On Michael Jackson in Mongolia, Hanging out at Shanghai’s World’s Fair, and Other Topics: A Quick Q & A with Marketplace’s Rob Schmitz

Authors

Jeffrey Wasserstrom

Date of this Version

2010

Document Type

Article

Citation

November 16, 2010 in The China Beat http://www.thechinabeat.org/

Comments

Copyright 2010. Used by permission.

Abstract

Over the summer, there was a changing of the guard in the Shanghai office ofMarketplace, an American radio program that has consistently carried smart reports about China. Scott Tong moved from the PRC back to the US (where he continues to work for the show) and former Peace Corps volunteer Rob Schmitztook his place. I had the pleasure of meeting them both in Shanghai in July andran a post with the former in early August, in which he reflected on his time covering the China beat. Now, as a sequel to that post, comes a quick q and a with Schmitz, who recently did a great feature on Inner Mongolia (listen to it here,and check out the striking photos that he took to accompany the report here), which among other things is a fascinating addition to the growing number of intriguing pieces, in varied media, on how life in the PRC is being transformed by the increasing importance of cars as forms of transportation and status symbols: