Dialogue· Jing Yidan
The following is a summary of the interview
Fight forgetting with records
△Communication University of China, Media Museum
In March 2022, we met Jing Yidan at the Media Museum at the Communication University of China, where the collection of radio and television equipment evokes many memories of her.
△ 1970s record player
Jing Yidan: These devices look quite kind, zhiqing was used in the radio station when it was a tape recorder, after the beginning of the song I began to say "New Sheng Forest Field Radio Station, now start broadcasting..."
Jing Yidan has been retired for 7 years. Compared to previous shows, when we met her, she looked much more relaxed. This face, who once appeared on the first channel of China's official television at 7:38 every night, has not been seen for a long time before he knows it. More than 20 years ago, she was well known to the whole Chinese in the prime-time news program "Focus Interview".
△ "Focus Interview"
Many times people see Jing Yidan in front of the TV set, often frowning slightly, speaking unhurriedly and slowly, speaking in a warm and gentle tone, but always talking about topics that are not very easy.
Jing Yidan: In the early 1990s, the entire media industry was undergoing changes, and the general environment at that time determined that innovative content must be produced at that time. At that time, the producer of "Focus Interview" told me that he wanted me to go to "Focus Interview". Because I have worked in economic programs for four or five years, I am particularly excited about any program that has the color of public opinion supervision. And the banner of "Focus Interview" is public opinion supervision, which has a strong attraction for me, I think this is what journalists do, I can do it, so I went. When I got there, I found out that I couldn't.
Tagawa: What did you go through that made you hesitate?
Jing Yidan: When I ask a question, I am prone to softness. For example, in one of the early episodes of Focus Interview, he interviewed a responsible editor who printed the map incorrectly. If you ask him, "Have you considered the chain consequences of printing incorrectly for a book tool like Maps?" "The question is sharp, because it comes directly to the consequences. But when I faced him, as soon as I opened my mouth, I said, "Have you printed a map in the past?" "The direction of this question becomes personal experience, because what I have in mind is that he is not intentional, not malicious, he is just inexperienced. I also wondered later, is my way of asking questions not "focus interviews"? But I can't help it, and if I say it, I will leave a lot of room for it, and it will seem to be without a sharp edge, which requires overcoming my own inner conflict. My colleagues also said that Sister Jing's heart was too soft, and even the producers of our show would say that I didn't seem sharp enough.
Tagawa: What happened to make you think I could still do it?
Jing Yidan: Actually, in the end, I didn't think I could. In the news scene, especially in the scene of violent conflict, I still feel that I am inferior to some of my colleagues. So for a while I was wondering if I had chosen the wrong column, I liked it but I might not be able to do it, the needs of this job were in conflict with my own personality.
Tagawa: So you've been so contradictory.
Jing Yidan: Yes, I appreciate seeing that my colleagues are very effective, but I may not be able to do it myself. I myself thought that this thing was actually very interesting, it was just a host who was not sharp enough, and insisted on a very sharp show for a long time. I hosted Focus Interview for twenty years.
△ "Focus Interview"
This is not the first time Jing Yidan has encountered self-doubt, in 1976, at the age of 21, Jing Yidan came from Harbin to Beijing Broadcasting College, and she was the last batch of workers, peasants, and soldiers to study. Jing Yidan's 76 (grade) broadcast class has 29 students from all over the country. At that time, the college student base was uneven, and at first she was not professionally excellent.
Jing Yidan: When I reported to the school, the teacher in charge of student registration asked me where I came from? I said Harbin. What is your name? Respects Yidan. What did it do? Zhiqing. Then the teacher said that your northeast flavor is strong enough, and I said do I have a northeast flavor? I never felt like I had an accent.
When I first started the broadcast class, I was very inferior, and the first level I faced was how to make myself see myself clearly. One of the characteristics of the workers, peasants, and soldiers is that the level of the students in the class is uneven. Some people have never worked in front of the microphone, I have worked in the grassroots radio station, some students have already worked in the provincial radio station, and the students who work in the provincial radio station can teach me, so everyone starts from different points. At that time, the teacher said something, and I was a little confused. It is the feeling that people who have not read for a long time suddenly return to the classroom. That's when I realized that you like this profession, and you especially want to go to the microphone, but whether you can, adapt, and be competent is actually another thing.
△ Jing Yidan
During the period when he was most suspicious of himself, Jing Yidan accidentally got a "good" after an exam. To this day, she still remembers the reason why her teacher gave her "excellent".
