Wang Hsing-ching

Wang Hsing-ching (born 1946 ), who has a pseudonym of Nanfang Shuo (南方朔, Nánfāng Shuò), is a journalist, political commentator, and cultural critic. Currently, he is the chief editor and writer of The Journalist magazine (新新聞週刊), with commentaries on current issues in major newspapers. He co-founded The Journalist when he was in his 40s. His writings, including Western ideas analysis, social phenomena criticism, and literature comments, are all regarded as very influential. Crediting his intellectual contribution to the society, he is known as "the most industrious private scholar in Taiwan".

Background
Wang earned his undergraduate degree in the School for Forestry and Resource Conservation, from National Taiwan University and a doctorate degree in Chinese Culture University. The Senkaku (Diaoyutai) Island incident made Wang reach an epiphany to become a journalist. During that period, Wang abandoned his overseas study plan and stayed in Taiwan, starting his career. His first journalist job was at the Taiwanese newspaper National Evening News. In the 1970s, Wang was a reporter for the Taiwan Times, and afterwards worked as a writer, vice general editor, and general editor in The China Times (中國時報). Although he never received technical university training in journalism, he has more than twenty years of experience in the mass media as a news commentator.

Style and major themes of writing
Wang, as an author, began with topics mainly concerned about cultural changes, political changes, and the controversies in society. His early works are based on the themes of describing and criticizing cultures and politics, e.g. Diguo zhuyi yu Taiwan duli yundong (帝國主義與臺灣獨立運動). Later in his career, he started publishing critical book reviews. Recently, Wang has published a series of books about "Language". Magical Eyes, his latest book, (魔幻之眼) is his first published work in the book commentary collection. As a tutor through writing, his analysis focuses on culture, history, thoughts, politics, etc.

Contributions to journalism
Wang has never been shy expressing his critical opinions on current affairs. In the summer of 2004, he attended a forum in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center concerning the political issues in Taiwan and the relation across the Taiwan Strait after the presidential election. He suggested that the two shores of the Strait should make positive interactions in order to solve the rational problems.

As a journalist and the chief writer of The Journalist magazine, he has his own independent analysis towards the political issues. Not long after President Chen Shuibien gave the speech of "One State on Each Side", he wrote critics on it, which was exactly to the point, "democracy in Taiwan is already moving towards a new and populist type of soft politics of terror".

Views on journalism
In a public discussion titled "How to build a mass media culture with "taste"? Wang criticized the current mass media culture. He pointed out that if the speakers/interviewees could not state their stance clearly, they had to "pay the price" in the sense that reporters might make twist their words to make a story more dramatic. The unethical reporting of some journalists disappointed Wang, and he urged that journalists had to realize that it was shameful to have disregarded the obligation to report the truth.

At societal level, he emphasized that not only does the mass media deliver information to the public, but it also affects the social structure and the political environment. He noted that journalists should bear in mind that they have great responsibilities to the general public.

Particularly in Taiwan, he put the blame of the current situation on changes in political conditions. During this unstable period, different types of mass media emerged. As advertising plays a greater role in the mass media, it is inevitable that politicians would make use of the mass media for propaganda. However, he said that there are still journalists who stand by their principles, although it remains difficult for them to uphold the journalistic ethics.

Seeing literature as journalism
In an RTHK TV program "Merry Book Worm" in October 2003, (愈讀愈快樂 (www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/tv/bookworm/20031026.html inactive as of 2008-05-07), 5 Oct 04.) Wang shared his opinions on how to choose suitable books for ourselves. He raised questions on how topics of certain discourses are set, why the topics are written the way they are, and how the written formats differ from author to author, and suggested that these are the aspects we have to think about when we choose books to read. Also, Wang stressed that it is necessary for every author to get the basic and wide-ranging knowledge on different areas before having any discussion or analysis. With his literature commentaries in Magical Eyes (魔幻之眼), Nanfang Shuo attempts to give his readers a brief overview on his recommended books to help them choose readings.

Wang's views on literature ties in well in the principles in journalism. While literature commenting allows his audience to have a knowledge of what is currently happening in the world, reporters are also doing the same thing: making readers be aware of current affairs. Speaking about journalism, he said that we, as readers, have to be careful about different reporters' stances and their different perspectives based on various sources. On the other hand, reporters should always bear the obligation to the truth and be objective by relying on the more reliable sources.

In another interview from Central News Agency (news.pchome.com.tw/life/can/20030408/index-20030408165736010244.html inactive as of 2008-05-07) in Taiwan, Wang pointed out that readers are not encouraged to spend too much time on books which are too difficult to be digested or too easy to read. In the interview, Wang encouraged readers to find the books which would motivate them and those which can give them new perspectives. Applying Wang's views on reading, journalism, and news reports, readers should focus their attention on news of particular interest to them, ones which they feel comfortable to read and criticize. Moreover, Wang believes that readers are responsible for the verification of reports.

Views on reading
As a commentator of literature, Wang welcomes all different genres of books. He firmly believes that all books can be beneficial and that the more one reads, the more one will gain in that field of expertise. He recalled that in his childhood, he was unable to do anything but read.

One belief of Wang is that wisdom in different aspects are all inter-related. For him, the concepts of literature, history, and social theory can be easily understood. He believes that literature, poetry, politics, and philosophy are mutually related. Having this understanding, Wang likes to use poems to interpret international politics and the economic phenomenon in recent years. This proves that as a commentator of current affairs and as chief writer of The Journalist, he uses literary style to write journalistic articles.

A few years ago, Wang discovered an interest in linguistics. Some of the inspirations of Wang stems from the Chinese classic literature, novels, and prose, while some of them comes from news reports. Researching the origin and history of the common vocabularies, he also investigated the changing process of these vocabularies in society. To him, this changing process can be seen from the use of language in news reports, for the language the reporters used marks the changes in social value. In fact, his motivation and his way to learn about the origins of vocabulary is very applicable to the elements of journalism: both fields require accurate information, and verification by different reliable sources. We can only tell the truth (of events or the origin of vocabularies) after verifications.

Wang is a libertarian, and he believes that it is important to be aware of the language ambiguity in understanding readings. As there are some writers who easily confuse readers, with or without intention, great language skills and a critical mind are essential to make yourself clear about what you are reading and what the writers are telling.

Comments on literature
Wang was one of the committee members to adjudicate the "20th century 100 greatest Chinese novels". As the novels revealed to Wang a feeling of sorrow and a sense of pressure, he commented the 20th century Chinese novels as a reflection of Chinese history in the past 100 years which he saw a difficult and suffering period for the intellectuals.