1) As a non-Chinese speaker, can you tell me the kind of material I have heard being read on the Saturday and Sunday programmes?  Is it news about China? Or events in Australia? Something else?

 

From the aspect of news sharing, there is a slight difference in focus between the Saturday and Sunday programs.

 

On the Saturday program, the news is more topic-specific, with particular focus on news and information about health, science and technology. The Sunday program covers a wide range of news, including local, national and international news; of course news regarding China and Australia are both included.

 

Within the Saturday 4-5pm broadcast, there is also a “Did You Know?” program, which is a 20-fact sharing slot. Topics of facts include sports, arts, culture, history and food, to name a few.

 

Included in both the Saturday and Sunday programs is an interview with Master Wang, the President of Tasmanian Chinese Buddhist Academy of Australia. The contents of the interview vary slightly each week, however, the themes of the interview revolve around oriental philosophy, cosmic views and values, Chinese history as well as Chinese Exotericism and Esotericism (arts, historical stories and myths, religions of China including Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism).

2) Is it true that only a small percentage of time is spent on Buddhism teachings? How much?  Is it comparable to the kind of teaching programmes we have on Hobart FM for evangelical Christians, the Christian Science followers, etc?
 

Indeed. It would be hard to give an exact number, as Buddhism isn’t simply a religion but more so a way of life; Buddhism guides us how to become a better person and better serve our fellow man. One of the most fundamental aims of being a Buddhist is how can we encourage and spread peace, harmony and compassion within our society. Buddhism is an essential integrated component of Chinese culture, and in many cases, one cannot discuss Chinese culture without touching upon Buddhism and its philosophies.

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Content of pure Buddhist teachings, such as scriptural sharing or preaching makes up a very small portion of our programs, such sharing is well below 25 % of the total spoken content of each radio program.

3) I like the way you have one sentence read by a female voice and then the next paragraph by a male voice. What gave you the idea to do that?

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Within our school of Buddhism, females and males are respected equally and enjoy equal recognition; as a result, this traditional religious practice has reflected in the style we have adopted to use – which involves a switch of voices between paragraphs representing harmony and unity.

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This idea of presenting the programme with an alternated male and female voice came naturally, as we thought hearing/receiving information through the radio from one voice for long periods would be tiring for the audience

4) Do you ever play music from China? If so, what kind?

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Yes. A large majority of our music is by Chinese artists, sung in Chinese. The songs are of various genres to suit the different audiences. We play Chinese pop, folk and rock music. We also share Chinese classical music as well as Western classical music performed using Chinese musical instruments.

5) How many countries do your presenters come from?

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Our presenters are of diverse nationalities, including Chinese, Hong Kong, Australian, Canadian and British; some of who are of more than one nationality themselves.

6) How many presenters are there and how (with such a large group) do you assign duties?

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There are seven presenters that broadcast every week; four on Saturday and two on Sunday, as well as Master Wang, who speaks on both Saturday and Sunday programs.

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Master Wang encouraged us to take part in radio broadcasting. Amongst the presenters, duties are shared and entirely of voluntary basis. 

7) Is there anything else you would like fellow members of Hobart FM to know about these 2 programmes and the presenters? 

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We are very grateful for the encouragement, support and guidance of members of Hobart FM, as well as technical help from Jim Parish OAM.  We are also very grateful to the Tasmanian and Australian governments for their support and guidance, as well as their open-minded attitude towards multiculturalism. 

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