Voices From The Crossroads

After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the liberal intellectuals all devoted to the publications running. Adhering to the belief of "political discussion instead of political participation" and that "journal running is better than party organization", they advocated democracy, freedom and constitutional government, and explored "the orientation of China in the future". In just a few years before the foundation of New China, the liberal intellectuals launched a variety of political weeklies, including Objective, Observation, Times and Articles, Comment of Century, Weekly Review, New Road, Comment of University, which have not gained much attention in the previous research. By taking the political weeklies of post-war Chinese liberalism from 1945 to 1949 as the research object, this paper probes how these journals emerged and disappeared, and discusses their themes and evolution. This paper seeks to fill the gaps in relevant researches.The paper consists of introduction and the main body.The introduction mainly focuses on the origin of the study, the definition and selection of research object, the status quo of the research, the content and methods of the research and the significance of the research.The main body is divided into five chapters according to the logical structure of "Collection-Division-Collection".Firstly, the paper expounds the rise and fall of political weeklies of post-war Chinese liberalism. These journals, serving as the vehicles, were indispensable from liberalism. The evolution of Chinese liberalism was closely related to the fate of political weeklies of Chinese liberalism. By tracing the development of post-war Chinese liberalism, Chapter I shows an overall status of the political weeklies of post-war Chinese liberalism.Secondly, the paper elaborates the contents of the political weeklies of post-war Chinese liberalism from Chapter II to Chapter IV. Faced with "the orientation of China in the future", the liberate intellectuals argued for the "Middle-of-the Road Line" which was the theme of political weeklies of post-war Chinese liberalism. Meanwhile, they publicized this road line, and criticized or analyzed the KMT and the CPC. However, the situation changed. The "Middle-of-the-Roaders" tended to be left-leaning, which reduced the publicity of the "Middle-of-the Road Line", and presented the facts of the KMT and the CPC with prejudice. In 1948, liberalism began to prosper again. Some political weeklies of liberalism have been newly established, emphasizing political reform and government improvement; the original political weeklies also reiterated liberalism. From the three chapters, a conclusion can be drawn: the themes on political weeklies of post-war Chinese liberalism have a close relationship with certain situation; moreover, the themes are subject to the changes of situation.Finally, the paper sums up the reasons of the disappearance of the political weeklies of post-war Chinese liberalism in Mainland Chinese. Why were these publications halted? Chapter V explores the answers from different perspectives. The most fundamental reason is that the KMT authority further tightened the restrictions on public opinion and suppressed the political weeklies of liberalism. Generally, these publications were created by people of the same belief without abundant funds. In the environment of deteriorating economic, journal running bristled with difficulties. Along with the war situation, the CPC adjusted its policy toward liberalism and its weeklies timely, and strived to critically win over all possible liberal intellectuals. As a result, liberalism changed.The conclusion reflects on the fate of Chinese liberalism, suggesting that the elimination of political weeklies of post-war Chinese liberalism does not mean the end of liberalism. Liberalism is a dream of liberal intellectuals who never cease to chase after.