Fan Changjiang

Background

Fan Changjiang (1909~Oct 1970), a famous author, journalist and reporter in China, was born in Sichuan Province. He was educated in Peking University and major in philosophy. He started his career as a journalist in 1933. He was sent to the northwest of China by 《大公報》as a string correspondent in 1935. At that time, he editorialized a series of news which sensationalized the public and these news were later anthologized in a book called 《中國的西北角》. On 8th of November 1937, Fan established the Chinese Young Journalists Association with Yang Zao and Xu Mai Jin and was elected as the chief executive officer of the association.Nowadays, the Chinese Communist Party or even People's Reublic of China also set this day as "Day of Journalist"(記者節) in order to appreciate the virtue of our journalist, such as serving the public, contributing to our country, concerning about the society. In the same year, he cofound the International News Association (國際新聞社) with Hu Yu Chi in ChangSha. In 1939, he joined the Chinese Communist party and was one of the people who established <華商報>in Hong Kong. He also took up the posts of the president of <新華社華中總分社> and <新華日報> and the principal of <華中新聞專科學校>. In July 1949, he established the All-China Journalists Association with Hu Qia Mu and many other famous journalists. In 1991, Fan Changjiang Journalism Awards was established by the the Chinese Journalists Association Committee in order to encourage those young journalists in China. Fan Changjiang is considered as one of the most preeminent journalists in Chinese history. He had written a hugh number of outstanding news articles and taken up a lot of leading positions in this field. His style of writing are considered as very modern, righteous and vivid. As the president of the Chinese Journalists Association Committe, he always focused on the overall development of the journalism in China. He once said, "A telegraph, a letter or a news article always influences the attitude of the readers towards the war, it influences the feeling of the soldiers in the front line and it also influences the morale of the workers at the back." Fan emphazied that journalism plays an extremely important role during war, he requests all journalists to have a very respectable personality, an important sense of reponsibility and an outstanding quality in news reporting.

China Young Journalists Association

Six principles were set for China Young Journalists Association members. There are self-improvement, self-perfection, uphold consensus will, promote journalistic development, protect public benefits and develop national spirit.

Fang Changjiang wrote an article called ‘How to be a news reporter’(怎麼做新聞記者) in 1940. There are 3 main themes in it about what reporter should be. First of all, a reporter should have his/her own political standpoint. Secondly, one should have moral principle and fight for the truth. Finally, reporter should keep seeking knowledge. Not only to be proficiency in one foreign language, but also know about typing, photography, driving and equitation.

Fan Changjiang Journalism Awards

Fan Changjiang Journalism Awards is one of the three national journalists awards (Fan Changjiang Journalism Awards, Taofen Journalism Awards and Top 100 Journalists) issued by the All-China Journalists Association (ACJA). This is a prize for middle-age and young journalists. It is named because of Fan’s bold and objective coverage of the Chinese Revolution led by the Communist Party of China against the Kuomintang regime. The award started in 1991 and the latest sixth Fan Changjiang Journalism Awards was announced on September 22, 2004. Beginning in 2000, the award is issued by the ACJA every two years (with the other two awards simultaneously). Up to the third Fan Changjiang Journalism Awards, 10 reporters would receive the award and 30 reporters would receive the nominated award each time. But the nominated awards were canceled started from the fourth Awards. There were 59 reporters received this award in total. The nominee should age below 50 and have a minimum of 10-years successive reporter experience.