Best Chinese Newspaper 最好的中文日报 (Mainland - Simplified)

[dianhouzi]

I'm getting to the point where I can read and mostly understand random newspaper articles, but it seems that most of the articles that I come across are filled with shameless nationalism and self-praise. This can be amusing and good practice because of the repetition, but I would like to find a newspaper with a little more meat and a little less of what I just mentioned.

Has anyone made a systematic analysis of the newspapers available in the mainland and come to any conclusions or just have a newspaper that you enjoy reading/studying? Maybe after we get some suggestions, we can set up a poll. I'm located in Shanghai, so local newspaper suggestions would also be cool. Thanks!

[imron]

This thread should give you some ideas.

[gato]

东方早报 in Shanghai is not too bad. It's available online, too, at http://www.dfdaily.com/

[randall_flagg]

I had a similar question a little while back, and I am now reading 南方周末，which was recommended to me on this site. Give it a try.

Randall

[pandagirl]

hi,dianhouzi ,i really don't agree your view.there are many kinds Chinese Newspaper in china,and server for people.i hope you can find the one suit for you.not simple say them.....

[wushijiao]

东方早报 in Shanghai is not too bad. It's available online, too, at http://www.dfdaily.com/

That was my favorite in Shanghai. 南方周末 is really good, as mentioned.

Legal Daily 法制日报 sometimes has some good articles:

http://www.legaldaily.com.cn/

Xinhuanet often has some good stuff (and why not go to the source?):

http://www.xinhuanet.com/

When I was in Shanghai and just starting to get to the point where I could read the paper without too many problems, i subscribed to 新闻晨报, and 南方周末. 新闻晨报 is good for that purpose, in that many articles are very short, maybe just a paragraph or a few paragraphs. And they have a lot of pictures. So, you can get a lot of variety and read a bunch of articles in a fairly short amount of time. 晚报 is good for the same goal.

Has anyone made a systematic analysis of the newspapers available in the mainland and come to any conclusions

My conclusion is that although certain papers have different target audiences and have different formats and styles, in the end, there isn't a tremendous difference in quality. All have the same structure of trying to make as much money as possible while under intense political and ideological restraints. Essentially, no matter what paper you read, you have to shift through the vast amounts of propaganda, wire agency reports (often via Xinhua), and the tabloid stuff to find the really good nuggets of gold that may be hidden in some obscure place in the newspaper. With the possible exception of 南方周末, which usually has some important articles in an easy to navigate format, I think all newspapers are basically like that. To some degree, they're all just the same newspaper marketed differently. I am probably out of touch, but I never found one particular Shanghai newspaper to have a noticeably higher percentage of journalistic muckraking compared to any other. As Lin Yutang said, the burden of proof for finding the news is really on the Chinese reader who has to shift through the fluff and read through the lines.

It reminds me a bit of the banned book 新闻界, which I read last year. Basically, the book is about a the inside story of a newpaper, or more accurately, the newspaper business. A lot of attention is placed on what format of newspaper would be best to attract certain key demographics, and to beat the competition. Which marketing schemes can cleverly beat the competition. Which stories not to report. How to climb the ladder with the Propaganda Dept. The book pays almost no notice of journalistic ethic or social responsibility to the community. The only corruption scandal reported on is enmeshed in the context of inner Party politics. It's a world devoid of professional morals. Maybe that was the author's point, but I didn't get that impression.

But I don't know. Maybe I'm generalizing too much.

[msittig]

I'll second the recommendations for the 南方周末 as the best paper covering national issues. Also I think some magazines are good, like 新民周刊, 生活周刊 and 周末画报.

However I'll disagree with the recommendations given above for Shanghai papers and say that the hands-down winner is the 新民晚报 for its strong local flavor. 新闻晨报 wins on volume, but it's the sorta generic news that you'd get by watching TV or reading it in the New York Times a day later. In the morning I'd even rather read the free I时代报 that they hand out on subway station platforms for its coverage of the exotic and amusing species known as the 白领 and its local news, though I often end up with both it and the Morning Post together (makes for a thick roll of newspaper under my arm).

