◎ Wu Bingcong
Looking back on the past 2018, many celebrities have passed away with good memories. Looking at China, there are martial arts master Jin Yong, cross-talk actor Chang Baohua, storytelling artist Shan Tianfang, singer Buren Bayar, actor Zhu Xu, host Li Yong, etc.; throughout the world, there are hawking, the king of the universe, Stan Lee, the father of Marvel, Cherry Cherry, the author of Cherry Pills, and the fashion master Givenchy. Some people say that 2018 has made us lose our rivers and lakes, the universe, heroes and childhood. With regret, remembrance and remembrance, pay attention to the obituary of celebrities, but it is not difficult to find that in Western countries represented by Britain and the United States, the media can always publish meticulous and moving long obituary at the first time.
Taking former US President George W. Bush, who died in late 2018, as an example, the news came out and instantly swept the major media. Sure enough, the New York Times obituary column opened up a large page to reminisce about the life of the former U.S. president. Carefully screened large black-and-white main drawings, thousands of words of biographical history, are immediately sent out less than 24 hours after the protagonist's death. Behind the seemingly high level of news business is a process that European and American newspapers have long insisted on - writing celebrity obituarys in advance has always been a practice in the news industry. Behind this is the meticulous operation of a large number of obituary journalists and the Attitude of Westerners to Deal with Death.
Descartes once pointed out that man dies and the soul does not die; Aristotle also proposed that all living things have souls. The ideological edification of the past long time has laid the poetic understanding and calm attitude of European and American countries on death, and formed a unique celebrity obituary culture and funeral style.
Preparing obituary in advance is a "special honor" for celebrities
Is it disrespectful to write obituaries to celebrities in advance? This is by no means the case. This is not only a "special honor" obtained by a small number of Celebrities in Western society, but also a warm commemoration widely recognized by Western society. The New York Times once said: "The most interesting reading in the world may be in the obituary column!" ”
In China's traditional media reports, obituary can not occupy a place, and obituary in the West is a very common reporting subject, more than thirty years of obituary reporting development, has made it occupy a pivotal position in the mainstream media, attracting a large number of iron fans.
The American media has even formed the famous "three obituary leaders", namely: the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. Several big media outlets in the UK also call the "Obituary Big Four", they are: The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, Independent and The Times. The tradition of several major media outlets hiring professionals to write obituaries has propelled obituary into a unique media culture.
In these newspapers, the obituary is not a solemn, black-and-white tribute text, but a vivid and even slightly playful one. The obituary page of the British "Guardian" is full of pictures and texts, and each deceased appears in a cheerful and lively and unique image, and the photo is not deliberately adjusted to black and white. Oscar winner and actress Duke, who died at the age of 69, the cover image chosen by The Guardian is a classic still from her youth, and the smile on the corner of her mouth and the slightly playful squinting eyes become the most evocative portrayal of the character. Death at this time is only the end of the great drama of life, not sad, but a very artistic presentation.
The Obituaries sections of the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times have a special time search feature that allows readers to clearly know which celebrities died on the same day through time ordering. The Daily Telegraph likes to distinguish between occupational fields, and the deceased of similar occupations are invited into the same module, and this classification also makes it easier for the public to understand which field celebrities have recently passed away.
Celebrity obituary in the European and American media not only reports on natives, but also on foreigners, and even on people whose positions and political views are completely similar. The New York Times was praised for an obituary about bin Laden. Michael Kaufman and Kate Zenick are the authors of bin Laden's obituary, and in this 5,000-word obituary, bin Laden's personal experiences are fully combed through rather than traditional images of terrorist bosses. However, the elaborate obituary, which had been carefully prepared for many years, did not await the news of bin Laden's death, and the author Kaufman passed away in January 2010.
In the minds of many Europeans and Americans, obituary does not represent death, but is about life, it is the combing of the veins of life, the testimony of the past, and the last trace left in the world. Obituary, full of sacred and warm colors, not cold billboards.
The story of the obituary of celebrities
Writing a well-written obituary for celebrities in advance in response to the sudden death, although it can win the media a news opportunity and high-quality reports, but there are also great hidden dangers: a "technical mistake" that is not attentive will lead to the obituary leaking oolong incident, and can only apologize to the parties and the public.
The Netherlands' National Geographic Channel has made such a scene, and in 2012, the media reported the unfortunate death of the 44-year-old second prince of the Netherlands, John Friso, which triggered widespread public circulation and mourning. However, a spokesman for the Dutch government's information service later confirmed that the second prince only encountered an avalanche while skiing, and his brain was damaged and comatose. Later, the National Geographic Channel issued an apology statement explaining that the obituary was issued due to a technical failure, and the obituary that existed in the database in advance was transferred to the broadcast system due to the damage to the computer system.
Such oolong incidents are endless. Queen Elizabeth II, born in April 1926, has been on the throne for 67 years and is about to celebrate her 93rd birthday. The elderly queen has always been the focus of the obituary page, and the queen herself has been "killed" many times.
