Cultural Politics and Audiovisual Media within China 5

4. Mapping Minority Linguistic Broadcasting Services

UNESCO’s Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions reaffirms ‘linguistic diversity’ as well as education play ‘fundamental roles’ in the preservation and promotion of cultural expressions. Similarly, Parekh (2006: 143) emphasises that culture is basically ‘reflected in the language’ and Barker (1999) asserts that ‘language is central’ to the constructions of identities. It is also defined by 2005 UNESCO Convention that ‘diversity of media enables cultural expressions to flourish within societies’.

According to the Article 4, Chapter 1 of Constitution of People’s Republic of China, it reads:

Regional autonomy is practised in areas where people of minority nationalities live in compact communities; in these areas organs of self- government are established for the exercise of the right of autonomy. All the national autonomous areas are inalienable parts of the People's Republic of China. The people of all nationalities have the freedom to use and develop their own spoken and written languages, and to preserve or reform their own ways and customs.

(Constitution of PRC, 1982)

Table 4.1 provides the basic information about the five ethnic autonomous regions, which is helpful for us to get a better understanding of the geographic information later.

Name	Seat of Government	Area (10,000 sq km)	Population* (10,000 persons)
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region	Hohhot	118.30	2,377
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region	Nanning	23.63	4,788
Tibet Autonomous Region	Lhasa	122.00	263
Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region	Yinchuan	6.64	563
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region	Urumqi	160.00	1,876

Table 4.1 Basic Information about Ethnic Autonomous Region

*At the end of year 2001 Source: Xinhua Online, Available online at:

Obviously, China’s Ethnic minorities are characterised by ‘living[ing] in compact (or concentrated) communities’ (Constitution, Article 4, 1982), which is also a basis for establishing autonomous regions, prefectures, as well as towns. As Wober and Gunter (1988: 148) points out, ‘demographic feature’, the degree of dispersion of the minorities, plays a significant role in shaping the construction of ethnic minorities’ media, both structurally and in contents. If population concentrated in ‘particular areas’, it should be more reflected through the local media. Indeed, to develop an ethnic-minority linguistic broadcasting system respectively in their ‘compact communities’ deserves great efforts, especially given the poor infrastructure.

In this context, three projects related to ‘ethnic minority areas’ were emphasised by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), namely, ‘Xinjiang-Tibet Project’, ‘Broadcasting in every village’, as well as ‘film-projecting 2131 in villages’ projects.

‘Xinjiang-Tibet’ Project: The Product of ‘Western Region Development’ Policy

According to Administrative Regulations on Radio and Television, Chapter 1 Article 4 states:

The State provides financial support to the development of radio and television activities in minority nationalities autonomous regions and rural or underdeveloped areas.

(Administrative Regulations on Radio and Television, 1997)

‘Xinjiang-Tibet’ project, beginning on 16th September 2000, constitutes an integral part of ‘Western Region Development’ policy, with aims to ‘improve broadcasting infrastructures as well as long traditional ideology constructing’. Besides this, the primary motivation can be reflected from then President Jiang’s so-called ‘16 September Directions’[1]:

We must care for the broadcasting in Tibet and Xinjiang, to change the current situation of ‘Enemy strong but we weak’, for the sake of ‘safeguarding the national unification, solidifying the national unity and promoting the social construction’.

Table 4.2 Linguistic Diversity of Xinjiang People’s Radio Station

Language Targeted Audience Percentages* Channels Frequencies Hours/Day

Uygur-language Uygur Ethnic Minority 45.62% 1 11 19

Chinese (Mandarin) Han, Hui Ethnic Minority etc. >44.53% 4 13 19*4

Kazak-language Kazak Ethnic Minority 6.99% 1 6 18.5

Kirgiz-language Kirgiz Ethnic Minority 0.90% 1 3 4

Mongolian Mongolia Ethnic Minority 0.86% 1 5 14.5

Note: *Data for 2003.

Source: Based on Data from Xinjiang Radio and China POPIN, 2006.

