Taipei Times: Back in 1987, you and Hsu Lu (徐璐, vice president of the Chinese Television System) were the first two journalists from Taiwan allowed in to China. What was it like to be one of the pioneers of cross-strait journalistic exchanges?
Lee Yung-te (
That trip was pioneering and also risky, because both sides of the Strait had been out of contact for over 40 years, stigmatizing each other as much as they could due to political confrontation. People in Taiwan -- including us -- had limited access to accurate information on China.
TT: Bearing that in mind, what shocked you the most when you actually landed in the once forbidden neighboring country?
Lee: Before we left for China, we had done a lot of preparation work and established several principles. One of them was that we would not get in touch with any Chinese officials. Why? Because we were there for the simple purpose of conducting interviews -- we did not want to be utilized as political propaganda tools.
The Chinese authorities had expressed their wishes to meet with us, but we turned them down because we would rather talk to ordinary people in the streets or in the markets. The public's daily life was our focus.
Generally speaking, my first impression of China was that their society was more open than we had anticipated. What I mean by being open was that people in China were not as dogmatic as we had imagined. They did not bow to political suppression all the time. Instead, what they emphasized was how their lives could be improved.
Most people were unafraid to express their discontent on the government's failure to control rising inflation.
Secondly, most Chinese people's conception of Taiwan at the time was that it was a country where people were so starved that banana peels were all they had to eat. However, at the same time, there was also the opposite conception, with some saying that [they had heard] Taiwan's economy was booming.
The misconceptions about China we had in the past were similar. We believed that Chinese people were living in hell. However, as we saw, that was not the case, even though China's economy wasn't doing too well then. What surprised me greatly was that a taxi driver made more money than a professor did at that time. Some people even told us that communism was gradually being shelved while society was instead embracing the idea of privatization and liberalization.
TT: Had your views on China had, therefore, changed?
Lee: As reporters, we got to go deep into Chinese society, even though there was some uncertainty. Frankly, we were really amazed to see numerous modern buildings, highways and infrastructure construction underway in Beijing. Seeing some Chinese cities such as Beijing that were developing quickly broadened our view of China.
TT: Your trip attracted a lot of media attention. Your role as a reporter led to a new role in which you were frequently the subject of interviews. How did you find that role reversal? Was it interesting or a difficult adjustment?
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