Why should this column, which is usually on economic issues, be about the exit of a government spokesperson? I asked myself the question as I started to plan this piece. But since some of the Beijing-based journalists offered him flowers after they heard about his new appointment (to head a State-owned textbook printing company), and many domestic media have been talking about him, why should China Daily stand aloof?
I don't know Wang Xuming, former spokesperson for the Ministry of Education. I hardly liked him in the past five years when he was in this office because I used to hear other journalists joke about or resent the way he dealt with the press.
For once, Wang almost drove me nuts by claiming unabashedly that China's education reform is a success - while for me it isn't. But judging from the fact that journalists are grumbling about the education system in almost every major country, he might not have been the only person, I thought, to defend the government line so assertively.
Journalists remember. In his not very long tenure, as they can tell (and recently published blow-by-blow), spokesperson Wang left behind quite a few comments carrying the brand of his individual character.
On the complaint about some universities' high charges, he commented, going to college is "like shopping for clothes - there are clothes costing 10,000 yuan apiece, and there are those costing just around 100 yuan".
On the media's continuous call for help to poor children in education, he responded, "the government has already had a well-structured system to finance the poor students. But how come you still have no idea about it? This, to put it mildly, is a case of ignorance. And to put it more seriously, I think it shows a lack of due respect for State policies."
On the report that some college graduates work as pig farmers, he advised the media: "No need for making so much noise about it. If someone goes into the trade of pig farming after acquiring so much knowledge, he is more likely to be a creative pig farmer."
At the same time, he praised some college students for opting to go to polytechniques again because they have difficulty finding ideal jobs: "They have my salute. What a wise decision!"
On the media's role in society, he was once so straightforward: "They are ignorant but untouchable."
And about his job as a government spokesperson, he declared, hardly hiding his pride, albeit of a twisted kind: "This is not a job for those chasing promotion, as they can never earn it. Nor is it a job for those chasing money. While for those chasing fame, they may easily achieve some permanent bad names."
One may decipher from his way of talking a distance from the "bottom of society", or a trace of coldness, or even authoritarianism. But no one can call him a faceless bureaucrat. And indeed, as journalists do remember, Wang is a rare case among all spokespersons for central government agencies in that he has not for a single time said "no comment" in his press conferences. He at least tried to practice what he himself claimed to do - "defend the State's position in one's own language". His own language is his candor.
That is why some journalists describe him as "a rare species like the panda", obviously showing a degree of fondness not easily accorded to spokespersons for other government agencies and large corporations.
Journalist Wang Zhi'an even pointed out many spokespersons still have to learn to talk with human beings.
Or, as one Chinese Internet viewer wrote at the report about Wang's re-appointment, as a farewell message: "Wang Xuming, no matter how well or how poorly you have done your job, there are so many people who are doing it more poorly than you have." Such a compliment.
E-mail: younuo@chinadaily.com.cn
(China Daily 07/21/2008 page4)