Beside the conventional objective of ‘letting voices of party/state into every household’ as mouthpiece, it should be noted the transforming role of Xinjiang media from a local one to a trans-national one, due mainly to the linguistic link with neighbouring countries and areas. By ‘letting the voice of China into worldwide’, obviously, it serves as the official response to the officially-alleged separatists’ challenges (namely East Turkistan and the ‘Exiled Tibet Government’ organised by Tibetan spiritual leader 14^th Dalai Lama). Besides the stability concern, as Shi Linjie, the Director of Xinjiang Radio Station points out, ‘radio is being marginalised’ in terms of technological infrastructures as well as governmental subsidies. At any rate, the situation was greatly changed by the ‘Xinjiang-Tibet’ project, especially as Xinjiang AR got the investments most. The prosperity of ethnic minorities’ media will, at least, provide the space for the cultural diversity of ethnic minorities. Limited space is better than nothing.

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[1] It was cited by Shi Linjie (2001), the Director of Xinjiang Radio Station.

The ‘Diversity’ of Ethnic minorities’ Linguistic Satellite Media

Table 4.3 provides the information about ethnic-minority linguistic satellite television.

Table 4.3 Ethnic-Minority Linguistic Satellite Television

Language Television Name Satellite Time Duration Coverage

Uygur XJTV-2 APSTAR-6 19hr/day Xinjiang AR,

Surrounding Countries

Kazak XJTV-3 APSTAR-6 17hr30min/day Xinjiang AR,

Surrounding Countries

Mongol Mongol STV APSTAR-6 18hr35min/day 8 provinces/AR

Mongolia; Russia

Tibetan Tibetan Satellite TV APSTAR-6 20hr/day Tibet

Tibetan Qinghai General STV APSTAR-6 18hr/day Qinghai, Tibet

Tibetan Qinghai Satellite TV1 APSTAR-6 1.4hr/day Qinghai, other 20 cities

Korean* Yanbian Satellite TV2 APSTAR-6 20hr/day Yanbian and Korean

*It is the first satellite television that belongs to the autonomous county.

Source: China Satellite TV Net, at < http://www.ctvro.com/starcs.asp>

It should be noted that Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, by far, still doesn’t have a special channel broadcasted only by Zhuang-language, except for the news broadcasted in Zhuang-language. It is estimated that Zhuang-language are now spoken by 17 million people, as the most-largely-spoken ethnic minority language. It, however, cannot be compared to Yanbian Satellite TV, one-prefecture level TV station, now already owns its satellite channel. Essentially, it is largely defined by the role of those autonomous regions’ satellites TVs that the government defines. For most instances, satellite Television, which can be broadcasted in a wide range of areas, are typically empowered the task by the central government to ‘domestic propaganda’, through which ‘a voice of the party/state should be penetrated into every household’, which is the normative function of every medium in China must own. Especially for ethnic-minority-language media, they are also employed as the toolkits to compete with and conquer the voices given by officially-alleged separatists’ media (Free Tibet for instance) and propaganda the Chinese government’s policy and standpoints to other surrounding countries speaking the same language, especially fuelled by the Satellite to promote the area coverage. Zhuang-ethnic people, despite speaking a language different from Han-ethnic, are far from this schedule as there are almost no separatists’ activities in their ‘compact communities’. Besides this, some claims that it should be attributed to that there was no a standard Zhuang spoken language (as divided into north and south dialects) as well as its written language only having 45 years history, but it was challenged by the fact that the current Satellite TV broadcast Zhuang-language News reports. It would also be fine to broadcast by the two dialects respectively in its own Zhuang-language speaking channel. In sum, ethnic minorities’ television stations are now playing a role of ‘anti-splitting’ and ‘party-propaganda’, more than its functions as representing and portraying the cultural humanity.

As one article posted in one local government (Wuming County) website bulletin boards[1], saying:

It is now ridiculous for some Zhuang people who cannot write the Zhuang-language and cannot communicate with others due to dialect differences, which would be definitely changed if with availability of a Zhuang-language Television station.

