1 RUNNING HEAD: ANALYSIS ON SCMP NEWS “EINSTEIN EXHIBITION COMES WITH A WARNING”
Analysis on the SCMP News “Einstein Exhibition Comes with a Warning” Written by Adrian Wan and Chris Ip Herman Ong Upper Iowa University
2 RUNNING HEAD: ANALYSIS ON SCMP NEWS “EINSTEIN EXHIBITION COMES WITH A WARNING”
Abstract In 25th April, 2009, South China Morning Post (S.C.M.P.) reported an article titled as “Einstein exhibition comes with warning” written by Adrian Wan and Chris Ip. Apparently, this was only a news appeal to warn parent aware of the uncomfortable content showed in the Einstein exhibition organized by Hong Kong Leisure and Cultural Department. However, through the analysis of repeated word, strand, layout, contrast, historical context and graphic of the article, we could find a broader theme and complaints which writers appeal to, such as the filter lens imposed by Communist Party of mainland China government and the “Great China” value with soft power “Confucius”. The article were full of implicit ideas which is not simply warning our parent to take care of their children when walking Einstein expo but a serious “warning” message to all of Hong Kong people as well as Chinese to aware of information and environment given by our government.
3 RUNNING HEAD: ANALYSIS ON SCMP NEWS “EINSTEIN EXHIBITION COMES WITH A WARNING”
Analysis on the SCMP News “Einstein Exhibition Comes with a Warning” Written by Adrian Wan and Chris Ip In order to celebrate the 60 years of diplomatic relations between Switzerland and China, and to the 20th anniversary of museum, Hong Kong Science museum opens an “Einstein exhibition” from April to August. Supposedly, this is a scientific exhibition which is a perfect way to let the student and us reveal and study the autobiography and achievement of Albert Einstein, who won the 1921 Nobel Prize for this famous relativity theory in Physics. However, there had many rumors and interludes during the organization of expo. One of them is written and reported by South China Morning Post reporters – Adrian Wan and Chris Ip. They claimed that there is a “Warning to children on Einstein exhibition” as titled on A1 SCMP, 25th April, 2011. (See attached copy of original news) Analysis The whole articles is separated by two sections, one is on the A1 with smaller title and text. And another section which is bigger, detail and more controversial is on A3 page. Apparently, writers used the title “Warning to children on Einstein exhibition” and explain how weird Hong Kong Science museum insisted to put the warning sign and disclaimers which say the content of Holocaust and Nazi concentration camps are not suitable for children is only a decoy to catch the people focusing and keep reading on the main course on A3. Writers spend very little on explaining why a warning or a disclaimer does attract our
4 RUNNING HEAD: ANALYSIS ON SCMP NEWS “EINSTEIN EXHIBITION COMES WITH A WARNING”
attention. In contrary, they use a lot of repeated word - “Warning” without further clarification in order to lead us question why it matters and seek the real meaning of “Warning” in the following page, A3. Besides, we can find some strands, such as “disturbing”, “not suitable” etc. Also some contrasts, such as “rankled versus defended”, “something not suitable for children versus faithfully”. Crucially, writers point out the apparently unlinked fact at the beginning and end of report, such as the exhibition in “Beijing” compare with Hong Kong case, and the comment and view from Israeli official who said, “they can do whatever they want. This is legitimate”. This arrangement appeals to the involvement of political power rather than simple scientific event. Those tact the writers use are trying to persuade us this is not a simple “warning” to children, instead it is an important “warning” to all of us. As old wise usually said, “the devil is always in the details”. This is so much true when analyzing the article, especially all the devils Wan and Ip placed is in the detail page A3. Recap to the previous A1 title, the “warning” writers mentioned is “warning to children”. However, in A3 page, the meaning of “warning” is totally different, we can find this in their title “Einstein exhibition comes with a warning”. Who need to be warned? Who are warning us? What is the warning? Why we have to be warned? Those answers we can find in the article in which writers use a lot of repeated words such as “Beijing”, “China”, “Authorities”, “Communist Party” and “Shanghai” etc. All can be grouped into one strand which is “Our
