An online Virtual Community Centre for Chinese-Australians and a Mandarin TV news service are being launched today in another first for SBS.
In a coup for Mandarin News Australia its first guest will be Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, who is well-known for his fluency in the language.
Mandarin News Australia is the nation's first free-to-air, locally produced Mandarin news service and will be subtitled in English.
It will deliver high quality and impartial Chinese-Australian news for one of the nation's largest language communities, SBS's director of audio and language content, Dirk Anthony, said.
The Chinese-Australian Virtual Community Centre will feature a range of SBS content, news and current affairs and user-generated video, audio and text.
The ability of users to create profiles and post content in response to SBS news and features was at the heart of the site, Mr Anthony said.
“SBS hopes the Virtual Community Centre for Chinese Australians is just the start,” he said.
“Based on our experience with the Virtual Community Centre in Mandarin and Cantonese, we hope to expand the service to all of Australia's large language
communities.”
Mr Anthony said the site's users could easily navigate between Mandarin and Cantonese audio and video content, and choose between simple and traditional Chinese scripts and some English text.
Mandarin News Australia will be broadcast on SBS TWO each Wednesday at 5.30pm and repeated on SBS ONE each Sunday at 6:35am.
Features from the program may also be viewed before television broadcast at the Chinese Virtual Community Centre.
Features from the program may also be viewed before television broadcast at the Chinese Virtual Community Centre.
