Journalist shares career advice

John Promfet, author of “Chinese Lessons” and foreign correspondent for the Washington Post, spoke Thursday about his experiences in China.

Pomfret was introduced by Brad Hamm, dean of the IU School of Journalism, who gave advice to aspiring journalists about combining interests to help create a unique niche in journalism.
 
A graduate of Stanford, which Pomfret referred to as the Indiana University of California, he started out with an interest in the sciences. 

“As I discovered how lousy I was at science, I took a Chinese Marxist class,” Pomfret said.

Through the mentorship of the people of the Chinese department, he developed a passion for China.

“I really got interested in it, and I wanted to go,” Pomfret said.

Stanford offered a program which sent volunteers to Asia to teach English.

Unfortunately for Pomfret, the program did not send anyone to China, but there was a program in the nearby country of Taiwan.

Pomfret applied for the program and he said he was glad he did not get accepted because in September 1980, he went on a trip to Beijing.

China in 1980 was much different from First World countries today, Pomfret said.

“It was so incredibly poor,” Pomfret said, describing China as a “Fifth World” country.
The Chinese government wanted to keep the foreign students away from the Chinese people. This only made Pomfret and his classmates more eager to get closer.

Pomfret applied to Nanjing University because the dean there encouraged Western and Chinese students to live together.

“I found myself on Feb. 3, 1981, in student dormitory number one and seven dudes looking back at me,” Pomfret said. “We ended up living together for a year in a 10-by-15 room.”

Pomfret left China in 1982 and stumbled into journalism that year with an internship for a small newspaper.

He then continued on to work for People Magazine and was hired by the Associated Press because of his proficiency in the Chinese language.

“You need to combine our language with decent skills,” Pomfret said. His skill was
journalism.

Pomfret returned to China in 1989, where he found himself facing a completely new country. He was asked to leave China, and Pomfret talked about his emotional reaction to being kicked out of the country he had adopted.

In 1997, the Washington Post had an opening in Beijing. However, Pomfret was denied
entrance to China.

He received a notice of a temporary visa to go back, and in 1998, he found himself in China, again facing what felt like another country to him.

“As a reporter, I think it was more open. In many ways, we were more useful to the Chinese ministries,” Pomfret said.

Pomfret said journalism is not an art but that you have to know the basics and get the skills, and then the serendipity will happen.

“You have to make your own serendipity,” Pomfret said, answering a question about being a journalist. “You have to get the big things done.”