CHINESE NEWSPAPERS.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 225, 28 June 1881, Page 3

CHINESE NEWSPAPERS.

["Times."] Until a few decades ago advertisements were unknown in Chinese journalism. Such announcements were only to be found at the street corners. Here and there loose leaflets were distributed containing little else than a sensational story of robbery, as the breaking of an armed band into a pawnshop, or an account of the death of a man-eating tiger. From an article in the Austrian "Menatsohift " for the East, by Herr F. Hirtb, of Shanghai, we learn that of existing newspapers only one is due to purely Chinese initiative, the so-called " King-pao," or "Pekin Gazette," which, solely confined to official deoreee, can scarcely be compared with European journals. The " King-pao" is the organ of Government, and disdains to concern itself with non-official matters, or anything conneoted with trade. Advertisements are not to be thought of. On the other hand, it maybe regarded as a happy sign of the times that the idea of newspapers in the European sense, or first started by Europeans, is becoming more and more understood and acted on in the coast provinces. There exist at present several papers printed in Chinese characters, partly in Hong Kong, partly in Shanghai. Amoy has also had for some little time its Chinese organ. The "Shen-pao," a daily paper, founded by Mr Ernest Major, whioh, under eminent editorship, advocates the progressive interests of the European party, numbers its Chinese subscribers by the ten thousand, and is read not only in Shanghai and the neighbourhood, but also here and thsre in the interior of China, especially in the provincial chief towns, and in the Treaty ports. As an opposition organ, there was founded several years ago, by tho Anti-European or Mandarin party, the " Sin-pao," edited after the model of the oi her, but conducted on a different platform. Tho " Bin-pao " has also a large contingent of readers. Both papers contain a full reprint of the " King-pao ;" the Chinese reader thus savos his subscription to the official organ, and receives besides a large supply of news, which, after he gets used to this kind of reading, interests him exceedingly. A stroll through the Chinese quarters of Shanghai yields the best evidence of this. At almost every door will be found people diligently studying one or other of the two papers. If we examine the contents of these sheets we find first of all, after the reprint of the " State Gazstte," a leading article. In this is seen the chief difference between the two party papers, unless the subject is purely literary, when there is no opportunity for airing political prejudices. To the latter belong, indeed, questions which with us have long ceased to have anything to do with politics. After this follow matters whioh for European readers are not only tedious, but difficult to understand, mixed news, partly translated from English papers, partly collected by special reporters from among the people. These news contain mostly matters of fact, and are as trustworthy as in moot of the European papers. A considerable role is played by the accounts of the sittings of the Mixed Courts Then come copieß of proclamations by the looal mandarins, and lastly advertisements, among which will be found announcements of special European firms. Here an apothecary extols an unfailing cure for opium-smoking ; there a Geneva watchmaker commends his newest manufacture with Chinese division of time on the dial; a dentist asks attention to his artistic sets of teeth ; a Japanese trader to his importation of eye-water; tho importer of English and German war materials, as cannons, flints, revolvers, and munitions, sounds tho praise of tho goods he has for sale, whether Krupps or Armstrongs ; then come numerous announcement?, as of auctions of all kinds, or the sale of Manilla lottery tickels. Lastly come market items, daily memoranda on the most important trade articles ; an exchange oolumn, as we should ca'l it, gives tho different values of the various kinds of money, and a notice of the outgoing and irooming steamers. There is no doubt that Chinese journalism, still in its infancy, forms a powerful means of furthering European interests; even the antiprogreßsivo " Sin-pao " indicates, by its very existence, an advance in the fact of its utilising a Western medium of civilisation on the part of this Conservative people, and may therefore be regarded as a happy sign.