Just when I thought my 'recording career' was over (no work at all in that field for 4 or 5 months now), out of the blue I got a gig this week to do some listening practice dialogues for Shanghai middle schools (it seems Shanghai is one of the very few administrative areas of the country that still favours British English over the American variety - hurrah!).
Transport, of course, is a fairly typical topic in materials of this sort. Usually, there will be a simple comparison of the different options, with rail usually being applauded for its cheapness but air travel invariably winning out for its speed and convenience. But not any more. Oh no. Now the rail network seems to have become definitively the best option, warmly praised for being both cheap and SAFE. That message came up three times in one fairly short book we recorded yesterday.
This is how the state propaganda machine works. It is quite awe-inspiring, in its way. Before long, people here will have quite 'forgotten' this summer's Wenzhou train crash.
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