Jing Yidan: The teacher told me why I would give you a good one, your foundation is indeed inferior to many students, but you pay attention to content, which is the most fundamental. This kind of click is especially important to me, it makes me have a kind of understanding of doing media, a kind of judgment, and slowly have a kind of confidence. This dot has influenced me until now, and the content is the most important in our expression. If I had stayed in the beginning on how to overcome my Northeastern dialect and how to improve my language skills, I would not have been able to grasp the most fundamental things.
In the decades that followed, Jing Yidan kept asking himself what was the most fundamental thing he wanted to grasp. She says she doesn't have the sharpness and sharpness of others, but she just likes to capture and record changes, even if they seem mundane and small. Starting in 2019, she and her old colleagues returned to places she had covered more than a decade earlier.
Jing Yidan: Still the original team, we are not separated, or so tacit understanding. We didn't discuss why we should visit back, it was a tacit understanding between us.
I especially want to know what happened to the children I saw back then, and what happened to these children like grass, these once weak people, in the great times of rapid change. I especially want to know. When the return visit came to fruition, I had a sense of satisfaction. I want to see these changes, I want to document these changes, and I don't think a media person can do that long without that curiosity.
△ "See you again after thirteen years"
Jing Yidan: I think as a media person, the record of things is particularly meaningful, even if it is a small change. This forgetting should be consciously combated, and recording is one way to do that. We can't change anything, but at least we can record it. For shows like Focus Interview, resilience is more important than passion.
Tagawa: Are you afraid of forgetting?
Jing Yidan: I am particularly afraid of forgetting, and I think that forgetting will cost our descendants a lot. Like I especially enjoyed visiting the museum, I'm very grateful to the people who made the records in the first place, if it wasn't for them, how would we know how we got here step by step. Pain is what our society needs. If we don't feel pain, it's dangerous. Isn't it dangerous that when something happens to your body, you don't even notice it? So keep the pain going. And this pain, sometimes it is tingling.
A journalism professor summed up Jing Yidan's career journey in this way in a book review by Jing Yidan, as a journalist and host, her encounter is not only personal, but also related to the development trajectory of a country and the times.
Jing Yidan: I have always felt that working in Focus Interview for so long is a test of people's endurance. In 20 years, our society has undergone many changes, and the media environment has also changed. My colleagues have just reached a more middle-aged temperament stage from the flesh and blood of that year, and I have even become middle-aged and elderly when I retire. So endurance at this time also includes understanding, understanding the environment, understanding the course of history. It's not just a small space like a microphone in front of the camera, but an understanding of a larger space.
I'm lucky as a media person. I caught up with the golden age of broadcasting, Caught up with the golden age of television, and even caught up with the peak of television as the first media. Many of the first times I experienced were also the first times in Chinese television, and in the process, I slowly gained a deeper understanding of my profession, our background, and a deeper feeling for the word "process". Many times it is not that we have an ideal in mind that we can achieve it quickly. When it doesn't go so well, you can figure it out and move on to the "process" that leads to the outcome. That's how I talk to myself.
What is she busy with after retirement?
Tagawa: What was the last thing you wanted to do when you retired?
Jing Yidan: There is nothing to be reluctant about, when the farewell is prepared, it is a calm farewell. Nothing, everything was in order.
April 30, 2015, is the last episode of Jing Yidan's retirement. At the end, she bowed deeply to the camera, and many netizens sighed that an era has passed.
△April 30, 2015 Jing Yidan hosted "Focus Interview" for the last time
Jing Yidan: When the new media came, the traditional media said that the wolf was coming, and I said that even if the wolf came, it would not threaten the Focus Interview. It may threaten TV dramas and literary programs, but it cannot threaten programs like Focus Interview. Later, when Weibo appeared, I felt a force of new media coming at me. The first thing I feel is that young people are moving away from traditional media, if a column does not have a young audience, do we still have a future? From this point on I started thinking about what the future of the media industry might hold. But I still have inertia, when people ask me how to face the challenge of new media, I say let Bai Yansong deal with it, anyway, I retired.
Starting from 2021, Jing Yidan will launch a program related to the museum on the online platform. She excavated and documented some not-so-famous museums, some of which were even hidden deep within university campuses. In other words, none of these museums are part of the internet celebrity punch point. The museums, she said, piqued her desire to spread.
Jing Yidan: Actually, I want to experience how I am such a traditional or even old traditional media person, how to spread in a new media way.
