MODELOS HIDROLÓGICOS - REVISIÓN DE LITERATURA

2. REVISIÓN DE LITERATURA

2.4 MODELOS HIDROLÓGICOS

For present purposes the development of television in Hong Kong can be traced back to May 1957, when the Hong Kong branch of the British televi-sion company Rediffutelevi-sion established the first televitelevi-sion station in the colony.

Initially, Rediffusion operated only a few subscription channels in English, and, as English was not the main language spoken by the majority of the Hong Kong population, the station had a very small audience, mainly consisting of expatriates and better-educated members of the local elite. However, in 1963 Rediffusion introduced a Chinese channel which was to become not only the first Chinese television channel in Hong Kong but also the world. In April 1973 Rediffusion was granted a free-to-air broadcasting licence and transformed itself into a terrestrial broadcasting service, with the title of the company also changing to that of Rediffusion Television Limited (RTV). In 1982 RTV was again renamed, this time as Asia Television Limited (ATV), offering two free channels: the Chinese ‘Home’ channel and the English ‘World’ channel. ATV remains today as one of the two terrestrial broadcasters in Hong Kong.

As Hong Kong’s first and only television station, Rediffusion initially exer-cised monopoly control over the television industry in the colony. However, the company’s decade of hegemony came to an abrupt end in November 1967 when Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) was established as the first free-to-air terrestrial commercial television service in Hong Kong, offering services in both English and Cantonese. The launch of TVB provided an opportunity for the rapid and enhanced dissemination of local, popular Cantonese culture.

However impecunious sectors of the audience may have been, the purchase of a low-cost television set was now all that was required to view a considerable volume of soap operas, variety programmes, chat-shows and filmed Cantonese operas. Just as Cantonese commercial film was disappearing from the cinemas under pressure from a dominant Mandarin cinema, therefore, Cantonese popular culture found a new mode of mass-media expression in television.¹² TVB offered, and still offers today, two free-to-air channels: the Chinese ‘Jade’

and English ‘Pearl’ channels; and Jade, in particular, quickly came to dominate the local television market, sometimes securing up to 90 per cent of prime-time ratings.¹³ In September 1975 a third commercial television channel, Commercial Television (CTV), was established. However, the presence of three commercial channels during the 1970s created intense competition, and CTV soon went out of business in August 1978, in part because of that compe-tition, and in part because, unlike the other two broadcasters, it was required by the colonial government to broadcast some relatively unpopular ‘educa-tional’ programmes. During the 1970s television became a mass medium in Hong Kong, with over 90 per cent of the population possessing a television set by 1976; and television had now also become the most important means of shaping and facilitating a growing sense of Hong Kong culture and identity amongst the local population.

TVB and ATV remain the only two free-to-air terrestrial broadcasters in Hong Kong to the present day. Both are widely considered to be pro-Beijing institutions at the level of their management, with ATV the more so, and TVB also earning the ironic designation of ‘CCTVB’ (CCTV being the official mainland broadcaster). From 1977 onwards TVB made individual documen-tary films at the estimated rate of two per year. Films winning international awards include The Elderly (1977), Which Child is This (1978), I Quit (1979), Bless The Wives and the Children (1985), and China Reforms (1985). A film such as China Reforms also provides an insight into the already partisan alignment of TVB at this time. China Reforms only tackles the issue of political reform in China in a marginal way, and is mainly concerned with the impact of economic reforms instituted in the early 1980s. The picture that emerges here is a reas-suring one for the Hong Kong establishment: China is modernising, and devel-oping an economy that is increasingly business-friendly; with new, relatively autonomous managers taking over previously parochial state-run monopolies.

