Demonstrator
The Korean farmers are the focus of mainstream. Before the actual demonstration, the imagination of korean demonstrators were mainly from Doha WTO news reports, where the foreign media have already created a militant imagine. How to translate that image into Hong Kong and Chinese context? Popular terms from war game, such as 墨子攻略 were widely use. Korean t.v drama and popular culture's masculine image: physical strength, brotherhood, outraging and expressive, etc is also used to help the public understanding. In the end, the demonstration looked more like a korean drama in real life, especially in the drama of shield battle and gender story line between male demonstrators and female tango.
Apart from Korean demonstrators, the translation of Jose Brove also shows the imagination and proposition of mainstream media towards the WTO demonstrators. The downplaying of migrant issue reflects that the media hasn't taken WTO as an event with local significance.
Masculinity: Korean farmers and tango
After the wto month, the police PR department has a briefing to explain why they sent the woman police to the frontline 以柔制剛;
Singtao has taken up the police stand from their wto reports and also the pr briefying.
SCMP commented that the police department had made the tango police "model" of self-control. apple daily did not report on the briefying, but during the wto week, the reporter quoted from the korean demonstrators saying that "they felt pity for the frontline woman police" and that the police department's arrangement is "無義氣".
It is rather obvious that the policemen's physical strength could not be competed with the korean protestors, they were defeated in the battle over police shields. by putting woman police to the spotlight, the police department could boast about their "以柔制剛" strategy, show the "violent action" of the demonstrators without losing the masculine pride.
1. mingpao; 2. apple daily; 3. singtao; 4. SCMP
Police shields: physical strength
Singtao and mingpao have very detailed and vivid report on the police shields, as well as police reation on the issue; Mingpao, even has a series of photos showing the steps for getting a shields, as if the korean are winning the "champion" from the police. the chinese world shield "牌" is affiliated with "metal". There for getting "metal" from police implies winning over the police. The symbolism is shared between chinese and korean in this case.
In the description, the korean's demonstrator's training and physical strength were emphased.
SCMP has missed this cultural gimmick. They just used one sentence to describe the taking away of 15 shields and placed the police reaction as the headline.
1. singtao; 2. mingpao; 3. apple; 4. scmp
Demonstration strategy: militants
The international news used to call the strategy of korea demonstration "militants" which literary means "軍事化", however, in the local news, this term is too unpopular, a verb "攻" was used to describe the korean demonstration action. the word has multiple meaning: its literal meaning is attack 攻擊, however, in japanese and popular culture tradition, it relates with 攻略, the strategic sense is much stronger than the use of force.
apple daily has adopted the "strategic" sense: from the very beginning said that the korean planned to "攻" into the exhibition centers. in some major confrontational scence, the relation between the demonstrator and police was described in military term: 攻 and 防 (defense).
On the 17 night, apple daily use 生擒 (catch alive) to describe a police being grab by the demonstrators. the strategy of demonstrators won over the police until the police used the tear gas and arrest the demonstrators. after the wto week, an feature trying to resolve the conflict that both the police and demonstrators respect each others and there were no win and lose in a sense.
As for singtao daily, it also uses the term "攻防戰", and its description on the first few day focus on the korean strategy. for example, the report on the 14th interpreted the jumping into the sea and burning of coffin as 聲東擊西 (making noise in the east and attack on the west), however, the two actions were actually planned by two different groups without much coordination. the term 兵 was used several times to describe the police power "兵力", and the action of the demonstrators "收兵". on the 17th, the scene was depicted as a battlefield, however, in the headline report, the naming of korean demonstrators became violent farmers 暴農. the strategic term is mixed with literal meaning of "attack".
mingpao was even more elorated on the military imagination. it had a feature story to "deconstruct" the korean army. on the 15th, the confrontation was depict as "the battle of shield" 盾牌戰, and the korean demonstrators got an upper hand. so the headline of "灣仔淪陷" was actually a natural development of the 攻 story plot.
For scmp, the term militant was used to describe the korean demonstrators. the reporters also describe the protest action, however, it were not in a sense of "攻略", but more literally, the use of force, rather than war tactics. they use the term "army" twice, once to describe the korean demonstrator, once to describe citizen reporters.
1.apple; 2.singtao; 3.mingpao; 4. scmp
Three steps and one bow: wining the hearts
Apple and mingpao placed the three steps one bow to the headline frontpage. apple daily had very detailed depiction of the action, sound, atmosphere and reaction from the passer-by.
Minpao placed more emphasis on the action's impact on hk people - winning sympathies; on the next day, the hunger strike was interpreted as a sympathetic reactions. after the wto week, it was again interpreted as a strategy of korean expert demonstrator.
Singtao's headline is about the government's political reform. the three steps demonstration was in the inner pages, briefly described as part of a series action.
Both mingpao and singtao explained the cultural meaning behind such action.
SCMP also have the three steps demonstraction in the inner pages. missing the cultural meaning of such action. However, later it has a feature on the "love affair" between korean and hk, trying to explain the sympathy of hk people by popular culture.
1. apple daily; 2. ming pao; 3. singtao; 4. SCMP
Jose Bove is a french peasant movement activist; he became famous in Hong Kong because he was denied entry in the immigration, but then managed to get inside the meeting venue. He was in jail for three month because he painted some slogan on a Macdonald in a demonstration.
Mingpao and Singtao kept on track of Jose Bove during the whole period. and both newspapers claimed that he was the person behind december 17 crush, even though Jose had denied.
The translation of his title is worth noticing. SCMP called him "Mr. Angry"; angry is 怒 not 暴 (violence), however, singtao translated the title into "暴民之父" which means father of violent people or riots. By that logic, he had to be in responsible of the riot? but from the SCMP and mingpao interview, he was very gentle and peaceful during the whole WTO demonstration period.
mingpao's translation of his title is not so consistent, quite often, they called him "激進農夫" which means radical farmer. the newspapers also said that he is a star in protests.
Apple daily called him "法國長毛", long hair is a famous protestor in hk, so the newspapers makes it a equivalent for the reader to have a better understanding.
1. mingpao; 2. apple daily; 3. singtao; 4. SCMP
When compared to Korean demonstration, migrant workers were almost invisible in news reports during the WTO week.
Apple daily have several migrant workers stories before the WTO week, during the week, they were treated as part of the demonstrators although their mobilization was among the strongest on the first day.
SCMP has two special features on migrant workers, one focus on the low salary and tax issue, one focus on the divide between "sink" and "junk" wto.
mingpao only have one street interview on indonesia migrant worker taking leave for the demonstration. singtao has no special focus on migrant workers.
1. mingpao; 2. apple daily; 3. singtao; 4. SCMP
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