A 26-year veteran of the Birmingham News, Anne Ruisi now works for the Beijing-based China Daily.
When The Great Downsizing came to The Birmingham News, a lot of good writers, editors and photographers wound up at loose ends, employment-wise, and one particularly grating piece of advice they were often proffered by the well meaning was, “Think outside the box.”
Anne Ruisi went them one better. She thought outside the border.
The 26-year veteran of the News packed up her skill set and headed for Beijing, where she hired on with China Daily, the most widely circulated English-language paper on the mainland, where her byline appears as 芮安妮 .
Even as our country explores an epic Trans-Pacific Partnership for trade, we are under-informed about the biggest player on the Pacific Rim. Chinese New Year arrives Feb. 19, so it’s good to have Anne’s fashionable boots on the ground there as we attempt to learn more.
Weld: Do you remember what kind of culture shock you underwent when you first came to Birmingham from way up yonder in New York State?
Anne Ruisi: Yes, I do and there was culture shock, even though I was born in Mobile and had visited my mother’s family there several times over the years. My first day of work, my colleagues took me to the old Quincy’s steakhouse on Valley Avenue and everyone ate a big meal. It surprised me because in Rochester, New York, where I grew up, you eat soup and a sandwich or maybe a hamburger or a hot dog for lunch. You eat steak or a meat-and-three for dinner, not lunch.
That night, I covered my first public meeting in Alabama – the Graysville City Council – and they said a prayer at the start of the meeting. Public meetings in New York might have a moment of silence at the start, but never a formal prayer. The other thing that always threw me for a loop was that often, when I met people on my beat for the first time, they’d ask one of two questions: “What church do you go to?” and “Are you for Alabama or Auburn?”
Weld: You had a great run at The Birmingham News, so it must have been excruciating to have to depart in 2012, yes?
AR: It was heartbreaking. The Birmingham News was a great place to work. I really did love my job. Over the years I covered the cities of Bessemer, Brighton, Fairfield, Midfield, Graysville and Birmingham’s 99 neighborhoods. I also wrote a lot of book reviews and travel stories and the occasional food and Lifestyle story. The last 10 years, my duties were mainly split between reporting on the neighborhoods and working as Sunday metro editor and a fill-in editor as needed. I absolutely loved covering the neighborhoods, especially working with community leaders and residents on stories. I loved my neighborhood folks. I witnessed the rise of many future Birmingham city council members who got their political start as neighborhood leaders.
And my co-workers were the best – wonderful, smart, talented people whom I still consider dear friends and miss very much.
Weld: So instead of taking a PR job or starting a blog, you suddenly took a notion to go to…China?? Kindly describe that process.
AR: I applied for numerous PR/communications jobs in Birmingham and Alabama and had several interviews, to no avail. But remember, there were more than 60 people laid off in the Birmingham newsroom alone, not to mention dozens at our sister papers in Huntsville and Mobile, so there was a glut of writers and editors seeking those jobs. I wanted to stay in Alabama or at least the South, but after several months, it was clear I’d have to leave if I wanted to stay in communications. I started looking for opportunities in other parts of the US. Then Pam Dugan, a friend and former News editor who’d taken a buyout a few years earlier and then worked at China Daily for a year before retiring, told me the newspaper was hiring. She knew I loved to travel and said I’d be a perfect fit. I didn’t know much about mainland China but I’d traveled in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, so I thought, why not?
Weld: So what did the fam back in New York think about their little girl departing these shores?
AR: My mother was horrified! She kept saying, “Why are you going to RED CHINA?!” She still worries. My siblings and other relatives were happy I got a job in my field but I think some of them were a bit anxious about my moving to a Communist country. Most of them lived through or grew up during the Cold War, when the mainland was a closed society, so most of them didn’t know much about today’s China.
Weld: What in your portfolio impressed the China Daily guys mightily?
AR: They never told me, but my resume stressed my professional experience and my strong digital skill set. I published my own genealogy blog, blogged news during my last year or so at The Birmingham News, had SEO training, knew how to use several blogging programs, was familiar with desktop publishing and video editing software and was very comfortable with the Windows and iMac platforms. I also had to give them recordings of my speaking voice (I hadn’t done voice work since my days as a campus disk jockey at my alma mater, St. Bonaventure University). They actually ended up hiring me not at the newspaper, but as an online editor at the China Daily website.
