"Far East" Commercial Advertising Research (1916-1921)

Advertisement serves as a mirror that reflects society.Modern newspapers and periodicals,the earliest carrier of modern advertisements in China,have published a great deal of wonderful advertisements.As the Middle East Railway was opened to traffic,Harbin gradually developed into an important transportation hub,trading port,and financial center not only in Northeast China but also in the entire Northeast Asia.The Far Eastern Newspaper is the first Russian-language Chinese newspaper published by Harbin,which published A lot of commercials.The operation of The Far Eastern Newspaper turned from prosperity to decline from 1916 to 1921.This period witnessed some important historical events such as the First World War,the October Revolution,and the fall of the Horvat government,all of which have put a significant effect on the economic development of Harbin.In this thesis,the commercial advertisements published on The Far Eastern Newspaper in that 5 years are classified into seven categories according to the content of the advertisements and the nature of the advertisers,which are medical advertisements,corporate advertisements,commodity advertisements,cultural advertisements,bank advertisements,insurance advertisements and employment advertisements.At the same time,combined with the social history of Harbin,this thesis has also explored the social changes reflected in those commercial advertisements and its promotion to social development by means of quantitative analysis.