The Interplay Of Light And Shadow Between Power,Media And Civil Society

During the war-torn years,the depressed public once saw dance halls as an escape from the misery of the world,and they took on a perverse and prosperous role in society.The Nationalist government then issued a ban on dancing,and after unsuccessful negotiations between the dance industry,the Shanghai Dance Industry Collective Violence Case broke out.The press played an important role in the events leading up to and following the incident.The Nanjing Nationalist Government,representing the power of the state,used the Central Daily News to portray dance halls in a negative light and to promote the need and justification for the ban at a critical time of civil war anxiety.As democratic consciousness grew in the post-war period,the dance industry united with many parties to cleverly use the media to negotiate in a roundabout way in Ta Kung Pao(Shanghai),Shen Pao,and Xin Wan Pao,producing a confrontational interpretation of the text in tabloids and small magazines such as Tie Pao,actively speaking out for their own interests,and finally the situation was turned around when the government was pressured to abandon its extreme short-term ban on dancing.This article draws on the examination of the Shanghai Dance Industry Collective Violence Case to discuss the larger issue of the relationship between medium and principle.At the same time,focusing on the year1947 and 1948,it analyses the following questions,which are both separate and interrelated: why and how the media became a key player in this case;to what extent did the media become an arena for political struggle and what function it played;how the national government intervened in the media to achieve the ban on dancing,and how civil society negotiated and confronted it through the media.In this way,the role and functions of the mass media in the process of social change,especially in the interaction between state power and civil society,are revealed,and the relationship between media and power,and media and society in the age of mediatisation is summarised.Through the media’s reproduction of the Shanghai Dance Industry Collective Violence Case,it is found that the interaction between state power and civil society is based on the shaping and interpretation of "events".In the relationship between power and the media,the tyranny and weakness of the Kuomintang regime led to an extremely limited degree of control and intervention in the media,and even to a certain extent,it was in turn constrained and influenced by the media.In terms of the relationship between the media and society,the dance industry was found to be united with many forces that spontaneously used the media to argue their case,and the media,being in and growing out of civil society,actively spoke out for the dance industry in a symbiotic relationship.Taking the media,state power and civil society as the logical starting point,this article firstly outlines the research topic in the introductory section,i.e.the media as the interpretative centre of society,and the media as a key player in the Shanghai Dance Industry Collective Violence Case,and summarises and analyses the relevant studies on this case,state power and civil society,and media and power in domestic and international academia.The first chapter focuses on the process of the Shanghai Dance Industry Collective Violence Case and the involvement of the press in it;then,according to the positions and tendencies of the press,three chapters are devoted to the discussion of how the three parties,namely the Central Daily News,Ta Kung Pao(Shanghai),Shen Pao,Xin Wan Pao and Tie Pao,commented,reported,negotiated and confronted each other;finally,in the light of the universality and specificity of the Shanghai Dance Industry Collective Violence Case,a summary analysis of the modern power,the media and civil society intersected with each other.In the end,it summarises and analyses the interplay of light and shadow between power,media and civil society in modern times.