But I think what really sealed the deal was a sterling recommendation from Pam Dugan. I know it was crucial. China Daily didn’t even interview me; they just offered me a job. So I owe this job to her – thank you, Pam!
Weld: You’re no stranger to efficient traveling, but what do you pack for an extended stay in the People’s Republic?
AR: I left in August 2013. In two big suitcases were mostly casual summer and winter clothing (China business attire generally is very casual Friday), four pairs of shoes, a winter coat, some jewelry and lots of personal care products, such as unscented toiletries. I was warned that antiperspirant can be hard to find. I think I brought a dozen bottles.
My carry-ons were a tote bag I used as a purse and a large rolling laptop case for my computer gadgets. I brought a Windows laptop, my iPad mini and iPhone. At the time the iPad had about 50 books and about 1,000 photos on it. Now there are probably 300 books and somewhere around 4,000 photos. I brought a Canon compact digital camera too but I hardly use it. The iPhone and iPad take great pictures. You’ll see a lot of them on my weekday blog, The Alabama Expat.
Weld: Once you got to Beijing, since you were the new hire, did they immediately put you to work doing obits or calling for crime reports overnight?
AR: No, I’ve had a pretty good schedule and assignments since I started. I work Monday-Friday, days, and occasionally have a weekend or night shift. I mainly work as an editor, but during my first few months here, they gradually added other duties, such as the column and voiceover work. I also do a lot of English grammar coaching with my Chinese colleagues, who are really great, by the way, and some reporting/journalism coaching with the less experienced ones. At first I worked on our homepage, but since last summer I’ve worked mainly in the website’s Culture/Lifestyle Department. And since I’ve been here I’ve worked closely with the editors at our mobile platform, mostly editing stories for mobile delivery and doing voice work for them.
Weld: I gather your audience is less the residents of China than English-speaking folk visiting there. What kinds of stories have you been working on?
AR: Actually, a lot of Chinese readers get their news in English from us. The China Daily website averages more than 5.2 million daily page views and it’s the 92nd most-viewed website in the world, according to Alexa Analytics. I don’t know the exact breakdown, but our audience is literally around the world. We have print and web editions for the US, Europe, Africa, Asia and China. A lot of Chinese in these places read it, as do non-Chinese who are interested in China.
Chinese, especially students learning English (English is a required subject in Chinese schools and a student must demonstrate proficiency to get into college) and those who want to keep their English skills sharp read the website and the newspaper regularly. Our mobile platform is going like gangbusters. I’m told that the country’s premier, Li Keqiang, reads the China Daily newspaper every day. And English-speaking visitors to China read it — it’s on airplanes, in hotels that cater to foreigners and some restaurants and malls.
Weld: How does the process of working at China Daily compare with working at a Birmingham daily?
AR: It’s quite similar in many ways, although I work strictly with the web and mobile platforms and not the print edition. From a practical standpoint, my working hours are much more regular and I rarely work more than 40 hours a week, which was not the case in Birmingham. But just like at the News, I interact daily with reporters and other editors. What is different is I don’t do nearly as much writing as I did in Birmingham, where I regularly churned out stories.
Weld: This may be an indelicate query: is there any, shall we say, extra editing of China Daily copy imposed by the Chinese government? Any mandatory political point of view required of you?
AR: China Daily in all its formats is a government organ, so of course there is a certain, um, point of view, in its political and news coverage. I’m in Culture and Lifestyle now and the stories I read are pretty non-political and are about the arts and culture, things like that. I have never censored anything and I never would. My contract requires that I keep my political opinions, whatever they are, to myself, which is what I did as a journalist in the US. Most of the writers at China Daily are Chinese and they know what the sensitive issues are and how to write about them.
Weld: All right, enough boilerplate. Did you get a nice apartment in the city?
AR: Yes, I live in a one-bedroom apartment in a building with a lot of foreigners. It has a western bathroom (squatty potties are horrible!) and cable TV, but no English-language channels anymore. The cable company dumped CNN Hong Kong during the pro-democracy protests.
Weld: I don’t think Jim ‘n’ Nick’s has opened a location there yet. What is your menu like these days?