Various problems arising from these developments are discussed in the film, and leftist resistance to the economic reforms is touched on. However, the film does not criticise the central PRC authorities in any way, and does not, for example, address controversial issues of the day such as far-reaching corrup-tion and nepotism. This is all the more surprising in that the film does mencorrup-tion that, as the reforms proceed, the new managers who are being shoehorned into important economic and political positions are actually the progeny of

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elite communist families. China Reforms does not indicate that there might be a problem with this, from any ethical or equitable point of view, and this lack of indication also reaches levels of high irony when one of the elite cadres is introduced. We are presented with a youthful Bo Xilai and informed that, as a member of one of the leading communist dynasties, he is being showered with a considerable number of high-ranking positions. Today, at the time of writing in 2013, Bo is under house-arrest awaiting trial, whilst his wife languishes in prison, convicted of murdering a British businessman. Part of the irony here is also that Bo did not encounter the wrath of the Central Government in 2012 because he was trying to institute modernising reform, as China Reforms claims he was in 1985, but because he was attempting to reinstate a pre-reform period

‘red’ Maoist system within the province of which he was governor.

It will not be possible to cover the documentary films of TVB in any depth in this chapter due to limitations of wordage, and because the principal focus of the chapter is RTHK. In addition, and for similar reasons of unavoidable restrictions on scope, the focus here will be on the films rather than the indi-viduals who made the films. There are many such indiindi-viduals involved, and they cannot all be considered here, though this is not to gainsay their achieve-ments. In addition, these films are the product of teamwork, rather than indi-vidual authorship, and this provides a further rationale for regarding them as texts which have a relationship to their parent institution and historical context, rather than individual authorship. However, one point that needs to be made here in relation to this issue, and as regarding TVB, is that whilst the organisation itself may be evidently pro-Beijing, it does not necessarily follow from this that the documentary film-makers who work for the station are simi-larly so. Rather, it is more often a case of film-makers attempting to secure a requisite degree of editorial freedom within a sometimes unpropitious frame-work. Having said this, though, the evidence over the years does suggest, for one reason or another, a certain tendency to be ‘respectful’ rather than overly critical of the PRC. This attitude is clearly signalled in China Reforms, and can also be found in other films, including some – but not all – made on the subject of the Tiananmen massacre.

TVB documentary film-makers made a number of films on the China student protest movement just before and shortly after the massacre of 4 June 1989, and one film which deserves special mention here is Spring of Discontent, which appeared just before it, on 2 June 1989. Spring of Discontent is a remark-able and grippingly effective example of direct cinema, in which the film- makers interact, and also identify, with the student demonstrators. Unusually for TVB, the film contains virtually no commentary, and, instead, allows the protestors to speak for themselves. The passion and resolve of the demonstra-tors is vividly captured here, as they demand ‘freedom’ ‘democracy’ and the rule of law; and as they ridicule a ‘senile’ Deng Xiaoping. What also comes

through here is the mammoth scale of the demonstrations, with over a million people marching at one point. Spring of Discontent is one of the foremost achievements of the Hong Kong documentary film, and would have a consid-erable impact were it to be shown today. Nevertheless, things changed quickly.

The Long March (July 1989) (that is, the ‘long march’ of the student demonstra-tions from early 1989 to 4 June, not the Maoist ‘Long March’ of 1934), made only one month after the massacre, provides a history of the demonstrations, but hardly mentions the massacre, and contains no criticism of the military crackdown; whilst the over-arching tone of another film, June 4th: One Year On (June 1990), is of the PRC seeking ‘stability’ and social ‘improvement’. In place of the visceral direct-cinema cinematography of Spring of Discontent, we now have a conventional studio discussion, in which comfortably seated guests coolly discuss the aftermath of massacre. As with The Long March, there is little criticism of the PRC or the military crackdown here.

