[Only in Beijing] My First Television Crew【北京独有】我第一个电视团队

Two weeks ago, I made my Chinese television debut. The opportunity for airtime arose serendipitously. After my office’s weekly Sunday afternoon conference, I was strolling through Peking University with one of my co-workers. Rounding the picturesque Weiming Lake, we were approached by a spunky Chinese girl with chunky bracelets and platform Converse shoes. Her name was Mengmeng–a 24-year-old director at Phoenix Television. Mengmeng needed a Mandarin-speaking foreigner to help test the English language skills of the Peking University security guards.

As Mengmeng explained, the security guards at Peking University have fostered a culture of self-study with hopes of testing into university programs. To date, over 300 Peking University security guards have successfully gained college admittance, including dozens into Peking University itself, the top-ranked university in China. Many never finished high school, but China’s gaokao college entrance exam serves as a great equalizer for applicants. The story sounded far too intriguing to pass up.

The day of filming, I met the rest of the production team, including a chain-smoking cameraman and Molly, a London-educated Beijinger who showed me pictures on her iPhone of the banana bread she baked in her swanky downtown apartment. Molly helped me conceal a portable microphone beneath my shirt. Feeling as clandestine as Bond himself, I made my way to the first security guard as the camera crew hid behind the bushes.

Without betraying my Mandarin ability, I would use English to ask for directions to the library. My first victim had just arrived on the job, so he recommended I try another guard station down the road. But despite his lack of knowledge, he was fearless in his command of English. Before I could depart, he rummaged through his desk for a well-worn academic journal entitled Synthesiology. Pointing to the journal’s name, he asked if I could help explain the definition of that word, which I could not. I came to test the English of Peking University security guards – I had not guessed they would test mine as well.

Later in the morning, we met up with Zhang Juncheng, the first of Peking University’s college-bound security guards and main subject of the TV program. Zhang hails from Shanxi Province, a region so known for coal mining it might as well be China’s Appalachia. Seventeen years ago, Zhang was checking ID’s at the university’s west gate when an English-speaking foreigner tried to enter. Painfully awkward miscommunication ensued, ending with the foreigner giving Zhang a thumbs-down and walking away. But that experience spurred Zhang to study for the gaokao during his lunch breaks and after work. Now, with a law degree from Peking University, he serves as principal of a trade school in his native Shanxi. In his own words, “Going to college is a wonderful path. But it is not the only way.”

So there we were, an improbable team of hip television producers, an up-from-his-bootstraps school principal, and me, filming a television program about life paths that seem possible only in Beijing.