Spare us your sob stories
- Source: Global Times
- [23:09 January 21 2010]
- Comments
Students of West China School of Public Health at Sichuan University in Chengdu form the shape of a red ribbon to raise public awareness on World AIDS Day, December 1 last year. Photo: IC
By Qiu Wei
Zhou Yi was supposed to be co-hosting his new weekly one-hour radio show tomorrow, but the first State-sponsored HIV/AIDS program was yanked off air last week before its inaugural episode.
China National Radio remained tight-lipped on the issue until Monday, announcing on its website that Positive Talks will begin airing later in the month, without offering a date.
The postponement decision came late and unannounced, with no State Administration of Radio, Film and Television officials available for comment at presstime. The show was still awaiting approval from the country's top broadcasting administrative body for "technical" reasons, sources close to the sponsors and China National Radio told the Global Times.
The postponement came despite pre-event coverage by State-run media last week following a high-profile launch earlier in the month that was attended by a China National Radio deputy chief editor, the show's sponsors and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) China officials. The typical eleventh-hour decision fits a pattern of mixed signals towards HIV/AIDS and related issues.
The official China Daily carried a bold front-page story last Wednesday on the country's "first public wedding of a gay couple".
Police cancelled China's first gay pageant two days later. Mr China organizers were informed they lacked the proper documentation one hour before commencement at a downtown club in Beijing.
China's first play about lesbian rights debuted in Beijing on Wednesday night and a three-week delay ended with local authorities in the county-level city of Dali opening the nation's first officially-backed gay bar as part of ongoing efforts to stem the tide of AIDS in the vulnerable border province of Yunnan in Southwest China.
For his part, Zhou appeared totally unconcerned about the no-show and asserted the delay was probably only a temporary issue.
"The message about reducing prejudice against HIV-positive people must come through various channels," he said.
"Mainstream media outlets shouldn't be seen as absent on this issue."
His parents still don't know he is HIV infected, Zhou said. After testing HIV positive in 2003, Zhou lost a decent job and divorced his wife.
Since then, he has converted himself from a business manager into a self-styled community worker on HIV/AIDS prevention working with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and internationally funded operations including UNDP, the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition and Unicef.
Zhou in 2008 also jointly founded an association committed to offering psychological intervention for newly-infected people and privately archiving their medical treatment data.
The organization now helps to maintain the medical records of more than 300 HIV carriers who might otherwise choose anonymity and the associated freedom from discrimination.
Discrimination sidelines most Chinese people who are living with HIV, Zhou said, even those who find the rare courage to be open about it.
Zhou recalled a workshop tea break where officials complained about wasting their valuable time on self-inflicted hard-luck stories.
"I overheard one guy saying 'Who do they think they are to lecture us? The only motivation for their so-called advocacy is to trade their anonymity for our sympathy and make some money out of it.'"
Poor knowledge of AIDS persists in the general population of China, a UNDP survey on AIDS-related knowledge, attitudes, behavior and practices found. About half of those surveyed still believe mosquito bites can cause HIV transmission, with at least one-fifth unwilling to use a condom with a new partner. Almost one-third thought people with HIV/ AIDS deserved their disease for their sexual behavior or drug abuse.
Mass ignorance correlates with higher levels of discrimination against people living with HIV/ AIDS, the study found.
This prevalence of discrimination discourages people from taking tests or seeking treatment for AIDS-related illnesses, let alone disclosing their HIV status to families and friends. In other words, societal ignorance, fear and discrimination exacerbate the HIV/AIDS problem by creating an unquantifiable epidemic.
Volunteers distributing fliers is all fine and good, but face-to-face communication is key, Zhou said.
