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Vivacious Olympic City Energizes French

“I pushed our television station in France to make the decision. After two years’ efforts, we finally came to Beijing. I insisted in establishing the office in Beijing rather than Shanghai, even though there are more French living in Shanghai,” the Oriental Paris. “The reason is that I believe there are more interesting stories in Beijing and it is approaching 2008 Olympics,” said Dufour, now the Beijing Bureau Chief of TF1.

“Now we do about five feature reports on Beijing per month. And we have regular news about Beijing every few days. If there are important events like the French president visiting China, we definitely increase our reporting. Besides, there is at least one report on the progress of the Olympic competition venues every two months. Compared with what happened four years ago at Athens, Beijing is developing and changing really fast,” Dufour said during an interview with Beijing 2008.

“Before I came here, some of my friends thought China was backward. Of course, the perception is outdated. Now I feel it is even more convenient to live in Beijing than in Paris. My wife and colleagues, who have come to China, have the same feeling. There are few countries in the world that have so many chances for one’s career and offer such an interesting life. Maybe, besides the USA, there is no any other country that is so exciting for reporters.”

He said TF1’s workload is increasing because of the 2008 Games. “From next spring to the summer before the Games, we will increase our reports on Beijing in different aspects. During the Games time, definitely there will be more sports reporting. Now we have four journalists and the number will increase to 20–30 by then.”

TF1, as the biggest general and family oriented TV network in France, does a wide range of reporting, with more features than news. “Unlike many TV stations in the US, we do more features about daily life rather than politics and economy.

“We pay much attention to people’s lives in Beijing. We did reporting on the relocation of people who used to live near 2008 Olympics venues. And we find they are happy to move into new, spacious and nice apartment buildings. We’re also interested in Beijing’s efforts to preserve its best, such as ancient architecture and hutong. There are cooperation projects between French organizations and Chinese Government to preserve the old hutong. We have done lots of stories on people’s daily lives such as the renovations of toilets. They are trivial, but closely related to their lives.”

Another example is reporting on China’s college entrance exams for high school students. “It is the same in France. We also have such a day when parents are anxiously awaiting the results. We report it so that our audiences in France can compare. Our focus is on ordinary people, so we seldom interview officials. We have interviewed BOCOG officials only twice.”

There are also lots of reports on the city’s environment: “Pollution is the biggest problem for Beijing. It is difficult to exercises in the open air. In Beijing, the number of cars is increasing every day and this leads to pollution and traffic jams. I think pollution is a more serious problem than traffic jams. Beijing should think out solutions. For example, in Europe, there is a limit on the number of new cars, and it is expensive to drive and park cars in the central area of a city.

“For ‘soft’ environment, the citizens are quite friendly and warm-hearted; behaviours such as spitting or rolling up their clothes are not encouraged.”

In addition to ordinary people’s daily lives, TF1 is also interested in Chinese athletes. “We have interviewed Liu Xiang. Though the application process for an interview was long, the interview went well. He is quite nice and easy-going. It is interesting to find that athletes from China and France are both inclined to talk about different topics. The French athletes will probably tell you about his childhood; while the Chinese counterparts about what is important for an athlete.”

 Recently, more and more French people come to Beijing, with 10,000–15,000 French living in the city. Hence, TF1 has been covering their lives here. “It is easy to rent an apartment in Beijing. In Paris, it is almost impossible. So the first thing a French person cares about before coming to China is if they can find an apartment. After arrival, they find life is quite relaxing here. Things are quite cheap. And you can shop till late even on Sundays. Many of my friends came as singles and go back to France being married.”

However, he admits TF1’s staff also meet with some difficulties when working in China. “Reporting in China is much easier than 15–20 years ago. It is changing. But, by far, the Regulations on Reporting Activities in China by Foreign Journalists during the Beijing Olympic Games and Preparatory Period hasn’t brought too many changes to the situation in provinces. There are still many problems in China. We don’t know if we can cover these problems easily during the Games time. It is a great challenge for China. And we hope more freedom can be given to the media.”

During past three years in China, Dufour has strongly felt the relation between two countries is getting closer. “The Sino–French Culture Year is an example. I remember in 2004, millions of French people went to see Chinese artists’ performances on the Champs-Elyseés. And Chinese-language schools are booming in France. I flew on Air France and was amazed to find that 42 people were on waiting list from France to China. In addition, Carrefour is now quite popular in Beijing. The National Grand Theatre is designed by French designer Paul Andreu.

“Yves Pepin, president of French company ECA2, was selected as one of the three culture and art advisers for 2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony. Actually we are very jealous of Beijing’s successful bid in 2001. At that time, it had seemed to me that Paris was surer to succeed in the bid.”