Chasing the Dream that Eluded my Mother

Photo by Matt Willson

August 4th, 2007| From AAJA Voice

 

My decision to pursue journalism did not sit well with my mother.

I was 15 and she reacted the same way as when I told her I wanted to dye my hair blue.
“I don’t like that idea,” she frowned at me. “And you’ll regret it if you don’t listen to me.”

I was surprised given my mother had a lifelong dream of becoming a reporter. She majored in journalism in college and graduated summa cum laude with a 4.0 GPA. She was a brilliant writer but her journalism career never got off the ground because her pronunciation of Algeria was a little too Chinese for the Taiwanese radio station where she was interviewing for a job.

Occasionally, I heard my mother criticize the media system in Taiwan. She complained about the censorship, the discrimination against female reporters, and other facts she didn’t like.

“You’ll see when you grow up,” she told me.

I ignored her, convinced I would do a better job. I went to her college, then studied international relations at graduate school with the hope of being an international correspondent one day. I even got a job as a production assistant for UNC-TV.

It wasn’t until I moved back to Taiwan to work as a reporter for the country’s leading television station that I understood what my mother had been trying to tell me all those years.

Government interference made the media in Taiwan unable to offer worthy information. And many stations employed attractive female reporters and reported on sensationalistic news.

I was required to put on heavy makeup whenever I was on-air. One of my best friends from college never made to be on-air because the director from her station told her that she was too fat.

I began to understand my mother’s criticisms.
Yet, in spite of all the difficulties and frustrations, I still dream of being a journalist who can bring some change to Taiwan’s media environment. I no longer think I can change the world as I believed when I was a teenager, but I still want to find out what I can do to improve Taiwan’s media system.

I want to accomplish what my mother hoped to do but failed to achieve. Then I can show her that my dream to become a journalist was a better decision than dying my hair blue.