The public account of the first publication of this article: General Arrow (jiangjunjian31). Due to the headline review system, this article has been greatly abridged. If you need to read the original article, please move to the public account. Excuse me!
On November 4, the Southern Press Media Group released an obituary, and Comrade Zuo Fang, a retired cadre of the Group, died in Guangzhou at 4:30 p.m. on November 3, 2021 at the age of 86 due to illness.
This respectable media personality, after leaving a last wish to "thank all my former friends and colleagues", finally came to his physical end.
After 8 years, he finally got rid of the shackles that had been suppressed for a long time and regained his spiritual freedom.
❶ The polishing and persistence of life
In 1957, a veteran named Huang Keji was admitted to the Chinese Department of Peking University, and quickly let the surrounding classmates remember the 15-year-old Nanyue young man who joined the army at the age of 15 and did not hesitate to cut off the mother-son relationship in order to apply for entry into the Korean War.
After the Spring Festival, Peking University launched an "anti-conservative and anti-waste" movement in the higher education sector. This 22-year-old fiery young man was favored by the organization, and every day he wrapped his hands in the sleeves of his cotton coat, and his lips were purple and he was trembling to look at the "watermelon" in the triangle (Note: Peking University calls the big character newspaper "watermelon", and the Chinese Department arranges for someone to summarize and study the "watermelon").
In addition to "looking at melons", he will also try to write some of his own experiences and insights, signed:
Left.
According to his later recollection, the name was not a temporary idea, but had historical origins.
It turned out that when Xiao Huang was in the countryside in his early years, he discussed literary dreams with an elder who had participated in the "Left League" and used the pen name of "Zuo Wen", and the elder pointed to a copy of the "Southern Daily" on the table and said:
Who can't afford to write an article with a pen name? It is not appropriate to call the left day, so you can call it the left side.
Therefore, the left comrades of the Department of Chinese of Peking University systematically studied the relevant theories of communication and political science on the one hand, and combined them with sports practice on the other hand.
After graduation, Zuo Fang joined the Southern Daily newspaper, which had an inexplicable relationship with him, and quickly became the deputy editor-in-chief who presided over the actual editorial work with his enthusiasm and talent; and in the subsequent catastrophe, he showed a level of posture that had advanced by leaps and bounds in the university.
On February 11, 1984, this middle-aged man who had been imprisoned and sat on the cold bench in the data room for seven years, organized the sub-publication of the Southern Press, which was:
Southern Weekend.
At that time, the masses of the people had great needs for the pursuit of spiritual and cultural life. The positioning of this newspaper by the leaders of the newspaper is also oriented to the "entertainment culture of the Lingnan region".
I never expected that the comrades on the left who had been polished by life for so many years not only did not go rounded, but instead sharpened the sharpness in the thick and deep.
After reflecting on personal experiences and summarizing the social process, a lingering idea emerged on the left: to separate political communication from media communication and create an ideological enlightenment newspaper in the context of reform and opening up.
In an interview in 2003, he made this idea clearer:
To tell the truth, almost 20 years have passed, and this Huang Zhong Dalu-like speech still shocks me, a self-media author, who can't lift my head.
❷ Philosophy of Life and Founding Philosophy
After experiencing repeated tempering in life, the left side still maintains the staggering "three points of literary style, seven points of banditry" (Note: the left side of the self-evaluation).
Regarding the literary tone, the drunken left side laughs at itself:
As soon as my friends became officials, I ignored them, I was such a person.
Regarding banditry, he once summed up the art of leadership as a newspaper editor-in-chief:
Zhuangzi also has a way of stealing, first in, then out, equally divided, know it or not.
This means that even if you are a thief, the leader must be the first to go in, the last to come out, and the things stolen pay attention to fair distribution, and they must know where to steal.
Someone described the anecdote about the left as follows:
The impatient left side once confronted the American editor at a meeting, and reporters avoided walking when eating in the canteen. However, in hindsight, the Editor of Southern Zhou Mei was still promoted, and the reporter's year-end income was higher than that of the editor-in-chief.
As a result, the left side, who was given the title of tyrant (tyrant), used his unique personality charm to gather a large group of talents and create a team that was particularly capable of fighting.
