Research On Shanghai Pictorial

The course of modern China’s pictorial magazine was initiated in Shanghai, the prosperous land of illustrated magazine industry. The Shanghai Pictorial, a fine-print magazine that had excellent pictures and accompanying words, covered on news, literature, art, entertainment, commerce and movie information of that time. The Pictorial, inheriting the merits from Dianshizhai Pictorial, opened a prime era of modern China’s pictorial when zincography printing technology was well applied and influenced the later famous magazine, the Young Companion. The Shanghai Pictorial also provided much precious documentation on modem Shanghai. The study on Shanghai Pictorial bears academic significance on the history of journalism and communication.The essay aims to analyze the editorial thoughts, content, communicating effect and social value from the perspectives of journalism and visual modernity, in order to give advice to today’s media industry development. The essay includes four chapters.The first chapter introduces the background, the aim, significance and the methodology of this study, as well as the research review on this subject. We are in a period of social transition that is similar to the time of Shanghai Pictorial. Although it is an old magazine, it helps us to understand and renews the concept of era of picture-reading.The second chapter systemizes the history of Shanghai Pictorial. The author analyzes the idea of editing behind the Pictorial’s success and how this idea was inspired. The author introduces the revolution of printing technology and the evolution of picture supplement and photography pictorial, as well as divides the magazine’s history into three parts according to the persons chairing the editing work.The third chapter analyzes the Pictorial’s contents and features. The editing thought directly influences the development of Shanghai Pictorial and further determines the topic selecting feature that "pays attention to the interesting and valuable images, information and contents" and the idea of serving the readers. The editing thought of Shanghai Pictorial was not immutable. This essay, according to the Pictorial’s editor Huang Meisheng’s article, analyzes the elegant and precious pictures, the novel and intriguing words, as well as the clear and distinct artistic style.The fourth chapter introduces the influence of Shanghai Pictorial. The author first analyzes the Pictorial’s Shanghai style. The Shanghai Pictorial was mainly composed by the old scholars and appreciated by common citizen. From the perspective of visual modernity, the essay then demonstrates the influence and significance of the Pictorial and the relationship between its authors and readers.