| ID | 179283 |
| Title Proper | Creating Public Opinion, Advancing Knowledge, Engaging in Politics |
| Other Title Information | the Local Public Sphere in Chengdu, 1898–1921 |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Veg, Sebastian |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | Situated far from coastal cities and foreign concessions, Chengdu yields insights into the role of the local press and its specific publics in the political evolution of the late Qing and early Republic. Despite its remote location, Chengdu developed its own modern press in the late Qing, relying on print entrepreneurs and modern journalists recruited from the ranks of the local literati and traditional sociability, in particular teahouses. They all played a role in forming a modern reading public which came to understand itself as a distinct local political community in dynamic interaction with national politics and transnational networks. The local press evinced three successive but intertwined ideals of publicness: as a link between the state and the people and a vector of enlightenment, as a professional forum for public opinion and as a tool for political mobilization. In solidifying public opinion around the local community, the press served as a forum and catalyst for political activism in the 1911 Railroad Protection movement and the 1919 May Fourth movement, events which were shaped as much by local dynamics as they were by national developments. |
| `In' analytical Note | China Quarterly ,No. 246; Jun 2021: p.331 - 353 |
| Journal Source | China Quarterly No 246 |
| Key Words | Press ; Sichuan ; Print Culture ; 1911 Revolution ; Publicness ; May Fourth Movement |