Leaving this aside, the role of the local government should also be emphasised in the light of so-called ‘autonomous regions or counties’, which entails that the local government can play an active party in legislation, for instance, within the range of ‘not destroying the national law and unity’. A striking example is Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture Television in Sichuan province, which launched a Yi-language television station on 1 January 2004 as the only one of prefecture level nationwide. It clearly set three goals as guiding lines, firstly and undoubtedly, working as the mouthpiece to ‘pass the voice of the party/state to the Yi ethnic minority people; secondly, propaganda the great changes this region has undergone, especially since the economic reform and opening policy, and lastly, promoting the Yi ethnic minority cultures. Despite the function of promoting ethnic minorities’ cultures has traditionally marginalised, it cannot be ignored the significant role at the county level, at least, far beyond the programme form of ‘telling news and propaganda’ as appeared in the autonomous region level, such as Guanxi Zhuang Autonomous Regions’ absence.

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[1] See at http://www.wuming.gov.cn/bbs/dispbbs.asp?boardID=27&ID=3512&page=1

The Rise and Fall of CCTV Western Region Channel—In Search of A Specialised multiculal Channel

There is, by far, no one national Television channel specialising ethnic minorities’ affairs in China, albeit the ‘powerful’ China Central Television (CCTV) owning 16 satellite channels. Yet, that might be, arguably, to assert there once was a quasi-ethnic-minorities channel named Western Channel, as an influential toolkit to propaganda the Central government’s ‘Western Region Development’ policy[1].

China’s ‘Western Region Development’ policy, firstly proposed by then President Jiang Zemin in 17 June 1996, is based on the realisation of deepening development disparity between the western region area vis-à-vis the eastern coastline where most investments are accumulated, encouraging more people, especially college students, to work for the ‘socialist construction’ in the west part and adopting series of favour policies (including governmental subsidies to the cultural industries) to improve infrastructures as well as to attract, both domestic and foreign, investments[2]. In the framework of this, the western region is defined as 1 municipality (a city with equal status to a province), 6 provinces, all the 5 Ethnic minorities Autonomous Regions and 3 Ethnic minorities Autonomous Prefectures[3]. In this sense, this ‘Western Region Development’ policy is an impetus to the economic development of Ethnic minorities’ regions. It, however, is perceived by some dissidents as a policy to encourage Han immigrants into the Ethnic minorities’ region, most of which lie in the western region, and an exploitation of natural resources, largely harmful to the environment protection, in ethnic minorities regions. As Prof. Peter Ferdinand (quoted in Luard, 2004) claims, the issue of migrant workers will be upgraded from locally to nationally.

After all, the implication, in the politic sense, is that macro-policy like western development policy, aiming to promote less-developed western China, has a determining factor in the audiovisual policy involved with ethnic minorities. In this context, CCTV Western Region Channel was established on 12 May 2002, with the aim to ‘let the world know the western region, and let the western region know the world’ (remarked by then Director of SAFRT). It, furthermore, utilised a strategy of cooperate with provincial/Autonomous Region Television Stations to form a model of ‘CCTV-centred, provincial/Autonomous Region-alliance’ (Ma, 2005: 4) to, in nature, propaganda the Central government’s policy directions. Besides this, this channel, at least, played an irreplaceable role in promoting the ethnic minorities’ cultures nationwide and communications between Han and ethnic minorities, which, with resorting to the ‘powerful’ CCTV, will exert a more influential influence than those provincial television stations (This will be explored later as also an arguable reason for the demise of this channel).

Specially, as to evaluate the extent to which the CCTV Western Regional Channel promote the ethnic minorities’ cultures, it might be useful for us to analyse the content composition of this channel, especially for those programmes specialising on ethnic minorities’ cultures. Besides news programmes specialising on reporting this region, programmes focusing on culture are listed as the following:

Table 4.4 Basic Information about CCTV Western Region Channel

Programme Name Contents Time Durations

Travelling Golden Line Promoting regional tourism 20 min/week

Bon Voyage Quiz about culture, songs and dancing 60 min/week

Magic 12 Questions Uncovering mysteries of primitive 30 min/week

ethnic minorities’ tribes as well as cultures

Heaven, Earth, and People¹ Geographic, historical accounts to explore cultures 180 min/week

Western Region Folksong² Demonstrating folksongs of all ethnic minorities One TV Contests 1 term/year

‘Magic Western Region’ Spring Various art forms of ethnic cultures, only once in 2003

Festival Gathering habitués and customs

¹ This programme is produced by provincial/Autonomous Region Television Stations entrusted by the CCTV, as a way of better exemplifying the local culture and reducing the cost. It also adopt the international code of 27-min documentary programmes.

