Semi-Colonialism, Transnational Networks and News Flows in Early Republican Shanghai

This paper surveys May Fourth newspaper culture in Shanghai in order to highlight the politics of transnational networks and news flows. The issue of newspaper identity is murky because of Shanghai newspapers' heavy reliance on translation and on news agencies, and because Chinese newspapers made strategic use of foreign registration and ownership. The surface language of newspapers could be equally strategic. Japanese published Chinese newspapers, and Chinese published newspapers in English. Through close examination of one Chinese-language newspaper, the Shangbao, together with the recently-opened papers of the Russian Jewish American journalist George Sokolsky, the author outlines some of the ambiguities of transnational human networks (involving Chinese, long-term expatriate foreigners, and overseas Chinese) and news flows that invested Chinese newspaper culture during a period of growing nationalism. In the semi-colonial city of Shanghai, these networks were marked by linguistic and racial hierarchies that generated strategic alliances and publication strategies.