Chen Siqi

vankochensq@163.com

GU XIAOJIN, a distinguished professor with the School of Media Communication of Shenzhen University (SZU), shared his views on how to tell China’s stories better during a forum, urging storytellers to reform in terms of concepts and techniques.

He delivered three suggestions to narrators: avoiding utilitarianism, be objective and focus on grass-roots perspectives.

According to Gu, former editor-in-chief of Shenzhen Daily, narrators should avoid using utilitarian words when telling a Chinese story to the world. If storytellers tooted their own horns and show obvious intentions to receive higher reputation, the overseas readers might refuse to accept the content.

“‘A Bite of China’ produced by China Central Television was a good example in making effective international communication. The gourmet show was well accepted by Chinese people and even the overseas audience with its grassroots content implying profound traditional Chinese culture,” Gu said. “Presenting the facts — and facts can talk.”

Gu also suggested storytellers to be objective. “When we do international communication, we actually intend to spread China’s stories to foreigners and foreign nationals who are most likely unfamiliar with China. In this occasion, we should tell stories using an objective perspective,” Gu said.

The professor emphasized the importance of focusing on human interest topics in order to tell Chinese stories better. He suggested narrators dig deeper for more details relevant to people’s emotions and destiny.

Gu also mentioned insufficiency of providing service information to foreign residents or visitors in China and urged the domestic media to take their role in reporting real global news.