Tagawa: Do you now have a post-90s video in your team?
Jing Yidan: Yes, they are very small, very young. I thought we might not speak the same language, because I thought they were all children, and then I found that I wanted to be with these children. The process of working with them is very enjoyable, and often after I finish doing it, I am already very satisfied with it whether it is broadcast or not.
△ "Museum 9 Minutes"
Jing Yidan: For example, the Family Letter Museum hidden deep in the university, I especially like it there, it is so warm, I especially want to tell the stories in those family letters. So we went to the Family Book Museum of Chinese University to shoot. After filming the story inside, the choreographer gave me a proposal and he said can you write a letter to Dad here, because the day the show aired was Father's Day. When this little friend proposed, he did not know that my father had just died.
Tagawa: Is it convenient for you to reveal what was written that day?
Jing Yidan: At that time, I especially wanted to use one sentence to show the closest relationship between me and my parents. So I wrote "Daddy, did you find Mom in heaven?" "I didn't write a long letter. My family actually cares a lot about family letters, and my parents left 1700 letters. Later, in the last days of my mother's life, I compiled these letters into a book. So these letters in the Family Letter Museum touched me and resonated in my heart. But in the past, I did traditional media, such a serious program as "Focus Interview", I could not put such a personal thing as writing a letter to my father in the program, but new media can, which I did not expect in the past. After my little friend brought it up, it ignited a desire in my heart, and I could have a very personal expression.
In the years of working in the public media, Jing Yidan's expression must always remain calm and objective and neutral. Modesty and generosity have also become her signature features. Jing Yidan said that in fact, when he was a child, he was not like this.
△Jing Yidan (one row left)
Jing Yidan: There are a few students who are particularly lively, and from their eyes, they show a particularly youthful and lively appearance, and the light of youth cannot be covered.
△ "The Last Generation of Workers, Peasants, and Soldiers cadets" by Jing Yidan
Jing Yidan: Can you guess which one is me here?
Tagawa: I guess it's the one on the left.
Jing Yidan: By the way, how did you come up with that?
Tagawa: I think you should be the most decent, very standardized one.
Jing Yidan: I don't squint, I wear a blue dress, and my hair is the simplest short hair. From this painting, you can see what I looked like back then, and I must stand upright. I was very self-restrained at the time, and in retrospect I can't help but restrain myself.
Tagawa: What are you holding back?
Jing Yidan: Discipline your behavior and behavior so that you don't squint. Every day when I walk from the dormitory to the library, I don't squint, and my mind thinks about reading well. My mother said that when I was a child, I was actually a very lively person, but later because of the changes in the family and the changes in society brought about by the extraordinary period, I grew up at once.
△ Jing Yidan
Tian Chuan: There is a passage in "The Last Generation of Workers, Peasants, and Soldiers", you say, "How can I be so much like Xie Huimin, how many blind conformists have been rigid since I was a child, and what is the rational face of complex society?" Do I have the consciousness to think independently? Do I have the ability to observe questions? Do I still want to be Xie Huimin today? "I would like to compare your present self with your own self at that time through these questions about yourself.
Jing Yidan: Around 1977-1978, I saw Liu Xinwu's novel "Class Teacher", and I was never touched by that kind. The protagonist Xie Huimin made me have a kind of introspection, I was very much like Xie Huimin at that time, and many young people in that era were like Xie Huimin. There is no independent thinking, blind obedience, never know what is questioning, there is not much question mark in the heart, and the thought is very pale... After reading this book, I was touched. The background at that time was the "discussion of the standard of truth." At this turning point in history, I really feel like I feel transformed and growing. Later, I slowly reminded myself to think with my head, and I also had some independent consciousness. Later, in "Focus Interview", questioning became a habit of mine and became the way I worked every day. I frown every day, often question, often ask, often produce question marks, so that people look at me and feel very tired, and it has become a familiar look in "Focus Interview".
△ "Focus Interview"
Jing Yidan: After focus interviews set up the general host, I appeared more as the chief host. The general host is not face-to-face and sharp, it just needs to be precipitated, and it needs to take a step back and think. So in this position I slowly felt that I might be better suited here. For example, what I said in the last few tens of seconds of "Focus Interview", that is what needs me to think, to leave room, both to point out, but also to leave room for the audience to think.
What do you mean by a period? When I retire, will I write the story in the book and it will be the end? I don't think so, the story continues. As long as we take the accumulation of the past as a new beginning today, the story continues.
Edits: 612
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