A Study On The Press History Of The Hui Ethnic Group In Modern China

As an ethnic minority,the Hui people are an integral part of the Chinese nation.By the same token,the press history the Hui ethnic group is also an integral part of the Chinese press history.This paper attempts to explore the development of Hui newspapers and periodicals from the late Qing Dynasty to the Republican period from the perspective of typology.In this structure,China served as not only a background for writing,but also an important force that is constantly present in the shaping of the press itself.Under the dual effect of China being both "a latecomer" and "a great power",China not only had less industrial categories compared to that of developed countries,but also uneven geographical distribution due to the "great power" system.As a result,the application of media was restricted by the "embedded" mechanism,with very limited effect on the local community or the society at large.Furthermore,the Hui newspapers and periodicals made little contribution in promoting the modern transformation of the Hui ethnic group in China,whether in political,economic,or cultural-religious terms.The root cause for this phenomenon is that China’s involvement in the modernization drive was quite limited,and did not bring much significant changes to its social structure.In addition,the conservative religious ideology among the Hui people had further limited the effectiveness of the publications,which was far from the popular belief back then——"when newspapers prosper,the Hui ethnic group would also prosper".With this main idea in mind,this paper looked into specific regions,put Hui newspapers and periodicals under the particular historical context,and explored the emergence and development of Hui newspapers.By examining the non-Hui settlements in the coastal regions,the Hui settlements in the coastal regions,the non-Hui settlements in the inland regions,and the Hui settlements in the inland regions,this paper identified uneven presence of Hui newspapers within the geographical regions:the northwestern region with a large Hui population had seen the least number of Hui newspapers,and the transmission of news largely relied on oral communication;while the coastal regions with smaller Hui population saw the vast majority of Hui newspapers.In this sense,the presence of Hui publication was in itself a reproduction of the involvement in the modernization drive.Similarly,Hui newspapers were generally founded by societies and associations.However,due to financial problems in the founding organizations,most of the newspapers failed to survive for a long enough time to create a real influence,while nearly all of the more influential publications received government funding and thus managed to last for a longer time.Most of the Hui publications were still at a primary state,and thus failed to bring about much influence on the Hui community or the society at large.Under such a structure,the application of publications as a technology itself would naturally be limited.As observed in the writing from various regions,the emphasis on the changes or progress that media could bring to a society failed to hold water and needed to be supported by a specific social structure.This paper has conducted a case study on the Hui newspaper to explore whether such typology is universal in the Chinese press history or in the press history of all the "latecomer" countries,and is therefore both a expository and exploratory research.