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Key American figures
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THOMAS Franklin Fairfax Millard (1868-1942)
Seen by some as the “founding father of American journalism in China,” Thomas Franklin Fairfax Millard was born in Missouri, graduated from the University of Missouri in 1888 and went on to work first for the St Louis Republic, then the New York Herald from 1897 to 1911.
While he was with the latter, he covered several global conflicts, including the Boxer Rebellion and Russo-Japanese War. Millard remained in the Far East and engaged in advocacy journalism during the transition period after the fall of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
With former Chinese envoy to the US, Dr Wu Tingfang, Millard co-founded the China Press, an American-style daily newspaper in Shanghai that was the first US-owned paper in China, aside from missionary publications.
He also founded a weekly English-language journal in Shanghai, Millard’s Review of the Far East, in 1917 which would later become the China Weekly Review.
Between 1919 and 1935, Millard simultaneously acted as journalist and the first American political adviser and advised on such influential affairs as the Paris Peace Conference and the League of Nations. The New York Times appointed him as its first-ever China correspondent in 1925, dismissing him in 1927 due to his sympathy for the Kuomintang. He was reinstated in 1929 and held the position until his death in 1942.
Passionate about China and its issues, he was widely considered the foremost American writer on Chinese affairs in his time and was praised for both the honesty and technical brilliance in his writing.
Carl Crow (1884-1945)
Another American from Missouri, Carl Crow was first recruited by Millard to be a founding editor for the China Press. He also served as United Press’s China correspondent and established the first United Press China bureau.
Along with Millard, Crow was a part of the Missouri News Colony, one of the recognized groups of foreign journalists in China. Though he was an established journalist in the States and reported extensively in China, Crow truly made a name for himself in advertising.
Crow first helped to found Chun Mei News Agency, which specialized in translating English articles into Chinese for the local Chinese-language press.
Carl Crow Inc, the first Western advertising agency in Shanghai, was a spinoff from Chun Mei. It translated advertising from American companies and placed them in local newspapers.
Working closely with many artists and illustrators, Crow paid great attention to commercial art. These artists and their works were the manifestation of Crow’s philosophy that images led to more successful advertising than copy in China.
Posters and billboards brought his company recognition, and Carl Crow Inc contributed greatly to the “sexy modern Shanghai girl” image that would become so prevalent in Shanghai advertising.
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