Home » Opinion » Foreign Views
Old English-language press tells story of city
By Aled Jones |
September 5, 2012, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
WHEN the Shanghai Daily started in October 1999, it was continuing a tradition of English-language newspaper journalism in the city that dated back to at least 1827.
As an historian of journalism, I recently went in search of that long story at the wonderful Shanghai City Library. As always, when I dip into the news of a century and a half ago, I am surprised by what old newspapers can reveal.
There is much to choose from. The Canton Register was probably the first English title that we could call a newspaper, one that included items of news aimed mainly at the commercial interests of European traders. The Chinese Repository followed in 1832, but it was only after the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842, the first of the unequal treaties that gave Western powers privileged access to five of China's major ports, that the English press began to proliferate.
The China Mail appeared in 1845, followed by the North China Herald in 1850, the North China Daily News in 1865, the Shanghai Evening Courier in 1869, and the Shanghai Mercury in 1879.
Newspapers are written for immediate reading, and in the knowledge that in a very short period of time the news they contain will be outdated. But it is sometimes instructive to regard them also as historical documents, sources of information about the past that can sometimes cast intriguing light on the present.
For one thing, we can get a better sense of what their writers, and possibly their readers, were like, what their views and prejudices were, and also what they hoped to achieve. Occasionally, we can catch a glimpse of their vision of the future. Take, for example, the editor's opening address in the first issue of the North China Herald, published in Shanghai on Saturday, August 3,1850. It begins by paying tribute to the "immortal" free-trade legislation passed by the British Parliament in 1846 that repealed the protectionist "Corn Laws" of the country, but which also would have a major effect on British trading relations with the rest of the world.
"Free Trade," the editor announced, was no longer in the category of experiments, but a reality both for Britain and for Shanghai, from where it imported so much of its tea and silk. But the foreign commercial interests of Shanghai, which the North China Herald sought to represent, were beginning to see the world in a different way from those they had left behind in their home countries.
From Europe to Asia
Europe, interestingly, was less an immediate concern for them than Asia and, increasingly, the Americas.
The discovery of gold and other valuable minerals in California during the 1840s led them to think of the future development of the world economy less in terms of the Atlantic Ocean, and much more in terms of the Pacific. By linking China to the west coast of the United States, and only then (64 years before a canal was opened in 1914) through Panama to Europe, Shanghai would become the hub of that global economy.
The editor concluded with these prophetic words: "It is the destiny of Shanghae (sic) to become the permanent emporium of trade between it and all the nations of the world."
In the weeks that followed, however, the North China Herald carried news of "much riot and disturbance" in the city, as crowds began to attack shops and traders. They didn't know it at the time, but very shortly the Taiping Rebellion would spread through eastern China and conflict would continue until its defeat in 1864. Imperial aggression further undermined the economic development of the city for decades after that. Yet as I walk the streets of Shanghai in 2011, I am reminded of what was said back in 1850 about the "destiny" of this amazing city.
Thankfully, it was not to be the subjugated destiny those old English traders had hoped for. But the editor of the North China Herald was right about one thing - the eyes of the world economy would indeed one day be on Shanghai, the city that the Shanghai Daily, in a very different way, now so confidently represents to the world.
Aled Jones is professor of history and pro vice-chancellor at Aberystwyth University, UK. He is the author of studies of journalism in the UK and North America, including "Powers of the Press, Newspapers, Power and the Public in Nineteenth Century England," 1996.)
As an historian of journalism, I recently went in search of that long story at the wonderful Shanghai City Library. As always, when I dip into the news of a century and a half ago, I am surprised by what old newspapers can reveal.
There is much to choose from. The Canton Register was probably the first English title that we could call a newspaper, one that included items of news aimed mainly at the commercial interests of European traders. The Chinese Repository followed in 1832, but it was only after the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842, the first of the unequal treaties that gave Western powers privileged access to five of China's major ports, that the English press began to proliferate.
The China Mail appeared in 1845, followed by the North China Herald in 1850, the North China Daily News in 1865, the Shanghai Evening Courier in 1869, and the Shanghai Mercury in 1879.
Newspapers are written for immediate reading, and in the knowledge that in a very short period of time the news they contain will be outdated. But it is sometimes instructive to regard them also as historical documents, sources of information about the past that can sometimes cast intriguing light on the present.
For one thing, we can get a better sense of what their writers, and possibly their readers, were like, what their views and prejudices were, and also what they hoped to achieve. Occasionally, we can catch a glimpse of their vision of the future. Take, for example, the editor's opening address in the first issue of the North China Herald, published in Shanghai on Saturday, August 3,1850. It begins by paying tribute to the "immortal" free-trade legislation passed by the British Parliament in 1846 that repealed the protectionist "Corn Laws" of the country, but which also would have a major effect on British trading relations with the rest of the world.
"Free Trade," the editor announced, was no longer in the category of experiments, but a reality both for Britain and for Shanghai, from where it imported so much of its tea and silk. But the foreign commercial interests of Shanghai, which the North China Herald sought to represent, were beginning to see the world in a different way from those they had left behind in their home countries.
From Europe to Asia
Europe, interestingly, was less an immediate concern for them than Asia and, increasingly, the Americas.
The discovery of gold and other valuable minerals in California during the 1840s led them to think of the future development of the world economy less in terms of the Atlantic Ocean, and much more in terms of the Pacific. By linking China to the west coast of the United States, and only then (64 years before a canal was opened in 1914) through Panama to Europe, Shanghai would become the hub of that global economy.
The editor concluded with these prophetic words: "It is the destiny of Shanghae (sic) to become the permanent emporium of trade between it and all the nations of the world."
In the weeks that followed, however, the North China Herald carried news of "much riot and disturbance" in the city, as crowds began to attack shops and traders. They didn't know it at the time, but very shortly the Taiping Rebellion would spread through eastern China and conflict would continue until its defeat in 1864. Imperial aggression further undermined the economic development of the city for decades after that. Yet as I walk the streets of Shanghai in 2011, I am reminded of what was said back in 1850 about the "destiny" of this amazing city.
Thankfully, it was not to be the subjugated destiny those old English traders had hoped for. But the editor of the North China Herald was right about one thing - the eyes of the world economy would indeed one day be on Shanghai, the city that the Shanghai Daily, in a very different way, now so confidently represents to the world.
Aled Jones is professor of history and pro vice-chancellor at Aberystwyth University, UK. He is the author of studies of journalism in the UK and North America, including "Powers of the Press, Newspapers, Power and the Public in Nineteenth Century England," 1996.)
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
