Local Newspapers
The distribution of newspapers to the interior provinces was only part of the pressing problem of wartime journalism. As the hinterland became the bastion of China's resistance, an equally urgent issue began to draw attention: how to develop local newspapers (difang baozhi) to further the national cause. In "'Paper Bullets' Can Also Annihilate the Enemy," Cheng Shewo proposed that a small local paper—which he called a "people's edition"—be set up in every county not yet under Japanese occupation.[131] The value of the local press during the war was quite apparent to journalists. In a country where regionalism prevailed and the lack of communication channels often thwarted national campaign efforts, promoting local newspapers seemed the only viable course of action. But to wartime journalists, the local press was more than a mere vehicle of communication; it was also a window onto the outside world, a forum for contemporary politics and society, and a tool to break regional barriers. In other words, it was crucial to national unity. Feng Yingzi (1915-), a member of the Chinese Young Journalists Society and an enthusiastic advocate of local newspapers, argued that China's size and the backwardness of the transportation system, together with urban papers' sophisticated language and high price, rendered such publications ineffective in advancing local reforms and mobilizing the people in the interior. A local paper, by contrast, printed hometown news with a sensitive touch and conveyed a sense of intimacy to the readership. It had few distribution problems because it was printed locally, and it cost less. Because it worked within customary linkages and organizations, Feng noted, the local paper wielded enormous influence in the immediate area.[132]
But local newspapers should be careful lest they succumb to parochialism, warned Liu Shi. He argued that for a local press to be
effective, its editors had to have a broad vision. They must encourage their readers to extend their imaginations beyond their own communities, helping them to gain a bigger picture of the world. The resistance movement demanded a large degree of national awareness; regional self-interest was not the goal. In Liu Shi's eyes, therefore, the local press should act as a vital link between local people and the central government.[133] As another commentator put it, it should "function like a postman," forming an information bridge between the outside world and the interior.[134]
Fan Changjiang went a step further in elaborating the importance of the local press. Not only were local newspapers an important means of communication, he said; they were also a key vehicle in fostering social and political change. As a journalist, Fan believed that the local press had a greater social impact than other media because it was a better and more regular news channel. And its role kept growing as China concentrated its resources in the interior in the battle against the Japanese. In an article entitled "The Movement to Unite Journalism and Journalists in the New Era" published in 1939, Fan contended that the vast majority of China's human and natural resources lay not in the coastal cities, but in the countryside. If these resources were to be fully developed, he continued, effective means must be found—and what better way than by using local presses? Like Hong Shen, Fan criticized the overconcentration of newspapers in urban areas. However, the breakdown of local power and traditional norms during the war, he noted, offered new opportunities and hope for journalists to address the imbalance in newspaper distribution. Newspapers should no longer be concentrated in major cities; instead they should be spread to "the counties and villages in the vast interior."[135]
Fan made an appeal to the high officials in Guangxi during a trip to this southwestern province in April 1939. "Guangxi today is a resistance stronghold in South China. Strengthening Guangxi's local newspaper network would not only benefit this particular province, but also set a good leadership example for other southern provinces to follow." Then, even though parts of Guangxi might fall into enemy hands in the future, "we still can form a powerful link with the Guangxi people based on this previously established network." The more regional newspapers there were, the better future national reconstruction would be, he said. "Once this cornerstone is solidly laid, it will become a potent tool for promoting popular culture after Japan is defeated."[136]
But how should journalists proceed with the task? Fan proposed an
ambitious plan: the entire province could be subdivided into many microregions, each with a local newspaper (to be supported by local funds) under the supervision of the Guilin-based and government-funded Guangxi Daily (Guangxi ribao), the largest newspaper in the province. Because of the acute shortage of newsprint and modern printing presses, editors could substitute handmade paper (tuzhi) and rely on mimeograph machines. As far as staff was concerned, a number of young journalists could first be trained in a central training program. Each graduate would in turn train a new group of local reporters when he or she was sent down to the county or village to work. News sources could come partly from radio and partly from the Guangxi Daily, which would gather, analyze, and then distribute national and international news to local branches. Local news could then be added, to produce a finished, readable product.[137] Underlying Fan's proposal was a genuine professional desire to bring newspapers to the grass roots. The notion resonated in many corners of the journalistic field. An article in the influential Reporter, for example, urged correspondents to "go to the countryside" in order to establish a "rural communication network."[138] Fan's local newspaper scheme was in fact one of the most comprehensive projects advocated by any journalist during the war, and it fell on receptive ears: top-level Guangxi officials responded with enthusiasm. In October, Governor Huang Xuchu (1892–1975) initiated a series of concrete plans to develop local newspapers in his province, which yielded considerable results.[139]
Activities in the rest of interior China were equally impressive. True, the war had either ruined or bankrupted more than six hundred newspapers in its first year and destroyed newspaper communication in the coastal cities.[140] In the interior, however, the newspaper industry managed to survive and even flourish. The arrival of many journalists in the hinterland, including such influential men as Fan Changjiang, Zhang Jiluan, and Cheng Shewo, contributed to a remarkable period of vitality and growth. Also important was the multiplication of a single newspaper into many—"breaking the whole into parts" (hua zheng wei ling), as one scholar later described it.[141] The Tianjin-based Dagong bao, which proliferated into Shanghai, Hankou, Hong Kong, Chongqing, and Guilin editions, was but one of many such examples. The GMD's military paper, Mopping Up News (Saodang bao), originally based in Hankou, was soon appearing in Chongqing and Guilin editions. Similarly, the Central Daily (Zhongyang ribao), the GMD's party paper, multiplied into Chongqing, Kunming, Guiyang, and Hunan editions; subsequently more than thirty editions
