Transregional Networking in the Chinese Journalistic Diaspora: Hu Wenhu/Sin Chew Jit Poh and Guomindang China, 1929 - 1937.

Abstract

This study examines diasporic journalistic relations in the joint historical contexts of the Nanjing Decade (1927-1937) in the history of Republican China and the growing anti-Japanese motherland nationalism in the Nanyang/Singapore Chinese migrant community. It explores specifically the socialization circuit of Hu Wenhu (1884-1954) and his Sin Chew Jit Poh newspapermen within Guomindang China. By doing so, the study demonstrates that the reputational ascendency of Hu and his newspaper over their main local Singapore rival Chen Jiageng (1874-1961)/Nanyang Siang Pau was due significantly to their success in constructing dynamic transregional journalistic linkages with important professional counterparts in Guomindang China. Such connections in turn contributed to a vibrant diasporic journalistic sphere teeming with a myriad of social-informational activities. In pushing forward these arguments, the study seeks to further our understanding of the diasporic dimension of historical Chinese journalistic development and thereby expand the frontier of extant historical scholarship on Chinese journalism.