Got an interview request from a magazine, not so famous, but not a bad name, so I accepted the interview request, and arranged time to do the phone interview about my business. They emphasized that it is a free interview. I felt strange when I see this point in the interview request, but didn’t pay enough attention.
Before the interview, they said the interview is free, but we need to pay subscription fee to their book. 580 RMB per book, and I have to buy 100 books at least.
LOL. I said, thanks, and I am not interested in any interview from them, no matter free or not, no matter they ask me to buy their books, or give me 100 books for free. No matter what, no, thanks.
There are also many associations doing cold call to me or send fax to me to ask us to join them… Interesting enough, they call all the time, and never give up.
Recently, telephone-marketing is very annoying. I think I am good-tempered, but the number of phone calls I hangup within 3 seconds are increasing, once or twice every day. Hm…. What a world.
Recent Interview
Not all interviews are traps.
Recently, I just had the interview by PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer . Next week, I will also host interview by NBC on a special edition for Olympic. They ARE, serious. The problem I have is, just like unpleasant BBC interview before, any of the interview can be considered “dangerous” for me, but I firmly believe talking is the starting point of communication, although it may be tough and may be another unpleasant experience… Let’s see…
Don’t they have a ‘DO NOT CALL’ law in China so individuals can put their phone number(s) on a DO NOT CALL list and can avoid being harassed by telemarketers? There are some serious penalties here if a telemarketer phones someone who is registered on a DO NOT CALL LIST.
I missed the earlier posting on your BBC interview and just looked at it now. I think that dealing with the press, at home and abroad, is an art form and one gains in experience each time. Hopefully, your future interviews will continue to better experiences, allowing you to voice your thoughts and concerns while avoiding danger and discomfort.
I’ve experienced discomfort with articles about me in Chinese newspapers on a few occasions. Each time, quotes were attributed to me on topics I had not even discussed. I was quoted directly as talking about “friendship between two countries” and similar ideas, when I hadn’t said these words at all. Since I’m not opposed to these ideas, I tried not to let it bother me but it still always does because in my own culture, this would be considered a terrible thing for a newspaper to do. Also, in the academic world, after I’ve given a talk, it has been published without any knowledge on my part. This also left me terribly uncomfortable and fearful of professional embarrassment. Now I am at least better prepared to watch out for these situations before they happen. Even if I can’t change the result, at least knowing of the possibility eases the discomfort. But I’ve had to accept that these sorts of things happen in China.
The western media currently has a general bias against China on certain topics, such as the environment. It’s hard for Americans to accept a decline in national status, and this fear sometimes surfaces as a anti-China bias. You will get better and better at making sure that the positive things you want to say also get heard but I fear you will be encountering this bias in western media for some time to come.
Just take a phone who as the possibility to have black list to block the phone call and the sms of these anoying people
just listened the PBS program and grabed some RSS there BTW.
1. Is that your voice ? hehh
2. A lot of famous voices there, too! and they expressed splendid perspectives!
3. GFW is a lot bigger than i thought, and when i say “fuck GFW”, i’m meaning it rather than pouring my furor. note: I was born yesterday. note again: i don’t use Google.cn
do you?