Romantic, yet difficult life
As romantic as it may sound, life for a freelance journalist is not easy, especially for Zhang Cuirong, who works and lives in journalism's "blood and sweat" regions. The hourly salary for a journalist is 20 Hong Kong dollars ($2.5), said the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA). Therefore, it's not the danger, but the money that keeps freelance journalists worrying.
With a limited budget, Zhang usually asks for a motel room and takes the bus to conduct her interviews. Sometimes, in the chaotic war field, she chooses to stay in the refugee camp to save some money and to record stories. During her time in Cambodia to interview the Khmer Rouge, the journalist even coughed up some blood, yet continued her interview with Norodom Ranarith, the country's prince.
Zhang complained to the Southern People Weekly that she normally paid for the trips with money raised from her writings, yet royalties have been getting lower these days.
"I have been living a hard life for my dreams. I still have to beg for reasonable payments for my reports," Zhang said in a recent letter to an editor.
Recalling her awkward experience of not being able to afford a refrigerator after returning from her glorious reporting mission in East Timor, Zhang, the fearless correspondent at war, cried.
Though she claims it is "getting lonely and difficult to continue her job," Zhang is now planning her next adventure in the newly-founded Southern Sudan, following her latest reports on the Egyptian Revolution.
"Some may say that we are romantics, or even hope...yes indeed, we are just that kind of person," quoting a poem from Che Guevara, Zhang gets excited once again.
