Difficulties I felt while covering China’s national day
On October 1, China’s National day, I went out into the street to cover pro-democracy rallies. It was an assignment of my journalism class. Every year, HKU’s journalism school sent student reporters to cover the story of October 1. When I arrived on the scene, there were already a bunch of classmates who struggled to approach people and ask questions. For me, a former Korean journalist who had much experience in this kind of work, it looked fresh and new. It was not long before I mingled in the crowd.
I faced up to unexpected difficulties. The major challenge was a language barrier. I was trying to get an interview with Chinese people who disagree with the anti-Beijing rallies. However, I was rejected with many “不用了” and eventually got some useful soundbites with the help of my Chinese classmate. I was so confident that I would do quite well in a foreign country without any translated questions or greetings. To make matter worse, I missed the deadline. If I were a local media reporter, I would get fired!
Also, it was not until I was on my way back to school that I knew the shoddy rail work scandal. It erupted in May when news media pointed out the cutting of steel bars to fake proper installation into couplers at the Hung Hom platform. A government investigation is underway, and this process will delay the already delayed Sha Tin-Central rail link for another half year. I missed this well-known fact before arriving on the scene and never asked about it. I ended up not putting it in my article.
It makes me nervous. In Hong Kong, I am just a 2-month old cub reporter. I realized that I had no other resource but to practice and repeat.
