A Research On Yan Fu’s Activities And Thoughts In Journalism

Yan Fu, a prestigious thinker and translator, is one of the most influentialjournalists in Chinese modern history of journalism. The Guowen Daily and GuowenAssembly started by Yan Fu and his thoughts in journalism have made greatcontributions to the development of Chinese modern history of journalism. Againstthis background, this thesis makes a deep analysis on Yan Fu’s contribution to thedevelopment of Chinese journalism from two perspectives, first, his activities injournalism and second, his thoughts in journalism.The first part of this thesis is concerned about Yan Fu’s activities in journalism.As a matter of fact, Yan Fu has long worked on journalism before he created his ownjournals. He often published political paper on Zhi Daily of Tianjing and CurrentAffairs of Shanghai, and his political view has made great impact on society at thattime. Later, he created two journals of his own, the Guowen Daily�'�GuowenAssembly. Guowen Daily was the most influential newspaper in the north of China,which served as the main place for public opinions in the Modernization Movementof north China. More, the papers published in Guowen Daily by Yan Fu not onlydisclosed the corruption and incompetence of Qin Dynasty and made acondemnation on the evils that western countries have made in China, but also pushedthe development of Modernization Movement. While the Guowen Assembly was aten-day report which mainly introduced many classical western books to China. Thisjournal only issued six volumes before it stopped, therefore, it is less influential thanGuowen Daily.The second part of this thesis mainly summarizes the major thoughts of Yan Fuin journalism.“Open people’s mind”was the kernel thoughts of Yan Fu injournalism, and also his purpose for creating the journals. According to Yan Fu, thepeople can open their minds and enrich their thoughts only when they have enoughknowledge of history and affairs at home and abroad. He emphasized on the greatinfluence that the journals can have on the nation. He also thought that the journalsshould be different for different readers. This thought was very shocking at that time.Meanwhile, he talked about the professional ethics of journalist. A journalist shouldtake a mind of his behavior, and he couldn’t be an incompetent journalist only to winreaders’ favor. In addition, Yan Fu held a different view on the text of newspaper. He insisted on writing in Chinese classical literary style rather than new literary style.In his view, Chinese classical literary style can better express the deep thoughts ofpeople.Yan Fu’s thoughts on journalism are mainly influenced by western civilizations,first, the social structure and system of western countries, second, the classical booksof western civilization. His thoughts was constantly shown in his creation of journals.