5 RUNNING HEAD: ANALYSIS ON SCMP NEWS “EINSTEIN EXHIBITION COMES WITH A WARNING”
nation, our government”. Moreover, some words are also repeated in the articles many times, such as “demand”, “requested”, “desire” etc. These can be grouped into a strand as “someone or something wants us to do something”. Obviously, writers want is to associate these 2 strands “our country-mainland china” and “wants us to do something”. Although the Einstein exhibition are now staged in Hong Kong, writers insert many sides stories of how mainland China authorities intervened the exhibitions in China, this shows that writers want to lead us connect the warning signs or disclaimer insisted by Hong Kong Leisure and Cultural department to the mainland China authorities’ power. Obviously, writers are not just appeal to the mainland China authorities, they appeal more to a broader criticism to “Communist Party”. Therefore, the explicit title can be rewritten and claimed as “Hong Kong’s academic and information freedom are now threatened by Communist Party of mainland China”. In fact, the pitch writers are trying to let us believe is Hong Kong is undergoing Communism rather than Democratism. Mainland China authority over-controls Hong Kong administration, even though to the freedom of information reception and education. At the beginning of the report on A3, writers suggested a lot of cases of how Beijing authority forbidden to show any reference of First World War at the Shanghai’s Einstein exhibition. Since Hong Kong is part of the mainland China, these cases happened in Shanghai and Beijing may lead us to imagine the interlude we are facing now may relate to the mainland
6 RUNNING HEAD: ANALYSIS ON SCMP NEWS “EINSTEIN EXHIBITION COMES WITH A WARNING”
China government also. On the other hand, writers complain the means of Communist Party governing people as they always filter and intervene in the right of people to know, such as what they want to know and availability of information. For example, Beijing authorities requested museum to wipe out all the information about the First World War, coupled with the Confucius exhibition in Shanghai museum or indirectly restrict and warn the Hong Kong parent do not let children to know the history of Holocaust and concentration camp. For what reason we haven’t known yet, but it is definitely a sign to warn us, not just children to aware of the intervention and power of Communist Party anywheres. Nevertheless, writers did give us a clue to trace for the reason of why Einstein exhibition sensitized mainland China government. Writers spend a lot of paragraph to describe the historical context and autobiography of Albert Einstein, this mean they want to show us what sensitized Communist Party of mainland China may relate to Einstein’s background. During the First World War, Einstein was very active in the role of pacifist organization and activity, such as anti-war campaign and nationalism until the end of war. Moreover, he was seen as a Zionist of Jews when he lived. This nationalism, Zionism and Judaism background of Albert Einstein (Jerome, 2009) is too sensitive to provoke the identity of Chinese as well as Hong Kong. Besides, Chinese’s nationalism more or less is constructed through the pride of 5000 years civilization but also to victimization by the invasion of West and Japan (Bajoria, 2008). At this particular moment, after the Diaoyutai Island issue and united military maneuver of
7 RUNNING HEAD: ANALYSIS ON SCMP NEWS “EINSTEIN EXHIBITION COMES WITH A WARNING”
United States of American and Japan, mainland China government may not wish to provoke any further animosity of Chinese to American or Japanese through the association of Chinese nationalism by First World War history at the Einstein exhibition. By the same token, writers show us what Communist Party done on Shanghai as well as Chinese is also valid to Hong Kong people. They highlighted and bolded the text “I have no idea what’s going on there …” and “I believe the fact that … he dreamt about a state for the Jews”. These lines underlie a theme which is “Communist Party filtered what they don’t want Hong Kong people to know, especially for the information about politics and identity”. As a well-known fact, Hong Kong people don’t have much national identity to China due to the long-years colonization and globalization by West. We are not a country and so does the mainland China doesn’t want us to be. However, as Amar, Israeli consulate, said Einstein was dreamt about a state for Jews during the Holocaust. This information about Zionism of Jews is too sensitive for Communist Party, and they may mean to lessen the “historical part” of Albert Einstein and focus on the “scientific part”. Therefore, we can see writers deliberately point out the fact that the expo eventually holds in Hong Kong Science museum rather than Hong Kong History museum. Despite the filter lens, writers tactfully enlarge the photo of “Nazi’s flag” and emphasize the act of coupling the Confucius exhibition to show the ambition of Communist Party. One hand writers use the subtitle “Promotion of Confucius leads to confusion in Shanghai”
