New York Times Writer Detoured by Curiosity about How Chinese Leader Became Disabled

By Barbara Duncan (bjdnycla@aol.com)
 

A September 18 leading article in the New York Times by Celestine Bohlen was headed, "China Troupe Overcomes, as Did Man Behind it." What follows is a fascinating in-depth article that ostensibly covers the just concluded six city U.S. tour of the China Disabled People's Performing Arts Troupe. The article can be read at www.nytimes.com/2000/09/18/arts/18DENG.html

Bohlen gives good marks to and a brief description of the performance, described as a "collection of songs and dances, operas and musical compositions drawn from ancient and modern Chinese Culture." She accepts without question some rather odd publicity information that, " The concert's last number is a medley by the orchestra conducted by Hu Yyishou, a 22-year-old mentally retarded man whose ability to make music is not impaired by an I.Q. of less than 30."

Main focus: Deng Pufang
The main focus of the article is an interview conducted with Deng Pufang, Chairman of China's Disabled Persons Federation and the leading advocate for China's estimated 60 million disabled citizens. Deng Pufang is the eldest son of the late Deng Xiaoping, China's paramount leader for decades, and is an elected alternate member of the Communist Party's Central Committee. He uses a wheelchair due to an spinal cord injury received in 1968.

Bohlen also accepts without seeming curiosity Deng Pufang's report to her on China's progress in the disability field: "Twenty years ago only 6% of disabled children had access to education; today 70-80% are in school. Employment rates among disabled people have also risen from 50% to more than 70%. In 1990 a law was passed guaranteeing rights for the handicapped."

It is my experience that most reporters for serious newspapers are trained to question at least the origin of statistics and bold pronouncements of change or progress. From the most influential newspaper of the world's most influential democracy, I would expect at the least routine follow-up inquiries about the intent and impact of the 1990 law, if there is a body responsible for its implementation and monitoring, if there is any budget provided for its implementation, etc.

A reporter versed in disability issues might, for example, have noticed and been intrigued that these employment statistics from China are more or less the opposite of U.S. statistics showing that the rate of unemployed disabled Americans hovers around 70%. It might have been productive to explore how it is that in only two decades China has been able to best the U.S. employment record, and that of many other countries which report equally bleak employment rates for their disabled populations.

Similarly, it might have been interesting to find out how all those millions of children with disabilities are being so quickly accommodated in China's school system"are they being integrated into regular schools, separated into special schools, or?

Curiosity about origin of disability
But, for whatever reason, the New York Times reporter's curiosity is whetted by only one question÷how did Deng Pufang end up in his wheelchair? She spends, it appears, the main portion of the time allotted for the interview on cross-examining  him about whether he was injured by the Red Guards or how exactly the injury came about.

Deng Pufang is a sophisticated world traveler and many years ago underwent rehabilitation in Canadian facilities÷he is accustomed to intense questioning by Western reporters and, as the interview reveals, at ease with if somewhat bemused by their efforts to focus on his personal life.

What is this fascination with the origin of disability that seemingly can obscure and overwhelm the usual conventions of journalism? Exaggerating to make a point, this is comparable to having the opportunity to interview Stevie Wonder about music and instead focusing on how he became blind, or Steven Hawkings about black holes and becoming obsessed about how he lost the ability to speak. Ultimately, what can it matter?

Not just a Western phenomenon
This tendency is not just a Western phenomenon. A German colleague who has no arms told me about how one of the best-known reporters of Hong Kong's leading newspaper, the South China Morning Post, interviewed her at length last December about her views on human rights and disability. The article, built around a United Nations seminar on that topic, was developed into an excellent full-page feature. At the last moment, the story was almost cancelled because this German human rights law professor would not furnish details about how her disability came about.

Her refusal to satisfy the Hong Kong reporter's curiosity and Deng Pufang's efforts to focus the New York Times article on the situation of the Chinese disabled population are prompted by the same impulse÷they are endeavoring to focus attention on disability as a social issue, one with enormous human rights and economic implications. They are fighting to be perceived as spokespersons for a just, socio-political  cause and, instead, are continually confronted by intrusive and diversionary questions about their own conditions.

Tectonic plates
I see this as a public education challenge on two fronts÷on one hand this is a clash between the tectonic plates of shifting paradigms: disability as individual condition vs. disability as social and political issue. We all know it is going to take some time and intense public education to support this perceptual shift out of academia into the streets of our societies.

On the second front, it seems we also need some more detailed approaches to use with the organs of the mass media. Recent disability education efforts with the media have centered around terminology and there has been some progress in that realm. It appears we also need a concentrated challenge to the media's underlying approach to this issue or set of assumptions about the societal implications of disability.