Jing Yidan: From School Newsreader to Master Host at CCTV

Jing Yidan， a well-known CCTV presenter， gave a talk at the lecture hall of the Zhejiang Library on September 10， 2011. She talked in detail about the primetime CCTV programs that made headlines across the country and incidentally have made her popularity with the nation.

Born into a government official’s family in April 1955 in Ha’erbin， the capital city of Heilongjiang Province in northeastern China， Jing Yidan has a gift for speaking the Mandarin in a voice suitable for radio and television. In primary school， her classmates as well as teachers found it pleasant to hear her read texts aloud in the classroom. As soon as she entered middle school， she was chosen to present news at the school’s radio， thus launching her toward a career of newsreader and presenter for radio and television programs. She dreamed of becoming a professional broadcaster.

In 1972， she went to a remote forest farm during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). During the chaotic years， most middle school graduates went to rural areas since there were no city jobs available. She became a radio broadcaster and journalist for the farm’s radio. For a few years， she single-handedly ran the poorly equipped wired broadcast system at the farm. After her good voice was discovered by the local forestry bureau， she was transferred to work as a broadcaster for the bureau’s public radio， where she matured as a radio journalist with her contributions broadcast and published at Heilongjiang Province’s radio and newspapers. In 1976， she went to Beijing Broadcasting Institute， the predecessor of today’s Communication University of China. After graduation， she came back to Heilongjiang and worked as a newsreader for the province’s radio. However， life and work there seemed not to be exciting enough. She longed for something big that her novice could describe and make meaningful.

To change her status quo， she entered her alma mater for a three-year graduate course in 1985. After graduation， she stayed at the institute to teach， but the eagerness to get her voice heard throughout China still prodded her to go on. She found employment at CCTV， China’s biggest national television network. The first few years saw her get herself familiarized with the nuts and bolts of television work. In order to put together a program， she learned to handle all the equipment. Her first job was to work as a news presenter for “30 Minutes for Economics.”

She did her work so well that in May 1993 she got herself a weekly eight-minute program named after her: “Yidan’s Topics.” She chose topics independently and did all the jobs except camera work. She rose to national fame through this program. In 1993， 1995 and 1997， she won the Golden Mike Prize in a row， a biennial award for China’s best radio and television presenters. The turning point of her career materialized in the winter of 1993 when she was offered a job at a 13-minute news investigation program still in the hatching. She did not join the program immediately until she finished all the remaining topics of her yearlong program at the end of 1994. She joined the team on the New Year’s Day of 1995.

The program is “Focus Report，” which gives CCTV an opportunity to play a watchdog role in exposing the seamy side of things. In those years， the national news media focused generally upon reporting the good side of everything and the program became an instant success. It caught the attention of the whole nation. People watched and responded. Letters flooded in. Some people even traveled all the way to the CCTV to report bad things and call for justice to correct wrongs.

Jing Yidan went through all these letters， but the program could not handle all the topics. She picked hundreds of them， penned comments， and edited them into a book titled “Voices”. The book focused on hot topics of those days such as poverty， education， corruption and reform of state-owned enterprises.

Zhu Rongji， who served as Chinese Premier from March 1998 to March 2003， came to meet the Focus Report team at CCTV on October 7， 1998. Jing Yidan was entrusted to carry out a mission impossible: she was to ask the premier to write an inscription. While working as a high-profile government leader， Zhu was famed for a number of self-imposed rules. He declined to write inscriptions for anyone or any organization on any occasion. Jing Yidan was successful in persuading the premier to break his own rule and write an inscription of sixteen characters for the program.

In the following rap session of his visit to the CCTV， Zhu chatted with the team， saying that he watched the program most enthusiastically and recommended it on various important occasions. Zhu said that CCTV needed such programs to help spot and solve problems， for without such programs， the government would not hear the people’s voice and there would be no democracy and supervision.

About ten years after Jing Yidan was at the helm of Focus Report， the team started another program “They Touch the heart of China，” a program that focuses on individuals whose deeds touch the heartstring of the Chinese people. Jing Yidan has been presenting the program for the ninth year up to now.

Nowadays， Jing Yidan is the producer of Orient Time， a morning program of the CCTV. Focus Report and They Touch the Heart of China are part of this program. In addition to the programs， Jing Yidan has also appeared in many major key programs and CCTV’s live coverage such as Hong Kong and Macao’s return to the Chinese sovereignty， the celebration of the advent of the new millennium， the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. She has won numerous honors for her work at CCTV.