A taste of Journalism in Taiwan
Well, on the career side of things, it’s going well! Aside from teaching, I’m also writing for a local magazine. It’s part of a larger chain of publications that are distributed in different parts of Taiwan and also the articles are posted online. Anyway, right now I’m writing two articles for them. One of them is about a restaurant/bar called Le Ble d’Or (the Golden Wheat) in Kaohsiung.
I have been there twice this week to check it out. It’s a great little place, really classy and really eclectic, with a mix of foreign influence: Canadian, British, German, and Japanese. Anyway the owner who started it apparently lived in Canada but came back to Taiwan to open a local business. Also, the beer is made in Taiwan at a brewery in Taipei, and it’s SO good. One of the wheat beers tastes a bit like banana. It’s better than the staple, Taiwan Beer (yes…like “The Beer Store” in Canada, it’s just called “Taiwan Beer”) which is made from rice, and which I can’t handle at all. Honestly, after three Taiwan Beers, it’s time for bed.
So, Mike and I met with the manager today and he was kind of my interpreter, (I bribed him with beer) along with one of the servers who knew English pretty well. Her name was Tina, and she was adorable. Honestly, Taiwanese people are some of the cutest people on the face of this planet. So between the four of us, all various levels of Chinese and English, I managed to piece together some sort of story that will hopefully make sense. We got to eat pork hock, for free! Something I wouldn’t normally order. Mike has had a lot of food like it, and he said it was some of the best he had ever had. The pork comes from Germany, and the sour crout (how do you spell sour crout anyway?) was made by the manager, homemade. You could tell! It tasted like vinegar and deliciousness. Anyway, I’m not going to write my whole restaurant review on my blog… so you will have to wait until it’s online. haha.
Anyway, as a little interesting tidbit for the journalists back home in Canada…I would like to expand on the difference here between ‘writing an article’ and ‘writing an advertisement.’ So basically at the magazine, we are assigned articles on culture, food, lifestyle and all sorts of other fun stuff. I also have a style guide to follow, which I was flipping through today. In it I found:
“Taiwan law does not differentiate between an article and an advertisement, and the assumption is made that any article we write is a paid advertisement for whatever we are writing about – regardless of the truth of the matter…”
It goes on to write about how there are people actively looking for ‘violations.’ One time, the newspaper office was raided by four cops because of a story on a smoker’s supply store. Also, if you write about alcohol in any way, you must include 10% of that space that you are writing to a warning against drinking or abuse or drinking and driving. The list goes on.. Do not write about smoking. Ever. Do not make a health claim. Ever. If you write that sunscreen has an SPF of 15, you must get government permission. Any person that is not part of the ‘background’ needs a signed release form. Anyhoo, not as bad as China, but still a bit crazy.
Taiwan is a ‘democratic’ society in many ways, but this is not one of them. A prime example is shown during my interview, when the manager thought she had to pay for my article as she thought it was advertising and she had to pay. Through Mike and Tina, I tried to explain to her that no, you don’t have to pay, I’m only writing a review! This was translated to her as; “Okay, this time it’s free!” and she was very happy because she thought I was giving her a special deal. Honestly at that point…I just went with it. She is happy, I am happy, the magazine will be happy. Ethical? In Canada, possibly no. In Taiwan, definitely.
Okay. I pay you next time. HAHA. I love it. But it’s more of a universal misunderstanding than you might think, and it runs both ways.
This past week, a perfectly intelligent “marketing manager” charged with transitioning a retirement residence between between the previous and current owners met with me to talk about advertising strategies for the coming year. What the facility had done in the past, what worked, what didn’t, etc… which is normal enough as that is my job – to sell advertising.
At one point she indicated she wanted to run an advertorial talking about some of the changes in management style that would effect the broader community and help make the place more of a public gathering place. These included such things as adding live music events in their dining room open to the general public.
“How do we go about that in your paper?” she asked.
Well, I sputtered not quite sure how to explain the obvious, you give me the copy and any photos you want included and I put the word ADVERTORIAL across the top so everybody knows that it is a paid advertisement even though we will be using more copy than normal. I added hesitantly, not wanting to insult her but feeling like one of us was missing something, that we would probably change the layout style from the rest of the paper so it clearly stood out as something quite separate from the rest of the editorial.
The puzzled look on her face and the silence that hung in the air between us convinced me the train had just derailed. [insert sound of record being scratched here]
Yes, editorial, that’s what I mean – she eventually said.
This sort of thing happens to me more than you might think. People assume because I work for a newspaper, that I can dictate the news. That one of my powers is to convince the Editor to run a glowing article in the paper timed to a specific event the client has with the specific intention of avoiding having to pay for an ad.
As the clients are quick to point out – an artcle in the paper is worth it’s weight in gold.
Wait a second — you’re right — let me take my advertising hat off and put my journalism hat on. Okay, now I’ve got it. I’d love to run a two page article on the benefits of the weight cal diet program.
Maybe you just give me some money. I say what you want.
Hi! I stumbled on your blog doing some googling about teaching English in Taiwan. First of all, let me say it’s so interesting! I just finished journalism school, but I’ve done some travelling and I appreciate how frank you are about how living abroad isn’t a walk in the park 24/7.
Anyway, I’m thinking about coming to Taiwan to teach and do some freelancing on the side. Of course, I have a million questions about teaching in Taiwan, but I was hoping you could tell me what the market is like for English freelancers. You mentioned you’re writing some articles for a local magazine. Is it fairly easy to find opportunities like that? How much do they pay? Okay I’m starting to ask way too many questions haha. If you could email me at meagan.kelly76@gmail.com that would be great!
Oh also, I went to jschool with Iain Marlow! I noticed you have the link to his blog on here. Small world eh?