An Investigation Into TungHai Sin Pao And Urban Modernity Of Nantong

During the first twenty years of the20th century, the City of Nantong enjoyed a great reputation in China and even in the world. It was in this City that a distinctive local newspaper named Tunghai Sin Pao was started and has been kept fairly complete (1913.3.18-1929.5.26). The newspaper was founded by Chen Chen, one of the powerful force of Zhang Jian (a famous industrialist in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China). It was a quality local business newspaper, and was distributed in Nantong and its surrounding areas, contributing fairly well to the economic enlightenment of local residents. Just like Shanghai Daily (Shen Bao) which was started at the same period, Tunghai Sin Pao at its earlier stage showed a clear tendency to business, focusing on serving the economy; what was different was that it was not born at foreign concessions and without any inteference of foreign capitals. When industries and businesses withered in Nantong and the early communists began intervening in it, the newspaper at its late stage showed its concern for the parties and politics.Tunghai Sin Pao kept pace with the earlier modernization of Nantong City. It was born when Nantong’s earlier modernization began to take shape, developed and thrived when the City’s earlier modernization grew vigorously. It struggled to survive and at last was compelled by the government to stop publication, just as Nantong’s earlier modernization slowed down, accompanied by Zhang Jian’s death and his Dasheng system waning.The thesis argued that the City of Nantong in the process of its earlier modernization gave birth to and shaped Tunghai Sin Pao. On one hand, the City provided space for the newspaper’s survival and development. With an all-round progress of its earlier modernization, the industrial and commercial economy prospered, education were popularized and transportation developed, all of which made essential conditions for the birth and development of Tunghai Sin Pao. On the other hand, the City demonstrated its features on the newspaper. The City of Nantong during its transition from a traditional city to a modern one was characterized by "Zhang Jian’s Governance" and " the Culture of River and Sea Areas". All of these were distinctively embodied by Tunghai Sin Pao.Meanwhile Tunghai Sin Pao was taken as an active force in this thesis. It influenced Nantong’s earlier modernization at material, institutional and behavioral levels, showing a progress from the outside to the inside, from a shallow level to a deeper one. It recorded and communicated the City, and propelled the City’s earlier modernization. Firstly, the newspaper recorded every changes of the earlier modernization:the newly emerging factories, companies, the gradual prospering commerce and finance, and the increasing city infrastracture. The seemingly objective records embodied the newspaper’s high opinion of the modern industrial civilization, showed its support for the newly emerging industrial and commercial class who represented the labor force, and its embrace of consumerism as well. Secondly, the newspaper built a public communication platform. In this way it promoted the improvement of Nantong Police System(one of modern urban administrative system), and helped the modern transitions of economical and educational systems. Thirdly, the newspaper enriched to some extent the knowledge of local residents by publishing modern western knowledge of natural science and society. It forstered local residents’ awareness of public hygience and time effciency through continued reports, and also cultivated a modern method of interpersonal communication---to communicate through newspapers, through a meticulous intervening in their daily lives such as their wedding and funeral ceremonies. All of these triggered and promoted some of local residents’ modern activities such as students’patrioctic campaigns during the May4th Movement and the May30th Movement.In the16years of the newspaper’s existence, the City of Nantong was not only a context for the newspaper, but also demonstrated itself everywhere in the newspaper; the newspaper not only reflected but also participated in the process of Nantong’s earlier modernization. The newspaper and the City co-existed, interwining with each other and promoting each other.