Chinese media, advertising, and urban life.

i-Party, CUC's party organ for mobile phones

The Communication University of China's branch of the Communist Party of China has launched a party newspaper for mobile phones.

Intended as a way to "effectively harness the university's professional strengths in the media realm to explore new avenues of party-building work," the new paper was given a trial publication in 2009 before its formal launch at the beginning of this year.

In Chinese, the paper's name is fairly straightforward: CUC Institutional Mobile Party Newspaper (中传机关手机党报).

In English, the paper is called by the trend-chasing name i-Party. According to the university's news portal, this name carries multiple levels of meaning:

An explanation of "i-Party": The letter "I" means "me" in English. It is the first letter of words such as "Internet" and "Information," one of the symbols of the Information Age, a symbol of "me-media" in the New Media era, and is a sound-alike for "love" (爱). The lower-case "i" says that I am a member of the party, and the capitalized "Party" refers to the Communist Party of China in particular. "i-Party" means the party in the age of new media, that our party is keeping pace with the time. It also means that I and the Party are inseparable. Finally, it expresses love for the Party.

Twelve issues have been published to date. A total of 3,600 MMS messages have been distributed to an audience that includes not just party members at the school, but students, teachers, and media professionals as well.

The reports on i-Party do not claim that it is the first party newspaper prepared especially for mobile phones. But I'd be willing to bet that it's the first to put a heart atop an "i" in its nameplate.