Good news is… many young people are blazing their own paths by starting businesses, blogging, expanding their hobbies into the arts and speaking out on issues. But its still not enough.
15. As a result, millions of young, educated graduates resort to living in slums outside of big cities. This is the ant tribe generation . They work hard, but are unable to afford urban housing. They make about $250/month and share a one-bedroom apartment with friends
16. China is home to 350 million people between the ages of 18 and 35, more than the population of the U.S. The ant generation, most no older than 25-years-old, are the future of China _ educated, optimistic and hungry to achieve what their parents didn’t have.
17. About 94% of the population lives on 46% of the land
18. By 2035, 70% of the population is expected to live in urban areas
19. China leads the world in CO2 emissions and is home to 20 of the world’s most polluted cities
22. Each year, China produces 260 tons of garbage. Only one-third is recycled or composted, the rest end up in incinerators or inefficient landfills that pollute This is Zhanglidong , a village in central China overwhelmed by garbage
23. Villagers in Zhanglidong plug their noses in order to eat meals as the acrid aroma of rotting refuse and sewage spews forth from a landfill as big as 20 football fields. This woman’s house is 50 feet away.
24. Beijing is not shy about creating “blue sky days” for special occasions…
25. Thank you! 谢谢 Find me on Twitter: @thunderchi #apchina My AP stories: http://zchichi.com/writing E-mail: [email_address]