Analysis

Common sense, rationality needed for society: CCTV host

By Zhang Jiawei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-02-08 15:15

Chinese society needs to show respect to common sense, think rationally in government administration, including pursuing its democracy model, and search for beliefs amidst the rapid economic growth, said Bai Yansong, China's leading television host, in an interview with the Beijing News.

In a commentary published on Saturday Feb. 2, the acclaimed anchorman said that there was a time when Chinese people's common sense was distorted by politics or manipulated by some people's interests. Bai criticized that during the Cultural Revolution people exaggerated that millions of kilograms of grains were produced on a very small piece of farmland in a single year, with many people believing the ridiculous numbers.

Even today people's common sense may be still affected by unethical media reports due to economic interests. A so-called medical expert preached his "healthy diet", implying that many types of traditional foods that Chinese people have lived on for thousands of years were harmful. No media stood out to question him and finally it turned out that he was misleading the public and distorting people's common senses to benefit himself. Although the expert was eventually sentenced for his crime, the case made people worry that economic interests were challenging people's common senses, Bai said.

To construct rational thinking is also important for the Chinese government as well as the whole society. The Communist Party of China has changed from a revolutionary party into a governing party, assuming the role of serving the whole society that includes people it likes and hates, which requires the party to act very rationally, Bai said.

Rationality, Bai said, should also be an important characteristic of people living in this large country.

He said a lot of things were sensitive in the past and people were confused about what to say and what not to say. Last year CCTV broadcast Premier Wen Jiabao being attacked by shoes when giving a lecture, which was considered a very sensitive thing but nothing happened, he said.

The power of sensitivity is strong and will grow even stronger when you think it is sensitive, but when you treat it brightly or even ignore it, it will just die out, according to Bai.

In regard with the government's role in constructing rationality, Bai said the government's rationality depends on the shift of governing the country by people to governing it by law.