Limited National Identity And Indirect Emotional Expression:Research On The Chinese Consciousness Of Ships And Commerce

Hong Kong was the cradle and powerhouse of modem Chinese newspapers.However,Chinese intellectuals' practices in the press were highly restricted under the ruling of Britons.How they managed to express their feelings towards China is a topic that deserves more attention.Applying methods of literature analysis and discourse analysis,this study examines the news content of Ships and Commerce,the first Chinese newspaper in modern China,asking what the newspaper's Chinese consciousness is,how it was being expressed,what its characteristics are,and how it took shape.Ships and Gommerce's news focused on politics,society and commerce and covers Hong Kong,China and foreign countries,offering us a perspective of China and its foreign relations during the Second Opium War.As a colonial newspaper,Ships and Commerce identified with Britain politically and defended the British national benefits.That said,the newspaper did have Chinese consciousness,which can be seen in two aspects:It partly took in the concept of Tianxia and national state,showing a limited Chinese national identity;the newspaper also had emotions for China as it was very conceemed about the country and its people,it had sympathy for Chinese people who were under serve living condition no matter they were at home or abroad,criticized corrupt,misbehaved officials,expressed anxieties over the hatred people had towards the government and the eountry's gloomy future as well as showed a strong wish that China could learn from the West and takes steps to be strong and wealthy.Since the Opium War,China has started its modernization as many aspects of the society went through great changes.The Chinese consciousness of Ships and Commerce had the characteristics of both tradition and modernity,and the expression of it was sometimes straightforward and intense,sometimes obscure and implicit,and that depends on the topic of the news.The Chinese consciousness of Ships and Commerce took shape in the special social environment of Hong Kong,which to a large extent was affected by social changes in mainland China.Through the analyze of the interaction between the newspaper and the society,we can have a better understanding of the development track of the Chinese community in Hong Kong,and feel the Chinese editors' efforts to express their Chinese consciousness under the situation where media was controlled by foreigners.Looking back on history,this study hopes to help us understand the national consciousness of today's Hong Kongers.