Unity vs. Uniformity: Liang Qichao and the Invention of a "New Journalism" for China

When Liang Qichao burst upon the Chinese journalistic scene at the end of the nineteenth century, he allegedly shaped a "new journalism style" and "revolutionized the Chinese press," ² eventually becoming "the most influential [newspaper journalist] China had ever known." ³ To attain this position Liang had to displace the existing papers on the press market by advancing new arguments to a new public. I will argue that many newspaper historians have taken Liang Qichao's own evaluation of the role played by his forerunners at face value instead of looking at its polemical character. The oft-cited explosion of the press market and dominance of the political press after the short Reform Movement of 1898 was not at all due only to Liang Qichao's refined and convincing rhetoric about the importance of a press in China—as it is often depicted—but rather part of much broader changes in both politics and journalism. Moreover, the "explosion" itself was in fact an outgrowth of a well-established tradition of modern Chinese journalism extending back more than three decades. Instead of sharing the generally held opinion that "Liang Qichao's formative influence on the development of Chinese newspapers as a new forum for social cohesion and political discussion can hardly be overestimated," ⁴ this study puts the question the other way, by asking whether this influence has not been overestimated for far too long.

Newspaper readings have to be contextualized in terms of their specific historic and societal significance, otherwise the numerous editorial statements on the role of the press remain too general. In order to understand Liang Qichao's specific position within this new journalistic field, we have to situate his statements in a political and journalistic context. I will argue that, in this context, Liang's statements about the old and (his) new press were mainly polemical reactions towards new and obviously threatening trends on the newspaper market, and thus a forceful attempt to dominate these trends.

I will begin by outlining the political preconditions that forced journalists to articulate and defend their distinct positions against an increasingly active government. At the end of the nineteenth century there were three new major political trends in China's press circles, each concerned with different groups of social actors. First, the "reform press" arose and started to move from the concessions of the treaty ports to the hinterland, and with this the discussion on the role of the press in politics and society moved towards the political center. Second, in reaction the court began discussions about press laws for China and launched a large-scale movement of issuing governmental newspapers (guanbao). Finally, in the private realm, and most of all in Shanghai, we can observe an explosion of the press market, with many private individuals founding tabloid papers, literary magazines, and politically-oriented newspapers.

These developments, together with the political fissures emerging during the Hundred Days Reform of 1898 and resulting from its failure, required a clear statement by the central authority in order to regain control over the forum of public expression. Such a statement appeared in the form of Cixi's well-known and radical edict prohibiting the private editing of newspapers, in October 1898. ⁵ Additionally, she decried journalists in toto as "the dregs of the literary classes" (siwen bailei). From then on, siwen bailei became a generally used stock phrase for denouncing newspaper journalists, but, as we shall see, it soon became much contested as to which journalists actually belonged to this category.

Merely repressive measures could not provide the new government with sufficient legitimacy for the control of public expression. Therefore, it sought to attain a new position in the publishing market itself. The Peking Gazette or Government Gazette (Jingbao), which had appeared in many different forms for centuries, was obviously no longer regarded as sufficient for public information. After the...