It was 7pm. CCTV’s (China Central Television) news programme was about to begin. My father, a faithful Communist civil servant, had just finished his Lantern Festival dinner. He stopped chatting and went straight to the living room to switch on the TV. It has been a daily routine for him to watch CCTV’s 7pm news programme for as long as I can remember. It somehow makes him feel connected with his party, the party leaders and a harmonious utopian-type society that he was promised. I am not a communist and I dislike CCTV’s tone of news presentation. However, I decided to accompany my father to watch it on this particular evening, as he was leaving me the next day to go back to his home which is thousands’ of miles away, and this was the last few hours that we would be together.

CCTV’s evening news is perhaps one of the most-watched TV programmes in China. It has been broadcast for 32 years, since 1978. It is sponsored by the Chinese Communist Party and functions as the mouthpiece of the Party and its central government in Beijing. For many Chinese like my father, what is said on CCTV’s evening news constitutes the beliefs, values, attitudes and judgments of their public lives, perhaps even their private ones. It has been successful communist propaganda. This orientation makes CCTV’s evening news different from those of commercial TV channels in democratic countries in terms of news paradigms, but its news production process similarly reflects upon the idea of ‘routinised news’ to some extent. More importantly, through a number of routinised operations CCTV also makes itself a daily routine for many Chinese people.

CCTV’s evening news runs for half an hour, without any commercial breaks. The programme is broadcast at the same time slot every day. Only on very exceptional occasions will it run a little bit longer until 7.45pm. This time arrangement on the one hand routinises the news broadcasting, and on the other, makes it a daily routine for the viewers. A typical Chinese, like my father, in a typical small town on a typical working day usually finishes work at 5.30pm, returns home by 6pm, spending around an hour on necessary household chores, and then sits in front of TV at exactly 7pm – nothing can drag him away until he hears the familiar music which marks the end of the news programme. Unsurprisingly, the CCTV evening news perfectly matches the rhythm of an average Chinese’s everyday life, and this is one of the reasons for it to make itself a routine for its viewers.

On an ordinary day like this one, my father would not expect to see any difference in the makeup of the show. Firstly, there are always two anchors: a man and a woman with proper posture and light smile, serious and authoritative. Secondly, the dress code of the news anchors: the male anchor usually wears a blue or grey suit and tie, with the female anchor usually in lighter colors. If there is a difference, it would give him a sense that something unusual happened: for example, if the anchors are both dressed in black it probably means an important national leader has died (e.g. Deng Xiaoping) or a dramatic national tragedy has occurred (e.g. Wenchuan Quake); if both are in red it signifies an important occasion (e.g. New Year’s Eve, or the opening day of Beijing Olympics). On this particular day, a male anchor in a grey suit and a female anchor dressed in purple greet us on the screen in the usual monotonous tone: “Good evening, viewers. Today is Sunday the 28th of February, Lunar calendar 15th of January, the Lantern Festival. Welcome to CCTV Evening News…”

Most CCTV viewers know that the news will be read according to an unchangeable order: activities of national leaders appear first, followed by news from the central government and Central Party committee, then the army and different provinces, ending with some international news. Around 25 minutes are devoted to the national reports, while five minutes are given to international events.

In today’s programme, the first item is about Chinese President Hu Jingtao expressing his sympathy to victims of Chile earthquake, with the entire letter written to Chile’s President read out word for word. This kind of news is perhaps too boring for people of my generation, but for viewers like my father, seeing the president appearing on CCTV’s 7pm news is a ritual. If he does not see him, he would be suspicious: is he seriously ill? Is he going to retire? Moreover, it is always expected for the President to appear earlier than the Premier, who is in turn reported earlier than other Politburo members. If the news about the Vice President, for example, goes before the Premier, my father would again question why. This expectation is the result of a long-standing routine of CCTV’s evening news, in which the order of broadcasting strictly coincides with the rank order of politicians’ position in the power ladder. Consequently, viewers develop their expectation and sensibility to party politics according to this routinlised news production.

Next is regional news. Usually CCTV will balance the news among different provinces, creating a sense that people in every corner of the country are included equally in this ‘big Communist family’. China has 24 such provinces, by the way. My father usually pays special attention to the news about his province (Hubei Province) and the province in which his children live (Guangdong Province). If he didn’t see these two provinces being mentioned he would probably feel upset because he lost his connectedness. The reason is partly because he is in too low a position in the social and political hierarchy to ever be important in the country’s public arena, so he needs some illusionary things to make him feel that he is not forgotten. CCTV created such an illusion for him through its balancing tactic of news operation.

My father does not really care about the international news. Based on his viewing experience of CCTV’s news programme, he has the impression that foreign people are strange: they quarrel, they fight, they struggle, they do not live in peace, etc. This evening is the same: an earthquake in Chile, a storm and flood in Spain, and ‘useless’ hi-tech shipping in Germany. In contrast, in his own country people are dancing, smiling and celebrating the Lantern Festival, politicians are having important meetings, the army is rescuing people from heavy snow, and local officials are digging fresh water for the villagers. All in all, he is in a harmonious society where people love each other, and they all love the Party, the government and the army.

He does not need to know how these news stories were chosen for him, how his feelings are ‘produced’ by others, or how biased it may be; neither does he bother asking why. He cannot afford not viewing this routinised news programme every day. It is his routine, his ritual, his means of public engagement, and his source of strength being a Communist. This evening was like thousands of others: he watched the news and then turned off the TV set, feeling secure and satisfied, and carried on with other daily routines.

Link to CCTV’s evening news on 28 Feb 2010:

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/niSxbzm9bMY/