8 RUNNING HEAD: ANALYSIS ON SCMP NEWS “EINSTEIN EXHIBITION COMES WITH A WARNING”
attempt to explain how heavy-handed of mainland China government encourages the Confucius in the worldwide (Yang, 2010). Ironically, writers use the photo of “Nazi” which represented as imperialism to point out the rising of Great China policy by Communist Party. In order to influence and conquer the world, “hard power”, such as army, industry or technology is no longer effective solely. In fact, “soft power” as culture, belief, philosophy or tradition is powerful to penetrate the world (Nye Jr. & Wang, 2009; Robert, n.d). Writers deliberately arranged the small report about questioning about Confucius exhibition in Shanghai to lead us understand mainland China government are not solely filter the information as mentioned above, they even want to conditioning fact and education with Chinese value and belief, such as conditioned the science as Einstein expo with Confucius (Robert, n.d). All of these tactics can refer to the 20th Century, United States of American attempted to conditioned their “American Dream” (Messner & Roseneld, 2007) worldwide through the Hollywood film, cultures and academic. Why did the Communist Party choose the Confucius as the figure of “Chinese dream”? Then writers gave us a perfect line to understand – “His teaching emphasized duty to the family … and the obedience of individual of the state”. This sentence precisely shows the perfect character of a citizen should have viewed by Communist Party of mainland China. In contrast to individualism of “American Dream”, Communist Party of mainland China government stresses that what you want to know or how much information we narrowed down for you is not a matter; the real matter is
9 RUNNING HEAD: ANALYSIS ON SCMP NEWS “EINSTEIN EXHIBITION COMES WITH A WARNING”
“Obedience” to your family as well as your country. Thus, writers generalized this belief to a dangerous place – “Imperialism” of Great China, as they implicated it by enlarging the “Nazi’s flag” photo. Conclusion For any reason, it is a myth to understand the truth of the series unreasonable acts to a pure scientific expo of Albert Einstein exhibition from mainland China government. However, through the repeated word, strand, contrast, graphic, pitch, context, layout and complaint the writers showed us, writers deliberately reveal the potential danger to reader that Communist Party are filtering our information, intervening our freedom and conditioning Great China belief to us as other imperialistic country, such as United States of American and previous Nazi. The word “Warning” in the A3 title is not simply to children who may being disturbed by the bloody content of Holocaust or concentration camp. Rather than that, it is a “Warning” message to all the Hong Kong people as well as Chinese being aware of political environment we are living. Avoid brainwashing from any party and being skeptical is the only way to approach the fact.
10 RUNNING HEAD: ANALYSIS ON SCMP NEWS “EINSTEIN EXHIBITION COMES WITH A WARNING”
References Bajoria, J. (2008). Nationalism in China. Retrieved from http://www.cfr.org/china/nationalism-china/p16079 Jerome, F. (2009). Einstein on Israel and Zionism: His Provocative Ideas About the Middle East. St. Martin’s Press. Messner, S., & Rosenfeld, R. (2007). Crime and the American Dream (4th ed.). Belmont, C.A.: Thomson Wadsworth. Nye Jr., J. S., & Wang, J. (2009). Hard Decisions on Soft Power. Harvard International Review, 31(2), 18. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Robert, S. (n.d). China Tries to Export Culture as Influence Increases. All Things Considered (NPR), Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Yang, R. (2010). Soft Power and Higher Education: An Examination of China's Confucius Institutes. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 8(2), 235-245. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.