Bank Weekly Study (1925-1937)

Bank Weekly was co-founded by Bank of China, Bank of Communications and other five banks in the spring of 1915, aiming to accelerate development of bank industry and disseminate financial knowledge in China. In 1918, the Shanghai Association of Banks was established formally and Bank Weekly was the publication in this association and published by its affiliated institution of bank. Zhang Jiaao, the assistant manager of Shanghai municipal branch of Bank of China, was the initial director of this paper and the editorial department was located in the Shanghai Branch. The successive managers and general editors were all prestigious persons in the bank industry, such as Xu Cangshui, Shen Laiqing, Dai Ailu, Li Quanshi and Zhu Sihuang, the main contributors included Yao Chungba, Xu Yu-sun, Zhu Xinong, Feng Xiaoming, Ngu Yingru, to name but a few.Bank Weekly had been publishing until March,1950 that covered every important information in the field of fiscal, finance, trade, currency, foreign exchange, banking, securities, trading, accounting and statistics. Nearly three decades witnessed its publication in every week without interruption, a total of 34 volumes 1635 issues. The publication time and issue numbers were all on the top of the China's financial professional journals of its kind.When Bank Weekly began its publication, domestic banking was experiencing rapid advancement. Its publishing provided theoretical guidance for emerging Shanghai Chinese-funded banks that were lack of sufficient operation and management to go into maturation and played an indispensable role in opening up new business in Shanghai financial circle based on market demand, even in achieving sound development in financial industry in the country as a whole. Under the influence of Bank Weekly, Bank Monthly of Beijing and Qian Ye Monthly of Shanghai were founded in 1921 while Bank Magazine of Hankou in 1923. In this sense, Bank Weekly played a positive and exemplary role in the development of modern Chinese financial periodicals.This article mainly expounds from the aspect of internal running organization, system and mechanisms, economic situation, editing and publishing, and historical values of Bank Weekly and carrries out a comprehensive case research with a systematic analysis of Bank Weekly to study modern newspaper operation and to explore the reasons why Bank Weekly was of significance in financial history of modern China.