From the mid-1990s onwards TVB appears to have ceased to make signifi-cant one-off documentary films and today mainly relies on its weekly current affairs programmes, The Pearl Report and Sunday Report, approximately 20 minutes long and in English and Cantonese respectively, which mainly cover social and sometimes political matters in Hong Kong, but which, by virtue of a pressing itinerary, are rarely able to cover subjects in great or incisive depth. In the earlier period, shortly after Tiananmen, a pronounced pro-Beijing bias also appears evident in at least some of these films. For example, Patten v China (1992) covers the debate over the reforms instituted by the Governor, Sir Christopher Patten, in 1992. The programme, a studio discus-sion involving three guests and a presenter, is, overall, critical of the reforms.

For example, at one point the expatriate presenter, departing from a neutral position, suggests that ‘Britain was changing the goalposts here’, and, later, the same presenter opines that the reforms do ‘not honour the spirit of the 1984 Accord’. One of the guests, an expatriate representing one of the elite financial corporations in Hong Kong, reinforces this position by claiming that the Patten reforms had ‘fundamentally moved away from the 1984 agreement’

and were ‘tantamount to full democracy’. This latter charge, which is patently untrue, is not challenged. Another example that could be cited in this respect of apparent institutional bias is Human Rights in China (1993), which gives the general impression, and one not backed up by much evidence, that human rights abuse was decreasing in China in the early 1990s. Human Rights in China focuses mainly on suppression of religious, rather than political, rights, and this emphasis has the effect of diverting the programme away from issues related to political dissent. What these two films also illustrate is the growing polarisation taking place within Hong Kong society at the time between the business elite, who mainly wanted economic stability and continuance and therefore increasingly aligned themselves with Beijing, and the colonial

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administration and pro-democrats, who insisted upon the need for democratic reform.

It is also important to note that whilst the two TVB films just mentioned display an apparent China favouritism, this was not necessarily true of all the documentary films produced by TVB after 1990, and a change to this does seem to have occurred around 1994. Having said earlier that the contribution of individual figures within the film-making process would not be covered in this chapter, an exception does nonetheless have to be made here in the case of Diana Lin. In 1994 Lin was the presenter in a Pearl Report film featuring inter-views with both Chris Patten and Lu Ping, the then Director of the Hong Kong Macau Affairs Office. The contrast with the 1992 Pearl Report film Patten v China is stark here as Lin fires questions at a visibly discomforted Ping, who is clearly not used to this sort of treatment. After a while Ping abruptly declares that he has had enough and walks out of the room, leaving a still-seated Lin gazing fixedly at the floor. In contrast to the haughty Ping, Patten comes over as a sophisticated, relaxed politician in his interview, and even looks relatively youthful. However, in a later 1996 Pearl Report film, in which Patten, with only ‘500 days’ of his governorship remaining, is interviewed in depth, things have clearly changed. By this time the PRC has broken off negotiations, and, in two years, Patten appears to have aged considerably. Now grey-haired and with pronounced bags under his eyes, he appears both defensive and defiant in denying that his ‘remaining 500 days will be only ceremonial’.

By 1996 Diana Lin had become both presenter and executive producer of the Pearl Report, and her impact comes through strongly in both the 1996 interview with Patten and a 1997 film made just months before the handover, entitled RTHK’s Future. This 60-minute Pearl Report ‘special’ examines the prospects for RTHK following the retrocession, and, although one prominent pro-Beijing newspaper owner appears to be given more air-time than any pro-democracy figure, the programme remains commendably balanced in the face of the many criticisms being levelled at RTHK by pro-Beijing figures at the time. Whether or not Lin’s superintendence was responsible for the equitable approach evident in RTHK’s Future can only be a matter for specu-lation. However, in a 2004 film entitled Doomed Democracy, which deals with Beijing’s refusal to grant Hong Kong universal franchise to elect the Chief Executive and Legislative Council in 2007–8, Lin is not even-handed at all.

Far from echoing the pro-Beijing partiality of the 1990–3 period, she is, in contrast, forthrightly partial here in asserting that the decision of the Central Government has rung ‘the death knell to Hong Kong’s hopes for democracy’

(though such forthrightness has also to be set against the context of the wide-spread anger and gloom felt in Hong Kong following the decision to rescind the elections). Lin would go on to lead the Pearl Report from 1996 to the present day of writing, and her impact has been considerable.

