Newspaper And Urban Modernity

In a sense, a history of modern china is also a history of the rise of modern cities. As a product of urban modernity, modern newspapers have appeared at the stage of history during the growth of some modern cities. From the moment it appears, the modern newspaper and the city intertwine with a complex relationship of "you have me and I have you". Unfortunately, in the process of the form of the modern nation-state, important relationships between modern cities and newspapers have been forgotten and closed in a corner of history for a long time. Undoubtedly, it is important to review the relationships between them in showing the vivid and multi-layered changes of modern china.As the case of Hankow and Hankow Times, This paper starts from the theoretical perspective of urban modernity and investigates the relationships between the city, newspaper and nation-state carefully, three-dimensionally and dynamically in the history of developments of modern china, thereinto the interactions between the city and the newspaper are inspected in detail.In the case of Hankow, on the base of reviewing the development of the city and its newspapers, the paper investigates the rise of modern Hankow and the interactions between Hankow and Hankow Times with the theoretical perspective of urban modernity, thus draws some following conclusions:Firstly, the beginning of Hankow modernity is a gradual process from the shallower to the deeper, from the outside to the inside which specially manifested in three aspects of technical level, institutional level and behavioral level. At the end of nineteenth century and early twentieth century, some modern technical facilities such as road, water, electric, park, school and hospital have appeared in Hankow under the promotion of Governor-General Zhang Zhidong, who has introduced modern police institution, and the modern idea is gradually forming, thus some residents become the citizens when they absorb some modern technical facilities and institutions. Secondly, in the process of the start of Hankow modernity, the modern newspapers as a kind of "new knowledge" gradually enter the sight of the residents. As the most typical newspaper, Hankow Times make great importance in the dissemination of modern knowledge of the city to the merchants and the students. On the one hand, the newspaper transfers the knowledge to the readers when they are use of modern technical facilities. On the other hand, it transfers modern idea and concept on the base of introducing modern institution, especially the knowledge of police institution. At the same time, it changes the residents’concept of personal health into that of public health to the same extent by continuous reports and reviews about Hankow’s health status.Thirdly, the group of local intellectual elites of Hankow Times play an active role in the dissemination of knowledge of urban modernity. They take sure and appreciate attitudes to urban modernity in the early year, build an imagination of modern Hankow by using their pens and paper, and start to pursuit urban modernity for the future Hankow.At the same time, in the process of the rise of modern Chinese nationalism, the calls for the establishment of the modern nation-state are more and more growing and urban modernity has been expanded in the local-autonomy movement throughout the country. On the ground of local place (the city), the group of local elites who behave deep local emotions and patriotic enthusiasms actively promote the local-autonomy movement and put their pursuits for the modernity of local palace (the city) into those for the modern nation-state. In this instance, the local intellectual elites of Hankow Times start to build an imagination for a modern nation-state in the newspaper and put forward their ideas about "flourish country based on local development". On their eyes, the aims of the pursuit for the local (the city) modernity serve finally for a strong modern nation-state.On the case of Hankow and Hankow Times, this paper think that the emergence of modern cities give birth to modern newspapers which are one of the products of urban modernity. Modern newspapers as a kind of "new knowledge" promote the development of urban modernity in breadth and depth, and construct a modern city community on the ground of disseminating common knowledge. Nevertheless, under the influence of powerful nationalism, the modern newspaper’s pursuit for the nation-state is instead of the modern city, and the newspaper’s idea about "flourish country based on local development"become a narrative strategy to balance the city and the state. The establishment of a modern nation-state actually becomes the mainstream of modern newspapers.