The Sly Accommodationist: Tang Dalang and His Public Confessions, 1949–1952

This article is a case study of how Tang Dalang, a famous Shanghai tabloid writer in Republican China, accommodated the new CCP regime after he became the general editor of the tabloid newspaper Yibao (1949–1952). Current studies portray social and intellectual elites as accommodationists in the early years of the Communist state. Tang's case points to the powerful agency of the accommodators. Tang took an instrumental approach in responding to the new Communist state. He employed a confessional narrative that effectively secured his political standing with the CCP while at the same time asserting his "bourgeois" literary identity. This study reveals the strength many Chinese had to frustrate the CCP's attempt to transform their minds.