In fact I've been tossing around the idea of subscribing to the Xinmin Evening Post now that my commute has been shortened to the point where I have to go out of my way to pass the newspaper stand...

[dianhouzi]

Thanks for all of the recommendations. I'll definitely check out the 东方周末. That seems to be the paper of choice thus far. I've been reading through the 新闻晨报 today and have found a few decent articles, but it looks like there are several other good ones to choose from.

[dianhouzi]

哎呀！不是“东方周末”就是南方周末。我买日报的时候也犯了这个错误。他们说没什么东方周末，只有南方周末。

南方周末里面的文章真的比较长但是内容比我以前读过的好多了。我从没想到会有一份中国的日报能批评中国的问题和政府政策什么的。谢谢你们的帮助！

Aya! It's not 东方周末, it's 南方周末. I made this same mistake when I was buying a paper. They said that there's no 东方周末, just 南方周末.

The articles in 南方周末 are relatively long, but the content is much better than papers I have read before. I never imagined that a Chinese newspaper would be allowed to criticize China's problems, government policies, etc. Thanks for your help!

[lilongyue]

I usually buy 都市快报, but I don't know if it's available outside of Zhejiang province, as it's one of the papers put out by the Hangzhou Daily Press Group. I haven't done an extensive survey, but it seems to have a good mix of articles both local and international. I think it's the most popular newspaper in Hangzhou. I read it because I like the layout, and it seems to be easier to read than some of the others. It and the other Hangzhou Daily Press Group newspapers , 杭州日报，每日上报, can be found on www.hangzhou.com.cn.

I agree with Wushijiao in that you aren't going to find too wide a variance in overall tone between one newspaper and the next. Meaning that all have to pass "inspection." I don't actually read Chinese newspapers for the news, but for language practice. I've been planning on reading more online Hong Kong newspapers, actually. Last time I looked at one I was surprised to see an article about the number of deaths per year in Hong Kong due to pollution, as well as estimated cost for the city resulting from people calling in sick, being hospitalized for respiratory issues (again due to pollution), etc. Rumor has it Hong Kong reporters are already beginning to self-censor, but it was a breath of fresh air (no pun intended) to read something other than the "All is good, all is great, all hail China and the Communist Party!" rhetoric one encounters in Mainland Chinese newspapers.

Maybe the wrong place, but I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts on the style of writing in Chinese newspapers. When I began reading newspapers in China, and especially when I began translating news articles, I was surprised to see writing techniques that seemed almost childish, things a proper journalist in the U.S. would never write, like frequent use of onomatopoeias. I often encounter things like "The water was plip-plip-plopping" etc. I also often find articles framed in highly emotional, soap opera-esque language, i.e. "The people cried out their adoration one after another," instead of something like "All were pleased by the idea." Anyone else find this strange?

[gato]

I was surprised to see writing techniques that seemed almost childish, things a proper journalist in the U.S. would never write, like frequent use of onomatopoeias. I often encounter things like "The water was plip-plip-plopping" etc. I also often find articles framed in highly emotional, soap opera-esque language, i.e. "The people cried out their adoration one after another," instead of something like "All were pleased by the idea." Anyone else find this strange?

That's actually something common to writing in mainland. It's partly tradition, but Communism may have something to do with it. What was Eastern Bloc writing like?

See this post:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/showthread.php?p=111361#post111361

Chinese style vs. English style

[lilongyue]

Thanks for the link, had a good laugh reading that one. I really identify with a lot of what was said about long sentences, etc. Many times I have marveled at the length of Chinese sentences.

[wushijiao]

The editorials of Hong Kong newspapers and magazines tend to be similar to what you would find in the English language press.

[randall_flagg]

I recommended the 南方周末 earlier, but you also might find your local papers interesting. i don't read the Dalian papers as often as i should, but they do have very INTERESTING articles. i remember one stating that in 2006, 3 of the "public cleaning employees" were killed while scraping chewing gum of the streets. （not funny in itself, but the way they wrote it up into a big headline was so terrible that it was funny!)

this style of writing might be a good contrast to the somewhat more serious 南方周末。