a disgusting New Zealand Chinese news website

There is a Chinese version of this post in Bear's Blog China>>>>>>>
这篇日志在Bear's Blog China有中文版本>>>>>>>

Most Chinese media in New Zealand don't have much 'real journalism'. You don't expect to see first hand news except news happened inside the Chinese community. For news across the country what most Chinese media do is to translate English version into Chinese version.

But sadly most time you cannot expect  'word to word' translations because opinions and the way those media view the news story were added (and I believe that’s not very consistent with usual copyright agreements)Here is just a case about what kind of things a Chinese media is really thinking about:

Original news: Korean bus crash victim recovering, plans to stay in NZ - New Zealand Herald

A young Korean tourist who lost her arm in a bus crash last month plans to stay in New Zealand permanently.

Kuy-ri Suk, 19, was one of three people whose right arms were amputated after the bus carrying 15 tourists rolled on State Highway 1 near Tokoroa, on February 10...

...Her family had decided to establish a new home in Hamilton, in order to support her through the rehabilitation process...

When translated into Chinese, the title goes like this:

韩国少女看来只能用右手臂换取留身份在新西兰 (Korean girl gave up her right arm as the only way to get Premanent Residency in New Zealand.) - skykiwi.com

I sent a email immediately to protest this title , and there were also number of comments at end of the news page questioning whether the editor still 'has any humanity left'.

But what really disgusted me is the reply made by seems another editor of the site:

"...对于你提到的文章，事实是个无奈的选择，如果你是成年人，我相信你应该理解这个标题的意思。如果告诉你 用钱，或者其他来换取任何人的手臂，我相信这个事情很难办到。因为谁也不会去答应这样的交换，可是残酷的事实已经发生了，有点补偿难道你不需要吗？..."

Translation:

"...about the news item you have questioned, if you are an adult, you should understand the real meaning of the title. It is a fact that not many people will give up his right arm in exchange for money and other things. However as the incident happened already, don't you think there should be some forms of compensation?..."

"……我们也是本着还原新闻本质的观点出发，尽量想让大家去看到事件的真相。另外，good news is not a news。这就是我们的想法，对于你的批评我们会尽力改正，同时在看到你的这封信后，我已经及时更改了相应的题目。……"

Translation:

"... We were acted the way that restores the true stories behind the news in order to let our readers to see them. And we also think that "Good news is not a news". However, according to your complaint, we have changed the problem title immediately..."

That's it, no apologies at all. However the editor changed the title and also deleted all the comments that were questioning his humanity.

I have no interest to talk about his customer service style. It's for you to judge a customer service person that replies something like "if you are an adult you should understand the real meaning of the title" to an experienced Chinese writer and currently a Chinese columnist.

But what really amused me is that they don't even truly understand what they have done, or just acted like they don't know any thing about it. I believe any normal person would not reply something like "... We were acted the way that restores the true stories behind the news..." when dealing issues of this kind. So there are only two possibilities left: this interpreter/editor is either speaker of Martian language, or he really does not have any humanity left...

Skykiwi.com is one of the most famous Chinese news website in New Zealand. Mainstream media such as New Zealand Herald reference its Chinese community news frequently. I am hugely disappointed about the way skykiwi.com has acted and considering to make a formal complaint to related authority and boycott this website.

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