"Original Soundtrack" Video Podcast | First-Episode Trailer

The conversation touched on how the interviewee had once viewed CCTV and its English channel: although he knew CCTV was the Party's propaganda mouthpiece, he had still believed that the English channel was subject to less control and that the people there had a more international outlook, and he believed that he could help improve it from within the system. The talk then turned to whether that idea was somewhat naive in hindsight, and to the intense hatred of journalism he felt when thinking about state security detention centers or residential surveillance.

Video link:

Full text:

What was your understanding of CCTV back then? Did you think of it as a news organization, or what kind of institution did you think it was? I always knew it was the mouthpiece of the Party's propaganda, but I always—perhaps wrongly—thought that the English channel was subject to less control, and that the people there also had a more international outlook.

I also used to think that, being inside the system, I could actually help it improve, or at least keep it from getting worse. Looking back now, do you think that idea was a bit naive at the time? It was, yes.

When you thought about the state security detention center or state security residential surveillance, you must have hated yourself to death, hated everything, hated journalism.