CLOSER NEIGHBORS

By Liu Ailian

“It is a fascinating endeavor to shoot and tell a Chinese story from the perspective of a foreigner,”beamed Teeranai Charuvastra,a new media journalist with Khaosod Online, one of the most-visited news websites in Thailand. “We are looking forward to working with China’s new media outlets to spearhead Sino-Thai cooperation.”

The Thai media delegation visits the Temple of Heaven in Beijing on October 23.

In recent years, China Report ASEAN has posted a series of video episodes featuring Chinese stories from the perspective of expats on Facebook in both English and Myanmar language.

A press corps composed of 14 new media professionals from Thailand including Wilailuck Rungsamai, regional director of Asia at National Broadcasting Service of Thailand, and Jeasda Minsiri, deputy managing director of Kapook.com, made a visit to Beijing and Chengdu,the capital of southwest China’s Sichuan Province, from October 21 to 26 to conduct interviews and exchange with their Chinese peers.

The activity, sponsored by the Thai-Chinese Journalists Association, was organized by China Report Press.

The Thai media delegation visited Beijing-based China International Publishing Group (CIPG), Alibaba Group’s Beijing headquarters, Sichuan Radio and Television (SRT),Sichuan Pixian Douban Co.,Ltd., which manufactures and exports bean paste, chili sauce and other products, and Chengdu Shishi High School(CSHS) to learn more about the latest development trends of new media in China and the latest achievements of poverty alleviation and development.

Media Convergence Reflects China’s Development

The Thai new media delegation showed great interest and enthusiasm towards China’s media convergence platforms when visiting CIPG and SRT.

CIPG Digital Media Center(DMC) creates visual and social content in multiple languages and distributes its products through the mobile internet and overseas social media.The research and development department of CIPG DMC has been keeping a close eye on new media technologies such as live-streaming, virtual reality and augmented reality due to a commitment to applying new technology,developing new products and organizing new projects to promote the application and practice of new media technologies in international cultural exchange.

Nidawan Asavataweechok,TV host of TNN 24, Thailand’s premier 24-hour news channel,thought CIPG DMC was just a mobile phone app when she first heard about it. After getting the full tour, she was quite impressed and captivated by the organization. Thailand does not yet have such a media convergence platform.

Reporters enthusiastic about Sichuan food.

The Thai media delegation visits Alibaba Group’s Beijing headquarters.

“Modern media development places more emphasis on new media,” opined Nidawan Asavataweechok. “We see how much importance China attaches to new media and its development through China’s media convergence platforms. Some still value traditional media, but many changes have taken place in the world. We are looking hard at China’s development and vision, and we could probably predict future developments in China by visiting its media convergence platforms.” She pledged that upon returning to Thailand, she would tell her colleagues about China’s media convergence development.

SRT has a diversified information communication platform featuring multimedia collection of news information and multi-platform distribution. “The media convergence center of SRT serves as a medium integrating traditional media with an online platform,” explained a manager of SRT. “Content produced by traditional media and an online platform is treated equally and distributed through all channels of SRT. In the past, TV drama channels only broadcast teleplays and news could only be seen on news channels. But today,multi-platform distribution means all contents and programs are collected by the media convergence center before being reproduced and distributed through suitable new platforms. For example,some content is suitable for PC devices, some for mobile phones, while other content may be more suitable for business terminals, and we would distribute and re-use the content accordingly and rationally.” The Thai journalists were all impressed by the manager’s inspiring words.

Internet Facilitates Poverty Alleviation

In Chengdu, the Thai media delegation visited CSHS to learn about its online education platform and conduct in-depth exchange with school officials.

Shishi Xiangyun Online Education (SXOE), affiliated to CSHS, is an online education platform inspired by China’s development strategy of informatization. All teaching resources of schools participating in the education platform are shared between teachers and students in remote areas via mobile phones and computers, a model that has played a critical role in promoting the improvement of education in the region.

Mao Wei, vice principal of CSHS, said that CSHS established an education group in 2000 and has incorporated some schools with weak teaching to help them improve through dispatching CSHS teachers to those schools. But the scope of help was limited because only some schools were accessible.

Six years ago, CSHS founded SXOE to cover all junior and senior high school grades,enabling all courses to be broadcast online across Sichuan. SXOE broadcasts more than 50 lessons a day, and all online courses are free. Classes are live-streamed in real-time as they happen. And 15 minutes after a class finishes, the video is uploaded to the internet.CSHS prohibits schools using SXOE to charge students.

“China’s education has developed very fast,contrasting Thailand,” noted Nidawan Asavataweechok.“More extensive use of technology in education in China, for instance massive screens applied in teaching,made us curious. And the most impressive thing was livestreaming classes—this form of teaching is not widely used in Thailand.”

Thitikorn Tantiwongcharoen, director of the website and multimedia department of Thai National Multimedia Group,revealed that CSHS values extracurricular activities as well as classroom instruction.“We saw students doing physical exercise, dancing and performing outdoors, through which we realized that CSHS attaches great importance to students’ overall development,”he explained. “At the same time, SXOE provides an equal opportunity for students in remote areas to receive education. I really think these students have a bright future.”

Nidawan Asavataweechok,or Ma Huizhen as she calls herself in Chinese, graduated from Chulalongkorn University, where she studied Chinese. She is the winner of season one of The Voice Thailand. “I have strong feelings about China,” she grinned. “Now I am pursuing a master’s degree majoring in cross-cultural studies. I focus on how different cultures influence lifestyles and ways of doing things.” During the trip to Beijing and Chengdu,she and her cameraman shot many short videos to take back to Thailand. She hopes to share the things she learned and witnessed in China back in Thailand so that more Thai people feel closer to China.