IT'S EARLY MORNING in downtown Beijing. With an phone in one hand and a zoom camera in the other, Feng Ke peers at the vehicles going in and out of Peking Union Medical College Hospital. Dozens of photographers are milling around. Like Feng, they're hoping to snap Canto-pop star Faye Wong's newborn daughter.
The snappers' cat-and-mouse game began as soon as news emerged that Wong was about to deliver. For the past four weeks, Feng and his colleagues have been keeping watch at the two Beijing residences that Wong shares with her husband Li Yapeng, and at two hospitals shortlisted for the birth. Although he complains bitterly about the lengthy stakeout, the 25-year-old hopes his persistence will yield results. Yawning from time to time, Feng lights a cigarette to help him stay awake. 'Even if I were asleep, I would have my eyes open,' he says.
Members of the paparazzi such as Feng are part of the mainland's burgeoning gossip and entertainment publishing industry. Tight reins on current affairs and business reporting have spurred publishers to venture into a less risky, and potentially lucrative, market in celebrity tittle-tattle. Although good connections are essential for any publishing venture, the General Administration of Press and Publication generally reserves its closest scrutiny for news publications rather than entertainment and lifestyle magazines.
Big Star, or Ming Xing, was the first to venture into the field in July 2003. The weekly, published by Enlight Media, the private media group controlled by Wang Changtian, was soon followed by franchise magazines such as 8 Weekly and OK!, whose parent publications are in Hong Kong, Taiwan or the west.
The latest to join the pack is Southern Metropolis Weekly, launched three months ago by the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis group.
Although there are no figures for the number of such publications on the mainland, many boast large readerships. Big Star, the mainland's most popular gossip-based weekly, claims an unaudited circulation of about 500,000 copies. But most struggle to break even, as advertisers remain wary of the untested market and some are priced as little as two yuan.
