“Tune” the financial news

Musical videos and comics have helped to “resolve” one of the biggest puzzles suspending over the world ever since the financial meltdown happened three years ago, according to Jack Bernstein, this year’s Pulitzer Prize winner in national reporting, in delivering his speech at Hong Kong Baptist University.

Many students attend Jack Bernstain's speech

Bernstein and Eisinger, his partener, investigated whether and how the Wall Street set out the “fire” on its own backyard in 2005 and 2006, which resulted in the biggest financial meltdown after the Great Depression. They indicated that the “Wall Street money machine” caused the tragedy.

“The video was downloaded millions of times. People really ate it up and enjoy it. And it really got the story out.” Bernstein explained after showing students the musical video, “Bet against the American dream”, in which they managed to contain the basic points involved in their four-thousand-word investigative report.

“Much more people watch the video than reading our story. This is important, especially when you are doing complex financial reporting. You need to find different ways to allow people to exercise it and understand it,” said Bernstien, “I don’t think it has to be a musical video or it has to be comic books but we think financial journalists are challenged to be more creative in the way we present it. Only presenting numbers or long story isn’t enough.”

The new form of reporting, though, “not as good as they were hoped” still got pretty good results. U.S. senators also know their multi-fomart reports. Bernstein said that  senators talked about their reports in a senate debate trying to bring about new regulations to curb the finacial tragedy from happening again.

Although there is till now no criminal prosecution against anyone in the Wall Street for involving in the “money machine”, which Bernstain blamed for the financial crisis, the broad readership and influence of Berstain’ reports showed that, as Bernstein said, “it is really helpful” to “tune” the financial news.

Snack “cures”

Having quit from a textile mill in her hometown, Guangdong, where she spent more than 20 years as a line-manager, Zhu Aihua, at her

Icecreams are sold in the snack store

49, changed into a shop assistant in a snack shop in Hong Kong to reunite with her family.

“I’d prefer the muffins packed in dozen. It offers a fair price and my son is so fund of it !” Zhu pointed at the fancy boxes piling up in front of the counter and introduced me warmly in standard mandarin. While leaning on the counter, she wore a sunny smile and looked into my eyes in a way that finally made me take it.

Six days in a week, at 3 pm, Zhu walks from her home two blocks away to the snack shop to relieve the shop owner for the next seven hours. The daily routine: mopping the floor, arranging the shelves and also acting as a cashier, for Zhu, earns her a much easier life than her first year in Hong Kong working as a waitress in a tea dining room, which allowed no time for her to take care of her ill mother-in-law.

“Though it all settled now, it was a huge shift for me in the beginning,” Zhu grinned with a sign, “I did plan for moving to Hong Kong for quite a long time, but with my Popo’s (mother-in-law in Chinese) sudden illness, it still turned out to be a bump.”

Working in the center of “snack mountain”, Zhu gradually picked up herself from the culture shock. Even if she doesn’t taste many of the snacks, she enjoys memorizing most of their names, sometimes making recommendations for customers and sometimes buying her son his favorite. As Zhu said, the job gave her not allowance, rather the happiness to be with her family.