In addition to one-off programmes, the Pearl Report and its Cantonese counterpart have, over the years, clustered films together to form mini-series on subjects such as Tiananmen, the handover, SARS, Taiwan and reform in China. For example, in terms of the last of these, TVB made a four-part series on it in Cantonese in 1992, and, in 2009, a three-part series in both Cantonese and English. Although it will not be possible to explore these and other series in this chapter, a brief outline of the English series on reform in China will provide a serviceable summary of what the Pearl Report was able to do in the recent past, and what it is able to do today. 60 Years a Nation con-sists of three programmes: Born in 1949, The Absolute Principal, and Beyond Propaganda. In Born in 1949 a number of individuals born in 1949, including intellectuals, workers and rural farmers, are interviewed in their own living spaces. However, the oral-history approach adopted here tends to emphasise the human interest rather than political aspects of the stories. The overall feel of the film is nostalgic, lyrical, and safely uncritical of the present-day PRC.

The phrase The Absolute Principle is a reference to Deng Xiaoping’s state-ment that ‘developstate-ment’ was the ‘absolute principle’ which superseded all other concerns in modern China governance. However, whilst the film covers the impact of rapid economic development on ordinary people and shows us examples of human suffering arising from such development, there is no great criticism of the authorities here, and no evident tragedies; and, in contrast to such criticism and evidence, and through numerous interviews with gov-ernment functionaries, parts of the film even appear to eulogise the massive economic development taking place. The third film in the series, Beyond Propaganda, on the development of China ‘soft power’ as a public relations instrument, is mild indeed, and could never trouble any governing official in either Beijing or Hong Kong. This is the sort of relatively low-key path which the Pearl Report must still travel today, and another good example of this approach, also from 2009, is a film which purports to mark the twentieth anniversary of Tiananmen. Rather than focus on the profound political issues involved here, Passing the Baton focuses on a non-conforming President of the Hong Kong University Students Union, and the attempt by the student body to impeach him on account of his revisionist views on the Tiananmen massacre. This quirky and low-key stance towards such an important subject does not serve the Pearl Report particularly well, and there is even a hint of TVB pro-Beijing bias here, as the youthful impeached President is seen to be, to some extent, the ‘victim’ of an entrenched and ‘closed-minded’ view of Tiananmen as PRC atrocity.

However, and to reiterate, a film such as that just referred to, and other examples also given here, do not ineludibly indicate that the film-makers involved have compromised, and the reality is that they continue to do what they can within restrictive frameworks, whilst also working within an

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institution which is increasingly pro-Beijing and increasingly prone to inter-ference in matters of journalistic editorial judgment. As with ATV, which will be discussed next, film-makers (and News Office staff) at TVB have, from time to time, also strongly and publicly objected to the partisan approach adopted by their employer, and have exposed what they took to be unfair practices and unacceptable interference in editorial autonomy. In 2004, for example, a number of staff in the ATV newsroom resigned in protest at such practices and interference, creating a considerable amount of negative publicity for the broadcaster as a consequence. Finally, and also to restate once again, this time in the past tense, it has not been possible to cover the documentary films of TVB in any depth in this chapter, though it is expected that will take place in later publications.

ATV has produced a number of current-affairs documentary film series over the years. As with TVB, it will not be possible to explore these in depth here, and neither will it be possible to discuss the roles and achievements of particular film-makers, for the various reasons already given in this chapter.

However, an overall study of the output of ATV has been carried out, and will be presented in outline. In addition, some films will also be explored in a degree of depth where possible. ATV’s News Magazine, the Cantonese equiva-lent of the TVB Sunday Report, has been produced since 1988, but a number of the films produced in this series have been lost, and are not available for

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