| From the mid-19th century to the early 20th century,The North-China Daily News,founded and operated by westerners in Shanghai,adopted the operation mode of popular western mass newspaper to collect and publish commercial information,shipping information,Chinese and foreign news of concern to westerners in China.It became the most leading and influential English daily newspaper in China and even in East Asia at that time.On covering Chinese news,The North-China Daily News paid special attention to the group characteristics of Chinese people’s values,social psychology and behaviors.The related content was scattered between the lines of the newspaper,including more than 2,000 typical news reports and news reviews,which became one of the most prominent news-worthy topics in the history of The North-China Daily News.The coverage of Chinese people in The North-China Daily News does not simply reflect the objective reality,but contains the political,economic demands and cultural emotional factors of the newspaper’s operators and writers,constructing a set of Chinese Characteristics discourse to reconstruct the reality.The spread of Chinese Characteristics discourse in The North-China Daily News became a source of knowledge for westerners to understand and construct the image of Chinese people.The spread of the discourse to Chinese readers stimulated some Chinese people’s cultural consciousness and,to a certain extent,became the source of thoughts and reference of recognition of the gist of "transforming the national character" cultural trend in modern China.In this broad historical process,The North-China Daily News and the western forces behind it enabled The North-China Daily News as western media to take root in China.By cultivating the branches of Chinese Characteristics discourse,it became a western cultural force that stimulated the international communication of western civilization,stirred the Chinese historical order in the late Qing Dynasty and influenced the spiritual world of Chinese people,which is worthy of in-depth study.At present,scholars at home and abroad have not carried out research on the Chinese Characteristics discourse in The North-China Daily News from the perspective of mass media and knowledge discourse,and the related research publications are very rare.Based on research on the original newspapers,this thesis focuses on the Chinese Characteristics discourse in The North-China Daily News.From the perspective of mass media and knowledge discourse,this thesis systematically studies the historical background,discourse connotation,production,communication and influences of the Chinese Characteristics discourse in The North-China Daily News from its inception to the demise of the Qing Dynasty.First,using newly excavated historical materials,this thesis traces back the history of The North-China Daily News,investigates the process of its western proprietors and writers,including western businessmen,politicians and missionaries,integrating their individual goals and beliefs into news practice of The North-China Daily News,and explores the forms of content of Chinese Characteristics discourse.Secondly,this thesis deeply studies the original newspaper,diachronically sorts out the texts of Chinese Characteristics discourse in The North-China Daily News,and investigates the historical traces of the writers who,based on their own perception,characterized the Chinese people as barbarians and intended to westernize the Chinese national character.Based on the content above,this thesis further explores the production of the Chinese Characteristics discourse in The North-China Daily News,including collecting,editing and commenting.Finally,from the perspective of global history,this thesis examines the communication and historical impacts of the Chinese Characteristics discourse in The North-China Daily News at home and abroad,and studies the historical relationship between the news practice of western mass media represented by The North-China Daily News and the international dissemination of western centrism.This thesis strives to break through the scope of traditional research on China’s journalism history by putting the Chinese Characteristics discourse produced by The North-China Daily News in the context of global historical development,and comprehensively evaluates its historical value in combination with interdisciplinary thoughts in sociology,politics,literature,etc.The North-China Daily News paid close attention to Chinese Characteristics,shaping the Chinese people into a barbaric race that needs to be reformed by the West.The newspaper also pays attention to other ethnic groups’ national characteristics in the world.The North-China Daily News built a journalistic world dominated by western centrism.Some people in the colony and semi-colonies,including the Chinese,became the objects of negation and transformation.The national character discourse in The North-China Daily News spread the concept of western centralism to Chinese and foreign audiences,relating to the changes of modern ideology and culture in China,and became an important part in the international dissemination of western centrism.Tracing back to the global publishing industry from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century,The North-China Daily News is one of many mass media transplanted by western countries to their overseas colonies and semi-colonies.In this sense,western mass media scattered abroad produced media knowledge with western centrism as the core.As a cultural force that can not be ignored,western mass media provided knowledge resources and theoretical support for shaping and strengthening the western dominated communication order in the modern world. |
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