ABC News on Campus Project Delves Into Art in Shenzhen

Year 2 Bachelor of Journalism student, Temily Gopan’s report on Dafen, the famous art village in Shenzhen, has appeared on the ABC News website in the U.S.

Temily Gopan (BJ 2)

Gopan is part of the JMSC ABC News on Campus team, which contributes content to the American TV network. She is one of only two undergraduates to have made the team. You can watch her report here.

Dafen is a well-known suburb of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, just across the border from Hong Kong. The artist’s village is home to more than 20,000 artists who replicate oil paintings of great masters en masse as well as producing original works.

“I heard about [Dafen] in a class I was taking on the sociology of art and I went to check it out and managed to make some good connections with people there,” said Gopan. “The whole village was so visually engaging and I figured it would make a good TV piece. Also, I’d been waiting to do a story that I was passionate about and this was the perfect opportunity!”

Gopan was helped with the filming by fellow undergraduate, Lisa Onland. Master of Journalism student, Nicole Xu, helped with the editing.

“I think stories coming out of China are really popular now,” said Gopan in response to why she thought ABC liked her pitch so much. “We just keep uncovering cool, new, unknown stories about this vast land, especially stories about the production of cheap goods. I think this story is taking the ‘made in China’ brand to a whole new level!”

Gopan has always dreamed of reporting out of China.

“I was really happy to have this dream realised through this project,” she said. “I always lacked confidence in my ability to speak Mandarin, but this project made me realise that my Chinese is good enough for me to work in China in a completely Mandarin-speaking environment.”

“The ABC News on Campus project made me realise the quality of our education at the JMSC,” Gopan continued. “The fact that, as undergrad student, I am able to produce a news piece deemed good enough for ABC goes to show how well our faculty is training us. And, I am also a little more confident in my own ability now and dare to dream a little bigger. This project has solidified my interest for TV news.”