The most recent "death" of the Queen of the United Kingdom occurred in 2015, when BBC reporter Kawaza posted a message on his personal Twitter that "Queen Elizabeth has passed away" and @BBC the official account, which was subsequently followed by a number of media and people. When the official confirmation of the error in the information, the reporter explained that the mobile phone was left at home at that time, and the previously prepared alert was leaked due to the failure of the setting of the hidden post. Later, the BBC also apologized and called the Oolong accident a "first-level obituary exercise".
The obituary about the Queen has been the focus of attention of the British media and public officials for decades. The Guardian has revealed that every monarch in the United Kingdom dies with a unique code as a sign of obituary. When King George VI died more than sixty years ago, the obituary code was used as the "Corner of Hyde Park". The Guardian said that if Queen Elizabeth died, the private secretary who first learned the news would immediately notify the Prime Minister by encrypted telephone and say "London Iron Bridge", and if the Prime Minister could not understand, the secretary would further make it clear that "London Iron Bridge has fallen". The obituary, called the London Iron Bridge Project, was drawn up in the 1960s and for decades the relevant public servants met 2-3 times a year at the British Episcopal Headquarters to continuously refine the plan. And all this was planned and carried out by the Queen herself.
Obituary Journalist: A mysterious and legendary profession
Now that pre-prepared obituary has been embraced by celebrities, brilliant and fast obituary is a must for journalism. So who's behind it all? Who wrote and summed up their lives for these world celebrities in their last moments? They are the obituary journalists in the major media. Although they serve the media, the work of an obituary journalist is quite different from that of an ordinary journalist.
Bruce Weber is a veteran obituary reporter for The New York Times, and on August 15, 2016, the New York Times published an article titled "An Obituary for the Obituary Career," a departure letter summarizing his career that also unveiled the mystery of an obituary journalist.
"There's no need to go around the bend. After more than eight years of happily stationed in a lesser-noticed area of journalism, I finally ended the week and was moving forward. This Friday is the deadline (ha!) And then I became a former obituary author. Looking back on eight years of work, Weber first greeted a thousand deceased people who were witnesses to Weber's achievements. There are 11-year-old children, 104-year-olds, police officers and criminals, actors and athletes, scientists and judges, even political giants and business celebrities. Some of them are famous and some are notorious, Weber said, but in addition to their memorable specialities, they are ordinary people like us.
In this article, Weber also points out his regrets and that journalists often appreciate the objects of their writing, but often do not have the opportunity to meet them. Their creations rely heavily on information mining in the online world, looking for "yellowed old newspapers" in their own newspaper archives as sources for stories. Once the protagonist dies, the obituary reporter will take the lead in contacting the deceased's family and friends for telephone interviews. Weber said the process, while torturous, was necessary because it gave real weight to the pain in the report.
In the article, Weber also revealed to readers that the obituary reporters in the New York Times are the group with the highest average age. This is partly because the obituary journalists' work characteristics of collecting old advertisements and old materials to write articles can make it unnecessary for elderly journalists to travel from time to time, and it is also because in a large number of times, they live in the same era as the subject of the writing, and the obituary journalists have experienced a lot of history created by the participation of the deceased. In addition, Weber said, all of us have had sad experiences and know how we feel when a personal tragedy first occurred.
The famous American obituary journalist Marilyn Johnson has written obituary for many celebrities such as Marlon Brando, Elizabeth Taylor and Princess Diana, and she also shared her work experience and feelings in the book "First Obituary, Then Heaven". She uses the phrase "wandering in the land of the dead" to describe browsing all kinds of obituary columns on the Internet, and she points out that the obituary page is becoming more and more extensive, all kinds of people have become its reporting objects, and more and more journalists have mastered the art of obituary, creating pearls in the field of biography.
In the case of such a popular obituary culture, the major newspapers have even formed a conventional routine as their own unique obituary format. Marilyn Johnson concludes in her book that the New York Times likes to write obituaries in the form of "bereavement definition sentences" that clearly explain the cause of death and identity background of the deceased, while the British media has a general quality of simplification and rarely describes the identity of the deceased.
In addition, the book introduces that London newspapers often like to use natural expression when mentioning the cause of death, and even seem to have a somewhat pleasant atmosphere. An obituary excerpted from the British newspaper The Independent illustrates this point well: Last October, the Scottish Portrait Gallery hosted a party to celebrate the birth of the Scottish Dictionary of Women's Biographies. Sue Innis, a historian, writer, feminist activist and lexicographer, was also present. She understands that the celebrations were held a little earlier, and that the work will take at least a year to come out. "There will certainly be a lot of celebrations for this dictionary." "But I probably won't be able to participate," she said. I want to have a party I can still attend. "She knew that brain cancer was eating her life. Everyone in the room knew. But she still sat in her wheelchair and spun around, chatting with her friends. Five months later, she died at the age of 56.
In this way, the obituary is so fussy that it even gives death an optimistic color, will the obituary reporter who manipulates the puppet line be condemned by society? This is not the case. The culture of writing obituaries is not the wishful thinking of the media or the trend among celebrities, but reflects the universal values of Death in Western society.
A warm funeral is no worse than a miserable one
Western attitudes toward life and death are reflected not only in media obituary, but also in funerals hosted by the deceased and their families, where celebrities have something in common with ordinary people.
