Late Qing Shanghai Vernacular Newspaper With The Public And Cultural Life (1876-1911)

In modern times of Shanghai,magazines, newspapers, and other cultural undertakings, are extremely prosperous. Whether in spreading new ideas and making social forces gathered, they all play an important intermediary role in the life of citizens, and have gradually become the most influential and rallying media forms.Chinese intellectuals have some doubts about the function of classic Chinese in social enlightenment, regarding that its role only limits to the upper class and it has little effect on the civilians, especially on those of little literacy or without literacy. But facing the increasingly serious national crisis, intellectuals' wish to enlighten these civilians becomes more anxious, then the writing with Modern Vernacular Chinese went gradually popular in the late Qing Dynasty, and the outbreak of newspapers with Modern Vernacular Chinese in late Qing Dynasty is a concentrated expression of that trend.Through bringing in advanced concepts from western world like 'Natural Selection', 'Democracy', 'Equality', Vernacular Chinese newspaper tries to construct a modern country and supplies the ' national concept' to the civilian class, and calls them to join in the action of saving our nation. Besides, it makes use of the public cultural place to lead the citizens' life to be modernized in the way of education, women, and industry and commerce. Meanwhile, it studies the ballad column to inquire how the public media should apply the entertainment form, which is popular among civilians, to building up the space for public opinion and criticism between citizens and intellectuals.