Bella Nalle, senior at Archer School, writes the “Teen Talk†column for the Brentwood News. This summer she experienced quite an adventure, which she shares here in this Q&A with the Brentwood News.
Q: Bella, you did an unusually interesting internship this summer. Tell us about it.
A: This summer I was fortunate to have been granted a production internship in Shanghai, China, with a television production company there called Modern Media. I was one of few English-speaking workers there, and by far the youngest. Most days consisted of working in an office space doing research, sending emails, and translating, but there were several days when I actually got to go on location with the rest of the crew. The company’s content focus is “luxury lifestyle,†so I got to visit high-end furniture stores, restaurants, retail and so on. On on
e particular day, the crew and I went off to a golf course to cover the Open Championship and I was asked to go on-camera as a TV broadcast journalist, and interviewed one of the celebrities there. Over all, I was really grateful for an opportunity to learn and work in a world very new and different for me.
Q: Is media your chosen field, do you think?
A: I’m definitely fascinated about the powerful impact of media, and could see a potential future career in that field. I had never interviewed someone on camera before I went to Shanghai, and I found that it’s something I really love doing. I think my passion for media started with my love for journalism. It seems that the force of the media is stronger than any army. I think it is human nature to want to form one’s own opinions, rather than to conform to the will of the stat
e. We saw that last year with the Arab Spring. With objective news popping up instantly on cell phones, the potential power of media to influence history is awesome.
Q: What struck you most about the Chinese way of doing things? What did you learn that will stick with you?
A: Unlike when I write for the Brentwood News, there are unseen censors that control every question and every response, which was really alarming and eye opening. I guess I should have known something was up when soon after my plane landed, they took my passport away from me. As I entered my hotel there were signs saying, “Listening devices and surveillance cameras may be used throughout this hotel at any time.†Right now that’s a way of life for the Chinese. Like in many countries, to be successful there, one has to adapt to work within their system, until or unless that system changes.
The outer shell of China is very glossy; beautiful buildings, great restaurants and fabulous people; but after a month of working there I realized that the comparative lack of infrastructure relative to its enormous population is what holds this country back from being a major super power. Chinese broadcast journalists are much more expressive than Americans. When I was conducting on-camera interviews, the director would encourage me to gesture and even actively move my arms when asking each question. To work on TV there, one must appear quite animated. There are also numerous limitations on what you’re allowed to say when on camera due to restrictions of Communist television. I tried playing around with the words on the script and improvising at one point, and was reprimanded for straying away from the original text.
Q: What’s next?
A: I’m currently a senior at Archer, and I’m continuing my Mandarin studies at Santa Monica College after school while I focus on college applications for the fall of 2013. Oh, but something happened to me that will live with me, literally, for 20 odd years. I found an abandoned 3-week-old kitten in Shanghai and hid him in my hotel while we tried to find him a home. There is only one shelter in Shanghai and they have been keeping him for me until he could have his rabies shot at 3 months, which will enable him to travel. So on September 17th, my kitten that we named “Chairman Meow†will be coming to live in Brentwood!
