Finding Positive Solutions

   Today I had my first "meet the blogger behind the blog" experience - and I had to come all the way to Beijing for it.  I was over at China Daily meeting with an editor of the Beijing Weekend section.  It was good to meet the person who gave me the opportunity to write for a China-based audience.  And it seems that that opportunity will continue.  Last weekend they ran another one of my pieces (which asks the peculiar question: is a sperm donor a father?); and we talked about more columns in the future.

    After that rendezvous, I went downstairs and met Charlie, author of the Positive Solutions blog.   He is a British fellow who has been working there, polishing the English and editing page two of the main China Daily paper.  We chatted about CD and media in China generally.  Then, he showed me around the newsroom.  It was quiet, perhaps because it was close to 4 PM and their daily deadline is about noon; it was the lull after the rush to finish the day's paper.  I had never been inside such an operation in China before and it was instructive.

     As I sat in the back of the cab driving away from CD, I was thinking about how it relates to the concerns of the Chinese intellectuals I have been talking to.  They are worried that China is too much of a "taker" of global culture, and not enough of a "maker."  Well, if they ever want to overcome that situation, something will have to be done to spruce up and energize CD and other English-language media outlets.  CD is stodgy, not nearly a real player in global media.  Beijing Weekend tries to be fun and colorful and hip, but it is local to Beijing.  And much more could be done to diversify CD's writing and topics.

     Of course, a key obstacle in transforming China Daily is the continuing dominance of ideological correctness.  As long as the Party holds the reins, CD, and other English-language Chinese media, will never garner much of a global audience.  And if Chinese media are second or third runners, new Chinese intellectual trends and cultural products will be blocked from flowing to a wider global audience.

     So, here is my suggestion for a "positive solution:"  Lighten up China Daily.

     Below the fold is my most recent Beijing Weekend piece, which may not live up to the suggestion I make above (i.e. it is a bit stodgy itself).

There's something bigger to being a father figure
By Sam Crane(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-10-27 09:10

Here's a peculiarly modern concern: is a sperm donor a "father?"

This odd question was raised in a newspaper article I chanced upon recently. It recounted the story of an American mother who had conceived a child with the help of anonymously donated sperm at a reproductive therapy centre. She noticed that the child had symptoms of autism and she was desperate to discover more medical information about the biological "father."

The business responsible for managing the insemination (yes, it is a profit-making business) has a strict policy of confidentiality to protect the identity of its paid sperm donors. So, the mother used what little information she had, including an identification number 3066 of the donor, and set up a website seeking information from other mothers who may have used the same sperm.

The story has a happy ending of sorts. A support group was formed to share medical information about the various children involved, and some of the kids actually met each other. They called each other "brother" and "sister."

Now, there are several points about this story that bother me. For one: should we really be relying on profit-driven companies to manage such delicate reproductive issues?

But let me focus on another matter here: the definition of a "father."

It seems to me that sperm donors are not fathers and should not be considered fathers in any sense. That is, at least, what I believe a Confucian consideration of the issue would conclude.

A father, for Confucius, is not simply a biological role. It is an immediate and continual personal responsibility. Fathers must be involved in the life-long care and cultivation of their children. This may not mean changing every diaper (I doubt Confucius himself did that!) but it does entail orienting ones thoughts and actions toward the integrity of the family, children included.

There are a number of places in The Analects where Confucius tells fathers to care for their children. Perhaps most famously, in passage 13.18, he suggests that fathers should protect sons, even when they may have broken a law, just as sons should protect fathers. He also says that we should "hold the young in awe" (9.23) and "cherish the young" (5.25).

But most interesting is passage 8.6, where one of his leading disciples, Master Tseng, says: "A man who can be entrusted with a small orphan or large state, who faces a great crisis and remains unshaken is he not noble-minded? He is indeed noble-minded."

The care of a young child is thus equated with the management of a large state. A man who can fulfil that duty is "indeed noble-minded," just as is the leader of a great state.

That fatherly responsibility entails more than just bringing home some money and letting the mother do all the work. A father should not be his son's school teacher, according to Confucius, because that might introduce ill will into the filial relationship.

Fathers must, however, exemplify moral behaviour, and that is a daily task that requires constant attention and care.

So, providing a bit of sperm does not make a father. The various offspring of a common sperm donor are not "brothers" and "sisters." Although it is a good thing for sperm donors to be forthcoming about their medical histories for pragmatic medical reasons, they have no obligation for the children conceived with their genetic material, and should be given no special consideration in regards to the children's educational or economic accomplishments.

Parental rights and responsibilities are personally and socially performed, they are not biologically determined.

Comments

[Pete]

You're not the first and you certainly won't be the last to make suggestions on how to improve China Daily. Huixing Dongjie is littered with the screwed up plans of scores of well-meaning former editors who thought they too could improve China Daily. The Chinese staff listen to these suggestions, nod their heads and agree. And nothing ever changes.

Oh and the "newsroom" is never busy even on 'deadline' [what deadlines?] The place where the English polishers sit is not a newsroom, it's just a quiet corner where some laowais correct the mangled Engish of the Chinese hacks.