"behind the headlines"

is a talk show on one of the most influential TV channels in China. The idea of the show is that the host invites two other more or less celebrated guests and talk about the headline news like casual chatting, in light atmostphere, but not entirely without any seriousness. Sometimes even very unorthodox opinion can be heard, which is quite daring, considering in China rigorous media censorship is applied everywhere. The show has been out for more than one year and became quite popular by now. But I got to know it only till earlier today. sigh, what a shame!

The reason that drives me to search something about China online, something more contemporary, more relevant, more reflectable, or more meaningful to my standard, is that I am becoming more and more estranged and unaware of what are happening in the busy and fast-pacing home country and start to fear that I might be too outdated, too "behind the headlines".

"behind the headlines" is then a natural choice for me to try to catch up a little bit, but also helps to avoid the painful reading of obscure messages in the newspaper.

Two episodes I've watched. And two episodes I will probably ever watch. In the first episode i watched, they talked about Saddam Hussein's execution. And the suicide rate of college students in China is getting higher in the second one. I have to say, these are "good" topics, not necessarily something "good" about those incidents, but they provide "good" materials to talk about. But much to my disappointment, by the end of the two episodes, I was so frsutrated and so worried so uneasy that I had to say something to shift the worries and put down the uneasiness, if that can be done.

The first one, about Hussein's execution. It might well be my poor comprehensive ability. But I just couldn't tell what message they were trying to convey or they sent out any at all. The three kept talking about their sympathy towards Hussein who didn't get the right treatment, not even right before and after he died. I was waiting and waiting, to hear the word "human rights", to hear that even a to-be-executed criminal should have his basic rights as a human being. But I didn't. I knew to talk about human rights in china a decade ago is like to talk about hungry tigers and everybody gets frightened and depressed. I wanted to hear some clear message, such as, that it is fair and rightful to feel sympathetic towards a dying human being and to accuse the hangman's lack of humanity while the execution of a criminal, convicted through "lawful and justified" trial process, should be supported wholeheartedly as well. But I didn't. I don't know, perhaps inexplicit knowledge and not to be clear-cut is the nowadays fashion?

The second one about the college students' suicide rate. I was literally shoved off the chair. There was a girl guest, who's about the same age as me, who got famous because of her role as a teenager girl in China's 1st ever sitcom in early 90's. A funny girl, loves to laugh. But what bothers me is that she laughed through the discussion especially when she talked about a college student who commited suicide and declared that the suicidals are nothing else but weak or abnormal. What I couldn't understand is how she can still laugh while talking about loss, permanently, of a young life.

ironically, the suicide epidose was aired just one day earlier than the other one. Otherwise, I might have been able to hear something i had missed: some leftover sympathy.

a little sad. If "behind the headlines" is indeed the cansual chattings about personal sentiments or some meaningless gossips but no real concern about appeals for more societal attention or sincere effort for possible means to solve or mitigate the problems, I would rather be "behind the headlines". I hope the next show i'll bump into will be a little more cheerful.