After the founding of Southern Weekend, there was no ready-made newspaper policy to imitate. On what constitutes a "weekend," the left has debated with newspaper leaders for two years.
At the beginning, Southern Weekend devoted a considerable amount of space to local operas such as Cantonese opera, Chao opera, and Han opera, as well as interesting events such as Hong Kong and Taiwan singers and overseas gossip.
But after the freshness, this routine is slowly abandoned by readers.
From 1987 onwards, the left side was hammered:
We're going to have a comprehensive weekly magazine where everything people do on the weekend, what they care about and talk about is on our radar over the weekend.
Since then, the gaze of this newspaper has completed the transformation from "up" to "down", that is:
Be accountable to the reader, emphasizing readability and telling the truth.
At an annual meeting before retiring, the left side told one thing:
A migrant worker brother occasionally read about Southern Weekend and fell in love with it. One spring festival, he sent us a handmade greeting card, saying that he was now laid off and might not be able to afford Southern Weekend in the future, and sent a card as a farewell.
Therefore, our readers should be people with initial Chinese, concern for society, and love of knowledge; they are the pillars of our nation, and the hope of China in the future lies in these people, not in a small number of elites.
Regarding the principles of reporting, the left side humbly stated:
Many people say that I put forward the bottom line of the newsman's newspaper. In fact, this was first expressed by Comrade Huang Wenyu (Note: former editor-in-chief of Nanfang Daily and director of the Guangdong Provincial Publishing Bureau), that is, there can be truths that have not yet been spoken, but they will never tell lies.
This principle has become a tradition adhered to by Southern Weekend, and before each recruit is trained, the editor-in-chief will personally tell him or her about this "corporate culture".
From the left to Jiang Yiping, there is no exception.
❸ Grow in stumbling
In 1993, Southern Weekend published an in-depth report called "Raid on Jing Case", which caused strong social repercussions. However, it was immediately asked by the competent authorities to suspend publication and rectify.
Under the mediation of the leaders of the Southern Daily and the officials of the reformist faction at higher levels, Southern Weekend implemented the "dual-master establishment", and the left side was changed to deputy editor-in-chief.
Subsequently, under the principle of "establishing the umbilical cord between news and the people" on the left side repeatedly resisted the pressure and adhered to the newspaper, Southern Weekend developed into a national comprehensive comprehensive newspaper with a circulation of more than 1 million copies.
In 1994, at the age of 59, Zuo Fang retired, but immediately accepted the newspaper's re-employment and continued to work for Southern Weekend until the end of 1998.
It is also when the left side completely bid farewell to the Southern Weekend, and the former "tyrant" gradually erases the legendary personal traces, Jiang Yiping, the successor of Wai Rou and Nei Gang, shows her spiritual core.
On January 1, 1999, Southern Weekend launched shen Hao and Chang Ping's New Year's message "There is always a power to make us cry", which generously declared the vision of "Southern Weekend":
Let the powerless be powerful, let the pessimists move forward.
To some extent, this New Year's message issued by Jiang Yiping is a tribute and commitment of all the editors-in-chief to the left, marking that Southern Weekend has entered the most prosperous golden age.
The man, nicknamed the "tyrant," chose to leave quietly at its most brilliant.
❸ After the peak
From January 2000 to December 2008, Jiang Yiping rose three times as the editor-in-chief of Southern Zhou, witnessing the changes of Southern Weekend.
In September 2013, Jiang Yiping retired early, and a large number of Southern Zhou people who fell into a whirlpool left in the same period.
Some news sources said: An era is over. More netizens summed up in three words:
Southern Zhou, pawn.
There are unconfirmed sources that the left side said:
"Southern Weekend" was a tree planted by me, but it blossomed in the hands of Jiang Yiping.
Half silent, the old man added:
Now, the salary is on fire.
For more information, please visit the public account General Arrow (jiangjunjian31). Go to heaven on the left, go to the golden basin on the right, break the bow and break the string, and go forward. This number pays attention to finance and people's livelihood, although it is self-amusement, it still seeks to base itself on dry goods! Welcome to follow, welcome to forward!