Sina blogger Tu Guowen posted last week about China Children's Times (中国儿童时报), a newspaper published during China's Republican era. He included two scanned page images; unfortunately they are only in black-and-white, so it's hard to get a good sense of what the paper looked like. Click on the images at left for enlargements.

In his introduction to the newspaper, Tu compares today's children's periodicals with the CCT of 1947/48.

A colleague picked up two incomplete copies of the pre-1949 China Children's Times (Ciyou Road, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. Ministry of Interior registration number Zhejiang-1; special authorization for subscription delivery by China Post). One copy was from issue 1357 published in the 35th year of the Republic (1947) on 26 December (distributed by Sheng Chengshi; edited by Xue Yusheng), which included the top half of pages one through four and small parts of the bottom half of pages one and two. The other copy was from issue 1408 published in the 36th year of the Republic (1948) on 26 February (distributed by Sheng Chengshi; published by Yunlin Education & Culture Fund), which included the first and second pages and the gutter. After I had a look, I felt that even though the papers had missing pieces, particularly the first one, and although the content was incomplete, they still have a certain value as historical material in light of our restricted perspective on the makeup of pre-1949 Chinese society and the conditions of the press, particularly the fundamental mentality and characteristics of the editors and publishers of children's periodicals.

Because the second paper (China Children's Times issue 1408) is more complete measured by whole pages, below I will focus my general commentary on the content of that issue.

To the left and right of the paper's flag is a notice (according to the nameplate, we learn that China Children's Times was "founded in Zhejiang in the 19th year of the republic" (i.e. 1931), and is "Department of Education-recommended children's reading material). The front page is the news section. The lead story is news about the civil war: "House-to-house fighting continues on Siping Street; Mongolian army in Qahar - no sign of peace; VP Sun says CPC must be smashed." Then there is the "School Activities" column, which has nine items from schools across the country. Two of them are news items about student strikes; one had the news that "Huangyan County Normal College students struck on 2 June because of poor pay that was not issued. On 3 June the entire school went to the county government to make a petition," and the other said that students at a primary school in Toutuo Town, Huangyan, had been on strike for one week to protest the town government squandering their tuition money. Then there are three pieces of community news. In one, Hangzhou's boy scouts took to the streets to "help people across the road"; in another, Hushu, Hangzhou, caught an "abduction gang" member who drugged people before stealing their organs; in the third, "an instructor guarding a school in Zhuji was kidnapped." In addition, a reader named "Cheng Jixing" from Daye, Hubei, wrote a letter to the editors and readers of China Children's Times reporting on the recent situation in Daye, and there were also a "letters to the editor" and a "mailbox" column. The main illustration on this page is A Yang's woodcut Life's Complaint, which shows a poor mother and son begging at the door of a rich household.

The second page is the general knowledge section. "The Origins of Imperialism" by Dan Ke, "Weekly Inspection Report" by Dan Ke, "Comets" by Cao Rui, and "Snake Tongues" by Li Li. In addition to this, there is also a column where reader Li Shilian from Baihe Village, Tonglu, answers a question from a reader named Mingyuan: "To Mingyuan - about 'Where's the mistake?'" And there's a maze provided by Ting Wu. This page has four small, simple illustrations of people and animals. There are advertisements on the inner and outer margins. The outer margin advertises Cao Juren and Shu Zongqian's Pictorial History of the Anti-Japanese War and Shu Zongqian's Pictorial History of the Second World War; the gutter had a list of books available for purchase by post from China Children's Times. From the prices clearly stated in the newspaper we can see the inflation that existed in society at that time. For example, in the book list in the gutter margin of China Children's Times, the cheapest book was 1200 yuan, and the most expensive 71,000. In the outer margin, Shu Zongqian's Pictorial History of the Anti-Japanese War is priced at 120,000 yuan per volume plus 15,000 yuan for airmail or 5000 for surface mail. Shu Zongqian's Pictorial History of the Second World War costs 100,000 yuan per volume plust 12,000 yuan for airmail or 4000 yuan for surface mail.

The standing of the pre-1949 China Children's Times is like that of China Children's News or China Teenagers' News today; the difference is that the former was privately operated, while the latter two are official publications. Naturally, there are obvious fundamental differences as well - to borrow a political term from a past era, the former was a paper of the "bourgeoisie" while the latter two are papers of the "proletariat." The former "cultivated successors to the bourgeoisie," while the latter two "cultivated successors to the proletariat." Despite this difference, as a children's paper, China Children's Times shows a few few things that are seldom found in Chinese and overseas children's newspapers - today and in the past. For example, to serve as the mission of running a paper for the broad population of children, the paper's front page was generally set as the news section; it had a section devoted to introducing general knowledge topics to young people; it emphasized interaction between readers and editors. Of course, when looking at the liveliness of the layout and the quality of printing, the pre-1949 China Children's Times does not hold a candle to today's China Children's News and China Teenagers' News.

The pre-1949 China Children's Times has a particular quality that makes it quite different from all of the children's newspapers and all party-run newspapers published on the mainland after 1949 (because all periodicals are party-run, they are all "party mouthpieces"; so the term "party-run" here could actually be left out). This quality first makes itself known in its truthfulness, objectivity, and fairness. Truth, objectivity, and fairness are the life-blood of the journalism; this is a fundamental journalistic common sense. As a "mainstream" publication, China Children's Times was without a doubt in the service of the Nationalist authorities, so the paper ran "House-to-house fighting continues on Siping Street; Mongolian army in Qahar - no sign of peace; VP Sun says CPC must be smashed" as its top news story. However, respect for mainstream opinion and obedience toward the authorities' commands did not obstruct this newspaper in pursuing and carrying out truthfulness, objectivity, and fairness in journalism. On the very same page we can read about the opposition of striking college and primary school students, we can read about the crimes of the "abduction gang" and the kidnappers. You can't even imagine "negative" news items like this appearing in today's children's publications on the Chinese mainland.

Instructing children in how to face life's troubles and how to be aware of the realities of life in society is the second novel aspect of this China Children's Times. The first page of this issue has detailed reports on current events in the war (the Siping Road Battle), but also objectively reveals the opposition movement (two student strikes). It also depicts life's sufferings (the woodcut Life's Complaint), while at the same time offering a realistic reflection of the disorder in society. It paints for children a complete, accurate picture of social realities and life's problems rather than drawing children into an intoxicating, fake world of fantasy that leads them at an early age into an environment of "concealment" and "deception." A child who grows up in an environment of concealment and deception who does not become an expert in concealment and deception when he is an adult would be absolutely amazing. So in our lives in contemporary society, swindlers walk with impunity. Turning to mainland China's children's newspapers, birds flutter about singing throughout a saccharine prettiness. The evils of society and the sufferings of life are filtered cleanly out. For children who have grown up in this artificial wonderland, once they want to exit the lie, to connect with filthy society and "face dreary life head-on" (in Lu Xun's words), if they don't have psychological problems it'd be a miracle.

One issue of a pre-1949 children's newspaper leaves much to contemplate for the field of journalism in a post-totalitarian era...

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Tu Guowen is an instructor at the Xizi Experimental School in Hangzhou.