| The newspaper reading room,also known as reading room or newspaper reading house,was a public service reading place where the organizer provided newspapers to the public for free in modern China.At present,some achievements have been made in the study of modern Chinese newspaper reading room,but all of them are limited to focusing on the late Qing Dynasty or the Nanjing National Government,while lacking a systematic and coherent thematic study.So,a comprehensive study of newspaper reading room is not only of strong academic value,but also of practical significance.As the national crisis deepened in the late Qing Dynasty,some intellectuals realized that enlighten the people was an important way to save the country,and the newspaper was an important tool.At that time,the flourished of newspaper industry and the demand for mass reading,also laid the foundation for the emergence of the newspaper reading room.The first newspaper reading room appeared in Hankow,Hubei in 1898.Subsequently,a large number of newspaper reading room appeared in other province,especially the Beijing-Tianjin area.According to incomplete statistics,there were more than five hundred reading newspaper rooms,and countless newspaper reading spot,newspaper reading boards in the late Qing dynasty.From the nature of the newspaper reading room,the number of private newspaper reading room far exceeded that of public newspaper reading room in the late Qing Dynasty.Different newspaper reading room learn from each other,communicate with each other frequently,gradually developing into a group,which not only helps its own development,but also plays a role in social activities.Generally speaking,in the late Qing Dynasty,newspaper reading room were mainly financed by social fund-raising,and their sources were not stable,and the situation of intermittently openning and stopping was relatively common.After the establishment of the Republic of China government,public newspaper reading room gradually developed and overtook the private newspaper reading room to became the mainstream,.By 1937,the total number of public and private newspaper reading room had exceeded 30,000,became the one kind of the common public cultural facilities in society.Accordingly,during the period of the Republic of China,the expenditure of the newspaper reading room increased,the manage system was better than before.After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War,due to the turbulent social environment,newspaper reading room fell into a state of stagnation.Newspaper reading room has played an important role in the enlightenment and discipline of public.In the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China,the literacy level and economic level of the people were low,and the mass reading culture was not yet formed.The newspaper reading room has built a public room which was free open to all public.Newspaper reading room shorten the physical and psychological distance between the public and reading.Free reading room reduced the economic cost of mass reading.Newspaper lectures and speeches,opened up the reading path for illiterate people.By the expansion of readers,newspaper culture and knowledge can be spread in a wider geographical range and more grassroots social strata.In the daily activities of reading and speaking newspapers,the newspaper reading room focused on the teaching of popular knowledge and arouses the national consciousness of the public.Its institutionalized field also served to civilized readers,so objectively it played a positive role in the opening of the reading culture and public enlightenment.For the enlightenment activities of newspaper reading room,the public were not mechanical passive recipients,on the contrary,part of the enlightened people also participated in the enlightenment activities and became the enlightened ones.They were communicated with each other,formed a unique social enlightenment network.During the period of Nanjing National Government,newspaper reading room,especially public newspaper reading room,aimed at shaping the new citizens and intended to infiltrate national concepts and political knowledge into public reading.While improving public literacy and reading level,it established a detailed network for spreading political knowledge and became a place for civic education and institutional discipline.During this period,the newspaper reading room constructed a unique space of popular education,brought the public into the political discourse of the government.Newspaper reading room constructed and expanded the public space in the modern time.By adopting the strategy of dispersing along traffic arteries,the newspaper reading room embedded public reading space into the daily life,which greatly facilitated mass reading and enriched the channels of information transmission in the Late Qing Dynasty.The expansion of public reading space promoted the participation of the mass in public opinion and public affairs,and cultivates the modern reading public.Revolutionaries in the late Qing Dynasty took newspaper reading room as their activity base to spread progressive ideas and mobilize revolutionary forces,which promoted the emergence and development of the Revolution of 1911.From the perspective of vertical comparison,the newspaper reading room built by the transformation of traditional public space in the late Qing Dynasty,while in the Republic of China,newspaper reading room were mainly built on new space,and disciplined people’s daily life through the arrangement of the environment and the organization of activities.The public space constructed by newspaper reading room shows two different orientation.On the one hand,the public activity and opinion space expanded;On the other hand,the continuous intervention of the state in the public space and the growing power of the state make the newspaper reading room became a part of the discipline space.Newspaper reading room has achieved certain results during the modern time.Newspaper reading room have expanded the scope of information dissemination,promoted the formation of mass reading culture,enhanced public intelligence,and played a positive role in public enlightenment.Through the construction and expansion of public reading space,public opinion space and discipline space,newspaper reading room not only promoted the enlightenment process of public,but also became an important field for disseminating political discourse,implementing social education and building national and social foundation,as well as an important tool for public discipline.Generally speaking,newspaper reading room has played a certain role in the construction of the modern state.However,due to the influence of political environment,its own limitations and public literacy and other factors,there were also many problems with newspaper reading room such as unbalanced regional distribution and lack of management.From what has been discussed above,the newspaper reading room played the role of key intermediaries in promoting and helping mass reading,promoted the sinking of reading culture,and the transformation of mass reading culture in modern China.The newspaper reading room shows the evolution track from enlightenment to discipline.The development of newspaper reading room reflects the complex relationship between state power and civil society in the field of mass reading.It’s an epitome of the politicization of mass reading in modern China. |
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