Organizer: Rudolf G. Wagner, University of Heidelberg
Chair and Discussant: Leo Ou-fan Lee, Harvard University
Media, not only their messages, form and structure patterns of cultural interaction. Being part of the research group "Structures and Development of the Chinese Public Sphere" in Heidelberg (Germany), speakers in this panel will focus on the cultural history of late Qing Chinese-language newspapers and books published in the treaty ports. At the center of the development of the print media since the 1860s is the beginning economic viability of cultural products (newspapers, books), and of professions specializingin their production such as journalism and editorial work. The papers approach the issue from different angles. The insertion of the Peking Gazette into the Shenbao followed economic considerations, but also operated a dramatic shift in the public role of the Qing court and of the newspaper in the evolving public sphere. The publication of classical materials useful for the imperial examinations by the Shenbao founder Ernest Major commercialized China's classical heritage and transformed it from the exclusive treasure of the scholar into easily accessible public knowledge. The transformation of the traditional patron/scholar relationship into that between the publishing company and the journalist or editor made the latter into potentially independent public personae with a public voice quite different from that of the traditional scholar. This changed media environment thus fundamentally altered the character of both message and messenger.
Making the Chinese State Go Public: Peking Gazette (Jingbao) Reprints in the
Shenbao (1872-1912)
Barbara Mittler, University of Heidelberg
Some have described the Peking Gazette as an open medium with room for discussion and therefore of general interest, while others see it as the univocal, boring voice of authority. Certainly, however, the insertion of the Jingbao into the new Western-style Chinese-language newspapers since the 1860s changed its role transforming it from an internal communication device for the political class into a segment of a publicly available paper beyond the court's reach. The paper will focus on the manner and the context in which the Jingbao is treated within these newspapers, especially the Shenbao. I will argue: that the Western publishers of Chinese-language papers, while trying to mark the difference between their type of paper and the Jingbao, accepted its news and status value for the readers of their paper by including all or parts of it verbatim in order to enhance their sales; that this inclusion of the Jingbao led to a qualitative change of Jingbao-discourse. While neither layout nor content of the Jingbao itself changed markedly for many years to come, the changed environment within the modern medium where an editorial might take issue with a Jingbao document carried on the same day, changed both status and content of the message, forcing the traditional state to enter into the arena of public deliberations even with its most authoritative pronouncements.
Wang Tao (1828-1897): Pioneering the Hong Kong Newspaper Business
Natascha Vittinghoff, University of Heidelberg
Wang Tao is known both as an early Reformist thinker and admirer of Western civilization and as a master in the genre of literary jottings. Little attention, however, has yet been paid to his important role in the development of the Chinese newspaper business. As he founded the first Chinese-owned newspaper, the Xunhuan Ribao, in Hong Kong in 1874, Chinese scholars refer to him as the "father of Chinese journalism." Wang Tao is thus most suitable for a case study of the slow transition of intellectuals in late Qing China from traditional literati into a new group of professional journalists. The paper attempts to extract from his complex life experiences features common to many early Chinese journalists. In numerous editorials he spelled out his views on the function of the new medium as well as his personal motives. A detailed analysis of his implied readers and of his hidden dialogue with traditional scholars and their prejudices against the journalistic endeavor reveals his constant struggle for establishing legitimate authority for the newspaper. An examination of the organization and arrangement of the newspaper itself will show his success in elaborating various devices to establish a medium able to compete with both Western papers and the Chinese papers which were based on translations.
Commercializing Chinese Culture: Ernest Major in Shanghai
Rudolf G. Wagner, University of Heidelberg
Ernest Major is known as the founder of the Shanghai newspaper Shenbao. This paper will focus on his equally pioneering role in the development of Shanghai publishing. Since the 1870s, Major discovered the commercial viability of traditional Chinese learning and culture. With a strictly market-oriented approach, Major targeted the traditional Jiangnan literati with their particular interests, fads and taboos-secretly-disregarded as culturally and financially well-equipped customers for his modern technology publishing venture. The paper will analyze his publishing strategies, the acceptance of his publications, and the ways in which these publications reflect the cultural horizons of the intellectual elite of these years.