The Coping Of The Puppet Regime's Cultural Policy And Magazine Discourse In Occupied North China

The July 7th Incident interrupted the process of China's modernization that followed the May 4th Movement of 1919.Rebels in North China quickly established puppet regimes.The free and democratic atmosphere in the cultural circle suddenly dissolved,and a series of obscure pro-Japanese theories were put forward by this false government.Under the influence of the strict policies of Japan and the "puppet"culture,newspapers and magazines overwhelmingly spread the "Jihad"and "Oriental Inherent Culture" propaganda.However,during this period of press communication,the reaction by the lower class and the operation of the media pushed the puppet government to turn its undisguised military culture into "Huairou" strategy.This paper is based on Women's Magazine,the Japanese and puppet regime's most influential women's magazine in occupied North China,and it explores the coping of the regime's cultural policy with the magazine discourse by analyzing the catering and dissociation of the magazine to the cultural policy of the false government to develop and deepen the cultural understanding of the occupied areas of North China.Cultural policies of the puppet regime in the occupied areas of North China include the sermons of enslavement theories,and the implementation of harsh inspection.This refers to the evolution of the connotation of the enslavement theories centered on "Greater East Asian Doctrine" in Japan,the reforms and propaganda of the puppet governments to the enslavement theories and the "Press Law" and reviewing standards promulgated by the puppet governments of North China to gain influence over the Northern culture.The discussion space built by the founding agencies,author groups,and readers of the Women's Magazine shows the characteristics of catering and dissociation to the regime's cultural policies,which reflects potential conflict between the puppet culture of slavery and the enlightenment of the Chinese people following the May 4th Movement.Under the dual-cultural background of both pro-Japanese and May 4th influence,Women Magazine was conceived.From the perspective of its founder,Wu Tzu newspaper,North China Cultural Publishing House,and Women's Magazine's editorial staff,the rich pro-Japanese flavor of Women Magazine is self-evident,but there is no lack of opinions stuck between loyalty and traitors.The magazine's authors include both pro-Japanese celebrities and a number of ordinary young female writers.Readers are mainly educated women,but the backgrounds of these women come from all walks of life.In the discourse,Women's Magazine has both catering and dissociation to the Japanese puppet's cultural policies.The former,catering,can be observed in the way the magazine advocates the pro-Japanese ideology,ensnaring Chinese women into enslavement thoughts of promoting a progression of Asia by joining the war,the hatred of America,and anti-communism.This is also done by promoting the old morality in the East by setting "Japanese women" as a model and by guiding Chinese women to adopt Eastern feudal ethics,but also acquiring some knowledge of the Western practical ideology of "wife and mother." The latter,dissociation,can be observed in the magazine's discourse to inherit the new concepts following the May 4th Movement and as it advocates a free and equal view of marriage and love as well as a professional outlook on serving society.It even satirizes the fake"peaceful life" created by the Japanese and puppet authorities,exposing the life of women's suffering,and reveals the harsh interference of literature and arts.Moreover,the existence of numerous practical articles on life skills has objectively compressed the space for catering to the puppet authorities.In fact,the catering and dissociation of Women's Magazine to the puppet cultural policies are the inevitable result of the political game between the puppet government's slavery rule,Chinese people's livelihood with cultural appeal,and magazine operation.The reason for its catering is for shaping the "East Asian identity" of those Chinese people in the occupied areas,where the Japanese and puppet government would regularly carry out slavery propaganda through publication and media.Women's Magazine and the forbearers would undoubtedly actively cooperate.The reason for its dissociation is that Chinese people's survival and cultural appeals in the enemy-occupied area promoted the regime and relevant cultural individuals to actively carry out cultural propaganda through "Huairou" strategy,and to allow the media to publish daily speeches that were not related to the current situation.Also,the publisher had to publish more articles adapted to women's daily lives,and spiritual ideology,so that it could expand its profit and keep the press rolling.Although the subjective motive of the authorities was to pacify the national nerves in a "peaceful" manner,as a result it gave these writers,who had experienced the May 4th baptism,later finding themselves in the vortex of war,a chance to "dance with shackles." Therefore,various articles reflecting modernization and daily life were published,even a few but not many ironically politicized ones.In this response,the magazine's discourse achieved the confluence of slavery with modernity,political ideal and daily life.