Public Opinion In Modern China

In 1930s,Shen Bao Newspaper(《申报》) and Da Gongbao Newspaper(《大公报》) have the most influence and the strongest power.The columns of Free Talking in Shen Bao and Weekend Review in Da Gongbao are famours discourse space in modern China.Maybe we can draw a conclusion that the two columns represent the highest level of public opinion in that era. Public opinion in modern China has its special historic origin.As to sprit and mind,modern and new style intellectuals adopted the Qingyi(清议) tradition of ancient intellectuals;As to social space,modern intellectuals made use of new media as newspapers and magazines introduced from the West;As thought resource,modern intellectuals faced a great historic change and they accepted and developed knowledge from the ancient,the present age,China and the West.Then they created their own argument and political commentary.As to identity and position,modern intellectuals were liberated from the traditional political structure which fixed politics and religion together after the imperial examinations were abolished.So most of them discussed and criticize the politics and society from an object role which was from politics system.When Li Lie-wen(黎烈文) who was thoughtful and came back from France became the chief editor of the column of Free Talking,the column absorbed many left-wing intellectuals to write for it.At that period,left-wing publications were banned by political power and could not find social space to express their opinion and feeling.Left-wing intellectuals such as Luxun(鲁迅) and Maodun(茅盾)(of course including other intellectuals ) wrote much commentary about political problems,social problems and cultural phenomenon.Such discourse produced a critical and protest cultural-political space.The column of Weekend Review in Da Gongbao Newspaper began in the January in 1934.Firstly,Liberal intellectuals in Beijing such as Hushi(胡适),Fu Si-nian(傅斯年) and Jiang Tingfu(蒋廷黻)etc were invited by Da Gongbao Newspaper to be the Special Writers.Secondly,the most writers of Magazine Independent Review(《独立评论》)became this column' s writers also.Lastly,famous intellectuals in China who were interested in political commentary and public opinion also joined in the column. Intellectuals such as Hushi(胡适) published much reviews in this column what were about democratic politics,nationalism,party politics,the relation between China and Japan,education and culture.The discourse interacted with the editorial of Da Gongbao and then created profound and public opinion space.By focusing on the two cases we can find that in 1930s public opinion began to break up totally and absolutely.Firstly,the writers of the column Weekend Review formed their identity by thinking of being responsible for the nation-state and tried to reconstruct social centre. On the contrary,the writers of the column of Free Talking agued the literati were immoral and useless and they began to deny their social value and imagined their statue on the edge of society.Secondly,most of the writers of Weekend Review serviced for universities and institutes and had the identity of scholar.Most of them had study experience in America and Europe and enjoyed bourgeois live style.But most of the writers of Free Talking were producers of cultural publishing industry far from academic system.Some of them are free writers without stable job and their life was similar to bohemia wandering in big city.Some of them had studied in Japan and accepted the revolution discourse and thinking style.Thirdly, as to the thought source of public opinion and the base of argument,the writers of Weekend Review had various professional background such as political science,sociology,literature,economics and law.Their thought source was relatively abundant and they knew well about political public life and political practice of America and Europe.They usually made use of such source to thinking about the Chinese problems and their opinion rooted from rational tradition of the European enlightenment movement.But most of the writers of Free Talking were literature intellectuals and were more interested in the Chinese tradition and the literature and art of the west world.Their style discussing on the political phenomenon and social cultural phenomenon was vividly and visual.They take it for granted that they were the representative of the mass and the bottom.So the mass will was the important sprit of Free Talking.Lastly,as to the discourse style,Weekend Review was rational and dialoguing and so it emphasized the progressive and helpful manner to publish commentary.Free Talking was really free in speaking manner and could not be defined in some special style.It seemed as the writers were angry and scold but at the same time maybe they were smiling and playing a joke.By the comparison of the two columns and their connected conditions, maybe we can draw some conclusions.The development and quality of public opinion is decided someway by the mature degree of academy community.At the same time,public opinion in modern China can not escape from the limitation or protection of political power.The relation between opinion and power is very complicated and special.In another way,public opinion is related with the mind and will of intellectuals closely.In fact,both the writers of Weekend Review and Free Talking had not political plan as organizing party on the base of opinion space.Their daily life were so different and far from the life of the mass and outback people.Very strangely,they established close communication with the two parties with power and guns.Although what they said in the two columns had some social influence they could not change the political culture and social life totally.Maybe because of such reasons,some writers of Weekend Review directly went to Nanking(南京) and became officials of the government and engaged in factual politics and some of the writers of Free Talking went to Vanan(延安) and obeyed to the leading of CCP.Public opinion in modern China which seemed as strong as that it could make the state hopefully also could make it helpless was doomed to be tragic and vain. Such factors as the immature civil society,the powerless social movement, the cruel party politics and the low-grade education,etc lead to the failure of the public opinion and intellectuals groups.The introduction mainly discusses the key question of the paper,the study topic,the study approach and scholarship.The first chapter focuses on the historical tradition,the modern form and the self-understanding of public opinion in modern China.At the same time,it is important to look for the relation between opinion and Qingyi(清议),especially how the Qingyi(清议) changed into public opinion step by step.This part also pays attention to intellectuals' understanding of public opinion in 1930s,including the different judgment of the role of public opinion and its reasons.The second chapter reconstructs the public space which offers the expressing space of public opinion.It aims to describe the historical course how the cultural and publishing space which includes Da Gongbao Newspaper(《大公报》),Independent Review(《独立评论》) and Shenbao Newspaper(《申报》) is produced by journalists and intellectuals.The third chapter takes the intellectuals who produce the public opinion as the study object.For example,it discusses the tension and compromise between academy and politics for intellectuals in universities in Beijing.It also discusses the self-consciousness and self-image of left-wing intellectuals in Shanghai.At last it discusses the conflict and mutualism between public opinion and power structure.The fourth chapter takes publication in the two columns of Hushi(胡适) and Luxun(鲁迅) as case to analyze so as to find the relation among reason(理性),common will(民意) and public opinion.At the same time it analyzes the discussing topic and thought source of public opinion.The fifth chapter analyzes the thinking manners and discourse types of Weekend Review and Free Talking and aims to reconstruct the inner relation between them.The conclusion part describes the characteristic of public opinion in modern China and its limitations.