A recent Saturday night rocked with gasps and laughter in Suzhou as three Western journalists regaled the crowd with stories about getting – and serving – the scoops in China. The panel was part of the Suzhou Bookworm Literary Festival. Scott Tong, correspondent for National Public Radio; Duncan Hewitt, former BBC correspondent, and currently Shanghai Bureau Chief for Newsweek Magazine and author of Getting Rich First:Life in a Changing China; and Swedish journalist Ola Wong shed light on how foreign journalists work to make “the first draft of history.” Surprisingly, all agreed that a challenge they all encounter as great as any Chinese censor is dealing with their own headquarters in the home countries. In particular, editors want foreign journalists to send pieces that are sensationalistic, if not a bit dark; but not too dark. Stories that are either too complicated or paint foreign readership in a negative light are discouraged, daily, it seems. Though the Chinese and foreign journalists seldom interact, foreign journalists have found Chinese journalists in general helpful. The writers agreed they have to get out of their big cities and travel throughout China though, without prodding, to find stories the Chinese media has not already gotten at. Sometimes, though, those more nuanced stories that show the humanity of China are not always welcome back at home.