Unity vs. Uniformity: Liang Qichao and the Invention of a "New Journalism" for China

Abstract

When Liang Qichao burst upon the Chinese journalistic scene at the end of the nineteenth century, he allegedly shaped a "new journalism style" and "revolutionized the Chinese press," 2 eventually becoming "the most influential [newspaper journalist] China had ever known." 3 To attain this position Liang had to displace the existing papers on the press market by advancing new arguments to a new public. I will argue that many newspaper historians have taken Liang Qichao's own evaluation of the role played by his forerunners at face value instead of looking at its polemical character. The oft-cited explosion of the press market and dominance of the political press after the short Reform Movement of 1898 was not at all due only to Liang Qichao's refined and convincing rhetoric about the importance of a press in China—as it is often depicted—but rather part of much broader changes in both politics and journalism. Moreover, the "explosion" itself was in fact an outgrowth of a well-established tradition of modern Chinese journalism extending back more than three decades. Instead of sharing the generally held opinion that "Liang Qichao's formative influence on the development of Chinese newspapers as a new forum for social cohesion and political discussion can hardly be overestimated," 4 this study puts the question the other way, by asking whether this influence has not been overestimated for far too long.

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