were printed. Even the Communist New China Daily, after moving from Hankou to Chongqing, appeared in two additional editions: North China (Huabei) and Guilin.[142]
The tabloid presses flourished during the war as well, appearing in various forms: as local newspapers, the frontline press, and occupied-area news. In Zhejiang, for example, although at the outbreak of the war 28 newspapers were closed down, two years later over 185 papers had emerged, two-thirds of them mimeographed tabloids. In Shanxi, 11 newspapers were destroyed in 1937, but close to 100 tabloid papers had emerged in the same province by 1939.[143] Even in provinces as far removed as Guizhou and Yunnan, the number of newspapers increased: from 6 and 10 in prewar years to 14 and 22 respectively for these two provinces.[144] Moreover, whereas in the past most newspapers were located in urban centers, now they could be found all over the country. Jiangxi's newspapers, for example, had been clustered in Nanchang, its provincial capital, before the war, but after 1937 they spread to places like Ji'an, Taihe, and Suichuan.[145]
The rise and diffusion of local newspapers in China's hinterland during the war must be analyzed with caution, however. Local presses differed from their urban counterparts not only in location, but also in size and production. The shortage of newsprint and modern printing presses meant that a large proportion of local newspapers were tabloids. They were smaller in size (usually a single sheet as against four sheets in a prewar urban paper, and the smaller quarto format as against the folio), mimeographed in form, and limited in circulation (fewer than three thousand copies).[146] Although newspaper publishers were encouraged to seek local funding, the insolvency of the rural economy due to war and heavy taxation made extra money unavailable. Insufficient government funding further complicated the issue.[147] To save newsprint, publications might be reduced from daily to semiweekly or even weekly. Their quality was uneven. Regular correspondents, if any, were poorly trained. And the news was often hopelessly out of date and monotonous, gleaned largely from the government-controlled Central News Agency.[148] The absence of an efficient distribution system and a high rural illiteracy rate further obstructed the flow of information. Furthermore, the government's attitude was frequently ambiguous. While GMD officials proposed dispersion of the press to minimize the impact of enemy attacks and endorsed the idea of launching more newspapers to spread the resistance cause,[149] they also feared that the Communists might initiate their own newspapers to spread socialism and undermine the government's authority.[150]
Continued rivalry between the Guomindang and regional military powers also cast doubt on the government's sincerity in wishing to promote local presses in such provinces as Guangxi, which was under the control of General Li Zongren and General Bai Chongxi (1893–1966). The fierce competition for readership between the GMD-controlled Central Daily and the Guangxi faction's Guangxi Daily was a well-known story in the war.[151]
Despite numerous impediments, local newspapers did thrive in China's hinterland. But did they actually reach the grass roots? How influential were they really? We should not forget that Chongqing, the wartime capital, was the de facto center of journalism during this period. By 1939, most of the major prewar national newspapers had relocated to that city, among them Dagong bao and the Central Daily. At one time, twenty-two newspapers and twelve news agencies clustered in the capital.[152] Nevertheless, the printed media flourished in provincial cities and towns as well. Not only major inland cities such as Chengdu (Sichuan) and Hengyang (Hunan), but also medium-size towns like Dushan (Guizhou) and Yongchun (Fujian) experienced a journalistic boom.[153] Nor was the circulation of local newspapers confined to cities and towns: it reached down to the villages as well, though just what impact these publications had is difficult to assess. Many, apparently, were brought by young activists who read aloud to the illiterate peasants.[154] The quality of these local newspapers was no doubt uneven; still, it is hard not to be impressed by the extent of this local journalistic activity and the sincere effort that so many made to reach the rural masses.
The dispersal of the Chinese press and the exodus of journalists into the interior underlined the shift of cultural activity from the urban toward the rural. This change would have a profound impact both during and after the war. Wartime journalists such as Fan Changjiang and Cheng Shewo repeatedly argued that the clustering of newspapers in major cities like Shanghai and Beijing could severely impede social advancement, breeding mutual mistrust and animosity between urbanites and villagers and furthering cultural and social imbalance—all detrimental to China as a united country. Their appeal to focus on the interior no doubt reflected an interest in the press as a resistance tool; but it also showed journalists' intent to use it as an instrument of national integration. The general assumption among reporters was that a heightened flow of information would lessen regional division and bring the country together, transforming discrete voices into collective action. In the eyes of Fan Changjiang and Liu Shi, the press was
also an ideal agent of social change. Newspapers could introduce new knowledge, break down class barriers, and encourage literacy. Such views, of course, represented the hopeful aspirations of young journalists. These aspirations inevitably collided with the harsh realities of the war.
The thriving of local newspapers during the war did, however, raise hopes that China might one day come together. Even with irregular quality and limited circulation, more and more local newspapers were launched. Many journalists observed this change with excitement and anticipation. In 1941, Fan Changjiang described his feelings:
[In the past three years] while urban newspapers fell behind, interior newspapers advanced with great strides. Formerly, people living in Shijiazhuang and Baoding considered only Beiping and Tianjin newspapers worth reading. Shanghai newspapers gained a respectable market in Nanjing. And if people in Guangzhou and Wuzhou missed reading Hong Kong newspapers, they would think that they had lost touch with current political reality. All these cases apparently stemmed from the fact that as far as information sources, reporters' abilities, business profits, printing facilities, transportation systems, and sources of newsprint are concerned, urban newspapers were in a far superior position [than papers in the interior]. But what about now? … Interior newspapers have made great advances. This is no doubt crucial for mobilizing every Chinese citizen…. It [also] indicates that the cultural level in the interior has been substantially raised…. These interior newspapers will no doubt be an important component in China's future journalism.[155]