Wagner, Rudolf G., “The Shenbao in Crisis: the International Environment and the Conflict Between Guo Songtao and the Shenbao” (1999)

Title : “The Shenbao in Crisis: the International Environment and the Conflict Between Guo Songtao and the Shenbao”

Author(s) : Wagner, Rudolf G.

Year : 1999

Type : Journal article

Subject : History

Keywords : culture;foreigners;press

Journal : Late Imperial China

Volume : 20

Number : 1

Start page : 107

End page : 138

Language:Name : English

Support : Print

Abstract : In 1872 Ernest Major, a British subject, began publishing a Chinese-language newspaper, Shenbao, in Shanghai. As a result of two misunderstood articles that were intended to praise Guo Songtao, China's ambassador to Great Britain when the first article appeared, the continued publication of Shenbao was called into question. This took place at a time when a British-owned, Japanese-language paper came under pressure from the Japanese government (with British plenipotentiary in Tokyo Sir Harry Parkes siding with the Japanese government) and when Britain was increasingly concerned with the growth of a native press in India. Under these circumstances the British consul in Shanghai, earlier supportive of Shenbao's independence, was not prepared to back the paper. Further complications resulted from China's reticence to recognize other nations as true equals, a Chinese lack of respect for diplomats and journalists, and British unfamiliarity with the style of Chinese discourse. Eventually Major apologized to Guo in print and in person, the paper endured, and both parties continued to see themselves as having been wrongly treated.