The Cultural Supply Press And Its Cultural Communication During The Anti-Japanese War(1939-1945)

The history of the local publishing industry,especially the publishing center that has influenced the overall situation,is an important part of the research on the history of the publishing industry.During the Anti-Japanese War,the Cultural City of Guilin,as the publishing center of the Koumintang-controlled area,witnessed a large number of writers,publications and publishing houses.This was taken as a unique historical phenomenon.The Cultural Supply Press Co.,Ltd.in the Cultural City of Guilin(hereinafter referred to as "Cultural Supply Press")was born in 1939,the most difficult period during war.Within a short span of two years,the Cultural Supply Press developed itself rapidly against the unusual social environment and became the largest publishing company in Guilin.It was named "three progressive groups",together with the International News Press and the Salvation Daily,and made a great contribution to cultural promotion on the Anti-Japanese War in the Koumintang-controlled area.As a medium for communication,the Cultural Supply Press was featured by localization,politicization and progressiveness.It is of historical significance for the study on the cultural communication during the Anti-Japanese War.As yet there has been no study on the Cultural Supply Press in the publishing historiography,this paper will take it as the research object,and raise the questions on("how the Cultural Supply Press developed itself in the unusual social environment" and "how it carried out cultural communication activities",and answer the questions by sorting out historical data.As the publishing activities are culturally conununicative,the paper seeks to apply the "5W,theory proposed by Harold D.Lasswell to the research from the perspective of communication,explore the environment for the establishment of the Cultural Supply Press,and analyze its survival and communication activities in terms of organization management modes,publishers,contents for publishing,target audience and communication effects under the unusual social environment in Guilin.The establishment and development of a medium organization are closely linked with social changes.This paper starts with the social background of the Anti-Japanese War and the special environment of Guilin as a cultural city,and examines the social ecology for the establishment of the Cultural Supply Press.During that time,the stable communication ecosystem was broken,together with intensifying ethnic conflicts,political turmoil,ideological struggle,and moving westwards of many publishing houses.Guilin became the birth place for the new publishing industry because of its unique geographical advantages,the new Guangxi clique’s open-minded political posture,as well as the practice of the Anti-Japanese National United Front of CPC.The Cultural Supply Press was a special publishing institution with the nature of "local governance" in Guangxi,and was jointly established by the new Guangxi clique democrats and the cultural progressives under the guidance of the Anti-Japanese National United Front.The establishment of the Cultural Supply Press kept a balance between the central government and the local government,the government and the market,the new Guangxi clique and the CPC,in terms of its organization system and personnel structure.Its shareholding system demonstrated the integration of the new Guangxi clique and the cultural progressives in the form of its shareholder structure.The rapid development of the Cultural Supply Press relied on the funding from the new Guangxi clique and the intellectual support from the cultural progressives.The shareholding system was even taken as an important excuse for refusal when the KMD government intended to incorporate the Cultural Supply Press.In the personnel structure,the KMD democrats like Li Renren,Chen Shaoxian,and Wan Zhongwen were among the management team,and the CPC progressives like Hu Yuezhi,Shao Quanlin,and Song Yunbin were key members of the editorial and publishing department.Under the leadership of the Anti-Japanese National United Front of the CPC,the Cultural Supply Press called on a lot of well-known writers to seek for common ground while reserving differences,which embodied its nature of inclusiveness and progressiveness.The publication of the Cultural Supply Press represented the popularization of cultural conmmunication during the Anti-Japanese War."Popularization" was not only a social demand for culture promotion during the war,but also self-consciousness of the medium organizations in the face of great national conflicts.Under the leadership of Hu Yuzhi,the Cultural Exchange Service earried out large-scale production and communication of popular books.One of the representatives was the cultural library series.The series achieved the spread of mass culture in space by establishing village libraries,and advanced information updates during the war through the serial publication "New Reason".Moreover,the publications such as "Juvenile Library Series","Youth Library Series","Literary Creation Series","New Water Margin" and "Lu Xun Quotations" boosted the popularization of literature among the youth.Meanwhile,the Cultural Supply Press also established the "Cultural Magazine",promoting freedom,critical thinking,as well as building a rigorous and rational cultural image.In addition,the Cultural Supply Press books like the "Cadre Policy" and the "National Education Series" to serve the local cultural construction with the support from the cultural and educational institutions in Guangxi.which became a strong driving force for the publishing industry in Guilin.In terms of book promotion,the Cultural Supply Press made great efforts not only to expand markets,but also send books to readers through stores,wholesalers,mail order and mobile distribution.Even during the war time that was full of economic depression and material shortage,the Cultural Supply Press still laid emphasis on its company image and market exploration.The advertising of the Cultural Supply Press in Ta-Kung Pao(Guilin Edition)demonstrated its energetic cultural ecology and strong marketing capacity.In order to promote the Anti-Japanese War culture to the public,the Cultural Supply Press carried out a variety of activities and participated into the "New Publishing Industry Joint Headquarter.to seek for discourse right in the publishing industry.Under the joint efforts of the member staff of the Cultural Supply Press,its publishing activities achieved remarkable communication effects.Continual reprints of publications reflected not only its industrial prosperity but aiso its quality guarantee.In addition,its contribution to protecting and transferring cultural progressives,and its adherence and creation during the low-mood cultural time,played a positive role in Guilin,s cultural movement.The reflection on its development history also provided successful experiences for the reform of publishing houses.The structure of the Anti-Japanese War culture is not of singularity,nor is its cultural promotion.Only if a case study is done from the macro－historical perspective,can we work out its inner power and historical logics.As a local publishing house during the Anti-Japanese War,the Cultural Supply Press was the product of a specific historical period and also a showcase of the publishing industry at that time.It presented a successful model to operate the publishing industry in the unusual social environment.Although the Cultural Supply Press survived for only 15 years during the war,its cultural promotion exerted profound influence on the human history.