Desperate for a Story

There's one more day before the two sessions, (两会) liang hui end tomorrow.

And besides the proposals delegates bring up, ranging from the repetitious in terms of suggesting things that have already been made into law to the strange, like making divorce harder to decrease divorce numbers, there isn't much drama or action going on in the Great Hall of the People.

The media find it hard enough as it is to constantly pan the gigantic room that is mostly filled with men with desperate comb-overs and ultra-conservative dress.

So the next best thing cameramen and photographers find are women from ethnic minorities who are forced to wear elaborate but colourful costumes. These people only get attention for their fashions, not for who they are or their proposals. It reinforces the belief that the National People's Congress is a show.

And even better are shots and stories of attractive women who are either participating in the event or covering it.

The Chinese media seem to zoom in on attractive delegates and to avoid being too sexist, talk about these women's accomplishments and proposals.

At the same time they talk about stunning-looking reporters who ask questions at the massive press conferences or more recently about a female assistant from the Xinhua News Agency using her good looks and physically manhandling delegates to do on-the-spot interviews.

Is this what the two sessions have been reduced to? Over a week of coverage based on superficial looks and the media talking about its own colleagues covering the event?

It only shows how monotonous these lawmaking sessions are and how desperate the media are in finding stories.

If everyone weren't so tight-lipped about everything and just learn to talk about nothing, then at least the media would have something.