Media culture of the West: using New York Times’s reports of Shantou as an example

** **Department of LawDecember 15, 2013

Outline

• Background• Pre-opening of Swatow Port• Post-opening reports on NYT: the statistics– The first wave: disasters and wars– The second wave: the Sino-Japanese War– The third wave: the civil war– The age of special economic zone

• Conclusion

Background• China lost the second opium war in 1958

• A series of unequal treaties signed between the Ching government and the Western powers

• Swatow port was opened in 1860, to US, UK, Denmark, etc.

• The name Swatow derived from the local dialect of Shantou, and it was how the city of Shantou was known to the West before 1970s.

• The city has since emerged in Western media, especially during important (and turbulent) times of China

• We are going to examine reports of Swatow in New York Times, and with that to gain insights of the recent history of the country as a whole

Background• This is one of the

oldest photos of Shantou.

• It was taken in1860s-1870s, not long after its opening.

• It shows the bustling Swatow Harbor, with tens of ships off the coast.

Pre-opening of Swatow Port• Stories of Swatow appeared in western media, even before its

opening in 1860.• In this article in 1858, by Friedrich Engels, titled “Russia’s

success in the Far east”, on New York Daily Tribune, it says:

“The other ports have scarcely any trade at all, and indeed the only one which has at least some importance, Swatow,

does not belong to the five open ports”

Pre-opening of Swatow Port• In another report on New York Daily Times, in 1857, it told of a

missing ship, that took Coolies from Swatow to Cuba.• There are several similar reports

about ships from Swatow before 1860.

• These are indications that the city had engaged in trade, particularlyhuman trafficking, with the West even before its opening in 1860.

• That also explains why the cityis home to millions of overseas Chinese.

Note that NY Daily Times preceded NYT.

Post-opening reports on NYT: the statistics• The following diagram is about the number of reports with keyword

“Swatow” each year on New York Times, since 1860.• It is interesting to see that there are about three waves:

1. The first one came between 1922 and 1933;2. The second came between 1935 and 1947;3. And the last one from 1948 to 1958.

• These waves corresponded to major sociopolitical events of the time.

1st

2nd

3rd

The first wave: disasters and wars• A typhoon hit Eastern Guangdong in 1922, resulting in severe

casualties.• This event was extensively covered on NYT.

The first wave: disasters and wars• Following the Nanchang event in 1927, the revolutionaries escaped to

Shantou.• This was also extensively covered on

NYT.• It refers to the

revolutionaries as the “Reds”

• That shows how the West perceived ofthe emerging communists movement.

Second wave: Sino-Jap War• Shantou is the closest city to the then Jap-controlled Taiwan. Two rivers,

the Rong and the Han, converge at Shantou, making it accessible to as far as Jiangxi province.

• The spacious, deep Shantou harbor is especially suitable for anchoring large ships.

• Due to its strategic location, Shantou had long been coveted by the Japs since they waged war against China.

• Shantou was finally taken and occupied by the Japanese in 1939.

• But a series of conflicts before and after that, to prepare and to strength the Japanese control of the city and its surrounding region, were of great concern to international media, like New York Times.

Second wave: Sino-Jap War• These reports described the fall of Swatow, and the atrocious

war-crime of the Japs.

Third wave: the civil war• The civil war between communists and the nationalist KMT

broke out immediately after the Japs surrendered.• Fighting, retreat of nationalist forces, and their assaults of the

eastern coast from Taiwan, were also of interest to the West.• Recovery of economy was also reported.

The age of special economic zone• Swatow almost completely disappeared from international

media spotlight after the 1950s.• However, it regained attention in the early 1980s, when

Shantou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and other cities, were designated as Special Economic Zones.

• Its name had also been re-Romanized to the pinyin-version of Shantou.

• However, the frequency of the city’s appearance on NYT reports reduces significantly.

Conclusion• Shantou was originally known as Swatow to the West

• It has strong connections with the recent history of the country, from the Opium Wars, to the Japanese occupations, to the Reform-and-Opening-Up policies.

• All of these were recorded in the media, domestically and internationally.

• A lot of the stories are painful, tragic and sad, rather than motivating and joyful.

• The way Western media looked at China also changed over the years. It goes from highly ideological, to economic-oriented.

• By looking into these historical reports, we gained not only knowledge of the city’s past, but also that of the whole country.

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