In April 2018, former U.S. First Lady Barbara Bush passed away after abandoning resuscitation treatment in hospitals and choosing to spend her last days with her family at home. The funeral was held on the 21st local time, and her son, former Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, delivered a eulogy at the funeral. Surprisingly, Jeb's speech was devoid of any mournful words, but filled with memories of a warm family life and a tribute to her determined mother. The guests who came to mourn even laughed at the little things Jeb recalled.
Jeb Bush said: "The last time my mother went to the hospital, my father also pretended to be sick just to be with my mother. At least that's what I think. Because, the day after his mother fell ill, he said he was sick, and he went to his mother's room and held her hand while she slept. His hair was up, he was wearing an oxygen mask, he was wearing a hospital gown, in other words, he looked like he had walked around hell. But the mother opened her eyes and said, Oh my God, George, you are handsome! The two former presidents of the United States who were seated in the audience also smiled happily.
Barbara's example is not an isolated case, but a microcosm of an entire American-style funeral. A Taiwanese girl who named herself "Girl", who has lived in the United States for more than ten years, likes to use blogs to record her life. She summed up three funerals in the United States over the past ten years and came to the conclusion that "Taiwan's funerals were worse than those of the people, and the funerals in the United States were better than whose memories were better." She also described in detail the process of funerals in the United States in her blog, starting with a priest or priest performing a ceremony in the church, after which the deceased's family, relatives and friends took to the stage to speak and tell the memories of the deceased. This is followed by a choir session, after which all the guests gather to eat, drink, talk, and watch videos. At the American funeral that bids farewell to the deceased in the form of memories and blessings, there are few people crying loudly, let alone relatives and friends who are unsophisticated, it is a big party that brings everyone together to reminisce about the past and remember the deceased.
One of the funerals that "Girl" remembered most in the United States was when she shouted "Go Gators" in a church with hundreds of unknown guests. Since the deceased had been obsessed with the University of Florida's soccer team since childhood, his brother asked for help at the funeral, raising his hand and shouting to cheer for the team three times. The "girl" said that she also listened to the family members of the deceased at that funeral and laughed with everyone.
The American spirit of joy in the face of death is also reflected in the attitude of ordinary people to obituary. Aaron, who lives in Minnesota, was diagnosed with brain cancer at the age of 32, but when his condition gradually deteriorated, he deliberately found time to sit down with his wife to write his obituary. In the obituary, he confessed his true identity to Spider-Man, and the cause of death was due to complications caused by a bite from a spider that had been illuminated by radioactive radiation. When he recalled writing the obituary together, his wife said that she had never cried and laughed at the same time, and was happy to accompany her husband to do so before his death. She loved this man so much.
Not only are optimist Americans doing this, but the same thing is not uncommon in Europe. As early as 2012, an old man in Hamburg, Germany, had advertised in the newspaper for himself to "move to a new house", but the address of the new home was a cemetery. The 88-year-old invited friends and family to the celebration and made a point of stressing that he wanted everyone to be happy along the way. In fact, the old man had died a few months ago, and the obituary published in the newspaper was prepared for himself in advance.
It is through death that life can be understood more deeply
Westerners' optimism about obituary and warmth at funerals all show their reflections on death: they believe that survival and death are not absolute dualities, and that possession and loss occur in people's minds.
In the Western world, the concept of the opposition between life and death began to loosen in Paris after the French Revolution, and the medical scientist Oberli pointed out that the understanding of death began with major changes in clinical medicine. Clinicians understand the symptoms and classification of diseases through pathological anatomy, understand the symptoms of patients before death through changes in corpses after death, and even understand physiological functions through pathological changes. In this process, lesions are nature's experiments on living things, and death is the most profound analysis of life. Thus, death is no longer merely a denial and meaningless thing of life, but on the contrary, in epistemology, life can only be understood more deeply through death.
Under the influence of such a concept, the United States conducts universal death education for children, hoping to make children accept the correct concept of death from an early age. When the family dies, the adult will directly tell the child this "bad news", frankly indicating that the relatives will not come back, but at the same time inform the children, there are still many ways to commemorate. This process allows children to learn to face and bear, and to face death without shadow. In the American concept, not because the child is too young to shut up about the fact of death, worry about scaring the child, and blindly isolate disaster, terror and darkness outside the world, parents prefer that the child face life and death without shadow, and improve the quality of life by mastering the concept of health.
In kindergartens and primary and secondary schools in the United States, there are even special "death education" courses. In the classroom, the teacher will tell the children that death is irreversible based on life examples, such as the death of small animals raised in kindergarten, and the living must learn to face their own grief. Professional funeral staff and medical staff will also enter the classroom at the right time to share their work experience and unabashedly evoke children's gratitude and cherishing for the present through real cases.
At the same time, in 2011, the United Kingdom also began to appear "death café", the owner Jon Underwood because of reading newspaper reports about people's attitudes towards death, hoping that people can face life and death more mentally. He began to look for venues from time to time, hosting two hours of long-table conversations. He said it is important to create an environment where life and death are relaxed and for family and friends to get together and talk about life and death with a healthy and positive attitude.