² This programme is considered as a rescuing measure of ethnic minorities’ folk songs through the audiovisual techniques.

Sources: Ma, 2005: 28-48 and

Undoubtedly, the CCTV Western Regional Channel will correct the stereotyped image of western region, especially the ethnic minorities’ regions, as ‘mystery, blindness and less-developed’. But, due to the largely geographic, cultural, customary diverse, the programmes of Heaven, Earth, and People, for instance, cannot form a habituated audience (Ma, 2005: 33), which also contributed to its demise in the era of ‘reception determines’.

All of these now have become memories since it was replaced by CCTV 12, focusing on law and social affairs, on 28 December 2004. Officially, it was attributed to the limited coverage of this channel in western region, poor reception and fulfilling tasks of propaganda the ‘Western Region Development’ policy (Remarked by Vice-director of CCTV, quoted in Ma, 2005: 43). Ma (2005) articulates this as the scapegoat of dilemma between official propaganda and marketisation operations, whereby the local provincial/autonomous region TV stations were desired of obtaining advertise profits as much as possible, even competing with supposed alliance, uncompetitive CCTV. Despite that an accommodation of advertisements revenues was achieved by 60% of CCTV and 40% of regional (Ma, 2005), this impossibility of consensus in nature, to a larger degree, resulted to the insufficient coverage of this so-called ‘Western Region Channel’ in the western region, only covering 14.3% households nationwide (c. f. CCTV 1 covering 94.4%; CCTV 2 covering 63.6%). As prominent scholar Zhao Yuezhi (1998: 159-165) points out in her Media, Market, and Democracy in China, that ‘there are far more instances of accommodation’ between ‘ideological control of the party’ and ‘commercialised outlets’, and between ‘national and regional interests’, towards the emergence of an hybrid ‘propagandist/Commercial’ model. The CCTV Western Region Channel, ideally expected as the first ethnic minorities channel, finally demised on the grounds of its ill-defined ethnic-minority characteristics, repeated contents ‘borrowed’ from other channels, as well as, fundamentally, the dilemma of propaganda and commercialisation.

Compared to Canadian indigenous people’s own TVNC network as well as a certain period time on national mainstream media (legally ensured by Northern Broadcasting Policy in 1983), the only thing for the Chinese to be proud of now might be a programme named ‘Chinese Nation’[4] in CCTV 1 (covering 94.4% nationwide), starting broadcasting in 1996, with 50% ethnic minorities origins, although broadcasted at an unpopular time of 15: 30 on every Monday. This programme, especially in the context of demise of CCTV Western Region Channel, plays a significant role in introducing the traditional cultures, folks and customs to the audiences, sponsored mutually by the China Central Television and CCP Committee of Ethnic Minority Affairs.

Chinese Anthologist Yuan Xihu, based on his visits to Australia and Canada, proposes an establishment of a CCTV Multiculturalism Channel, which can broadcast ethnic-minorities-produced programmes using their own languages but with the Chinese as subtitles[5]. He furthers this method by a series strategies by setting up tentatively in several big cities and then popularising them nationwide.

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[1] See at CCTV Western Channel website, http://www.cctv.com/west/index.shtml, which is now still preserved but without updates as a consequent of this channel’s closing.

[2] See more at Leading Office of Western Region Development, State Council website:

http://www.chinawest.gov.cn/web/index.asp This office is established for designing favour polices.

[3] In this defined western region, there now live 51 ethnic minorities.

[4] See more information at CCTV website: http://www.cctv.com/program/zhmz/20030609/100888.shtml

[5] This report was appeared in the officially sponsored magazine Chinese Nations 2001 (9).