AR: I’d love some Jim ‘n’ Nicks! I eat breakfast at home, usually eggs or oatmeal, and weekdays usually eat lunch in the company canteen. All China Daily employees get one free meal each workday. Most days it’s good to palatable; this is authentic Chinese food, not the American version of Chinese cuisine you get back home. I was disappointed no one’s ever heard of egg foo yung here – it’s one of my favorite dishes.
We eat a lot of Sichuan pork, chicken and tofu dishes with vegetables like bok choy, eggplant and spinach at lunch, plus a broth soup – it’s like the Chinese version of a meat and three. I often make dinner. I’ve learned to make Thai and Indian curries and Chinese stir fries, or pick up something to go from Subway (it tastes just like at home!) or the noodle joint next door. Sometimes I go out to dinner with friends to a restaurant (Beijing is a city of 22 million, so there are lots of options, including Western cuisines) or their homes. One colleague is from Atlanta and his wife from Montgomery. She is a fabulous Southern cook and makes the most delicious ribs and cornbread. I never turn down a dinner invite to their home.
Weld: This is a pretty big softball, but I feel I should pitch it anyway: from your perspective, what are the Chinese people and their way of living like?
AR: I’d need a whole book to answer this and even then it wouldn’t be enough. Overall, the Chinese are just like people everywhere you go: most are nice, decent folk but every now and then you meet someone who isn’t.
I really love my Chinese friends. Since I arrived, everyone at China Daily has been friendly and helpful. The people, from the top brass to the ladies slinging tofu in the canteen, represent a cross-section of contemporary Chinese society. Just as in the West, the better education and connections you have, the more likely you are to get a good job and a comfortable lifestyle. People who are members of the Communist Party of China (it’s not automatic) have tremendous advantages over non-members in terms of opportunities.
There are 22 million people in Beijing and most live in confined spaces, small one or two bedroom apartments in high-rise buildings. The public parks are communal backyards where after work and on weekends you see many people enjoying outdoor activities such as walks or badminton. They’re also practicing tai chi, performing on musical instruments and singing.
While China is a Communist country, it is also a capitalistic one, with unprecedented economic growth since Deng Xiaoping led the effort to open up and modernize China following the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. In the decades since, millions have moved up out of poverty and into varying levels of the middle class, perhaps making the equivalent of $600-1,500 a month. But in this country of 1.2 billion people, millions, particularly migrant workers who leave their rural homes to work in the cities, remain as the working poor.
Chinese people love their families, small as most of them are due to the country’s one-child policy (that policy was recently expanded to allow for two children if the parents meet certain requirements, such as each parent is an only child). People generally retire before age 55, so they take care of their grandbaby while the parents work.
Sometimes infants and preschoolers actually live with their grandparents. I have a few Chinese friends whose parents don’t live in Beijing and they can’t afford an ayi, or nanny, so they send their babies to live with them. If they’re lucky, the child isn’t too far away, but I know of one woman whose son is with her parents in rural western China, a four-hour flight away. I couldn’t do that if I had a child.
Weld: Part of your gig is writing a weekly column as “Ms. Sunday,” answering questions from Chinese readers curious about what America’s like. What sorts of questions are you fielding?
AR: A very wide variety. I’ve been asked to comment on arcane points of English grammar, wedding customs, the availability of free WiFi in America, whether Chinese pop stars are famous in America, how English nicknames for toilets came to be and would I date a Chinese man? They also very much want to know what Americans think of China and the Chinese. The U.S. is their second most popular overseas tourist destination and thousands of wealthy families send their children to American high schools and colleges every year.
Weld: So, will an expat you remain or will you be heading homeward any time soon?
AR: I could come home when my contract is up, but I need a full-time job. As much as I’ve enjoyed my almost two years in China, it has its challenges, particularly those relating to the environment and access to information.
The smog can be very bad, particularly in the winter. You can’t drink water out of the tap – it has to be boiled or you buy bottled. The government is ramping up internet censorship and blocking VPNs. It’s more difficult than ever before to scale the “Great Firewall” and the access sites China bans, such as Facebook, YouTube, The New York Times or Google. It’s incredibly frustrating.
Plus, I really miss my family and my friends. My mom, who will be 83 next month, isn’t in the best of health and I’d like to be closer to her.
Follow Anne Ruisi’s Alabama Expat blog at anneruisi.tumblr.com and her regular reporting at chinadaily.com.cn.