While pro-Tibet and pro-China demonstrators crowded the steps of the Chapel beneath a cloudless blue sky April 9, a perfect storm was brewing-a storm that quickly thrust freshman Grace Wang into the national media spotlight.
The alleged threats Wang has received following her attempts to mediate a discussion between the opposing parties have attracted the attention of national media outlets.
Reporters for the The Washington Post and The New York Times said Wang's story has captivated readers around the world in large part due to mounting objections to China's human rights record and the fast-approaching Beijing Olympic Games.
"It seems [Wang] is trying to create a dialogue that many people are calling for," said Jill Drew, a reporter for The Washington Post who co-wrote an article about the demonstration.
In addition to The Times and The Post, the story of the would-be peacemaker and the animosity she sparked garnered coverage in the Financial Times, British Broadcasting Company and National Public Radio, among other media networks.
The Times and The Post both ran front-page stories about Wang April 17, and The Post published a column written by Wang Sunday.
To report the story, journalists said they have had to sift through the flurry of posts Wang triggered on blogs and message boards, where anonymous writers have called her a traitor and suggested she be burned in oil.
"If you want the story of a young girl who is a traitor to her country, that's everywhere," said Shaila Dewan, a reporter for The Times who wrote the April 17 story about Wang.
Dewan said reporting a story from tangled threads of anonymous posts has posed special challenges. She added that it is often difficult to distinguish a Web site's content from user-generated rants.
"Who is the validating authority behind a site's content? It's very hard to tell," she said.
Drew, who is based in Beijing, said Wang's story has received little attention in the mainstream Chinese media.
Conflicting verdicts on Wang in Eastern and Western societies represent a clash of cultural paradigms, Dewan explained.
"We tend to think that on American college campuses people can say and do what they want," she said. "This is the ultimate place for freedom of expression in this country. The Chinese don't view it that way. They have a different framework."
Scott Savitt, Trinity '85 and a former foreign correspondent for United Press International and the Los Angeles Times in Beijing, is a friend of Wang who has been advising her as well as commenting on the case for the media. He said he has fielded an inordinate number of media inquiries for Wang.
"[This story] is as big as it gets-some people say it's rivaling the lacrosse story," said Savitt. "This is First Amendment 101."
John Burness, senior vice president for public affairs and government relations, said he heard chatter about Wang's ordeal during a visit to Harvard University last week but said the story is not of the same ilk as the lacrosse case. He added that he does not feel that Wang's experiences reflect poorly on the University.
"I don't think this story is about Duke," he said. "I think this story is about China and Tibet and the nature of the tensions that are there. The Duke student happens to be in the middle of a much larger story."
For Wang, being the center of an international news story has been an almost unbearable experience. She said she is wracked with worry about the safety of her parents-whose home in China has been vandalized-and hopes the glare of the media will shift to political freedoms in China and Tibet.
"If the media is only focusing on my situation, it isn't worth it," Wang said. "I want to lead a really quiet and meaningful life. [But] if it's about something else, if it's about the future of China and this new generation and whether they want to speak out at all, then it's probably worth it."
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