Wagner, Rudolf G., “The Role of the Foreign Community in the Chinese Public Sphere” (1995)

Title : “The Role of the Foreign Community in the Chinese Public Sphere”

Author(s) : Wagner, Rudolf G.

Year : 1995

Type : Journal article

Subject : History

Keywords : political;culture;foreigners

Journal : China Quarterly

Number : 142

Start page : 423

End page : 443

Language:Name : English

Support : Print

Abstract : Using Shanghai as a type site and considering the activity of Ernest Major, founder of Shenbao, the city's first newspaper, it can be argued that the foreign enclaves in China greatly advanced the development of a Chinese public sphere. in the protected enclaves Chinese were able to express and evaluate opinions and to develop enterprises independent of government control and restriction. Unfortunately nationalism would, in the 1920's-30's, lead modernizing Chinese intellectuals to oppose extraterritoriality and thus deny themselves of the institutions that made their existence possible.