Shen Bao (, romanized contemporarily as The Shun Pao) was a Chinese daily newspaper published by the () in Shanghai from 1872 to 1949. It was one of the most influential Chinese newspapers for much of its publication, achieving particular dominance during the late 1800s and the 1920s, interrupted by bouts of financial and political difficulties. It alternated between periods of reformist and conservative political leanings.
Founded by the English merchant Ernest Major in the Shanghai International Settlement, Shen Bao quickly became the most popular newspaper Chinese-language newspaper in the city. It was able to operate free of censorship from the Imperial government due to its location within a foreign concession, but circulated throughout China. It was more focused on domestic matters than other foreign-sponsored papers in China, and advocated for moderate westernization as part of the Self-Strengthening Movement. It faced little competition until the 1890s, when the Xinwen Bao and smaller reformist papers emerged. The more conservative Shen Bao faced financial difficulties, prompting its sale to a Chinese businessman in 1909.
Following the 1911 Revolution, a group of businessmen acquired the paper and hired Shi Liangcai as its manager. Shi acquired ownership of the paper after a 1915 legal dispute. He sought to maximize advertising revenue, expanded the paper's distribution network, and avoided a crackdown on dissident papers under Yuan Shikai's rule. The paper launched various supplements and by 1929 had become the most successful newspaper in China. Shi consolidated much of the Shanghai press industry under his ownership, but faced political pressure from the Kuomintang government, which had him assassinated in 1934. After the Battle of Shanghai in 1937, the paper was transferred to American ownership to avoid repression, but was seized by Imperial Japanese forces in 1941 and pushed to a pro-Japanese stance. The Kuomintang seized the Shen Bao after Japan's defeat in 1945, with the locally-dominant CC Clique controlling its content. After Chinese Communist Party took Shanghai in 1949, they discontinued the paper, printing the Jiefang ribao from its old offices.
Background Western-style newspapers were introduced to China by European Christian missionaries in the early 19th century. The first newspaper in Chinese was the Chinese Monthly Magazine (), published from 1815 to 1821 in Malacca by the British missionaries William Milne and Robert Morrison. Foreign-language newspapers began publication in coastal China during the 1820s, and became prevalent across the treaty ports. In Shanghai, the North China Herald (founded in 1850 and later renamed to the North China Daily News) was the most prominent of these. The first Chinese-language newspaper in Shanghai was the Shanghai Xinbao (), founded as a weekly in 1861 by American missionary Young John Allen. Most of its news consisted of items translated from the North China Herald, of which it was a subsidy.
Establishment Two English merchants, Ernest Major and his brother Frederick, arrived in China in 1859 to establish a tea trading company following a failed venture in Italy. In 1862, they established the Kiangsu Chemical Works in Shanghai, one of the city's first modern factories. Ernest Major moved from Ningbo to Shanghai in 1871. Major was known for his fluency in Chinese, and took efforts to distance himself from British political and religious interests operating in China. He made plans to begin a newspaper after one of his business agents, inspired by the Xinbao, suggested he start one.
In May 1871, Major and three other British businessmen each contributed 400 taels to establish a Chinese-language newspaper in the International Settlement, dubbed the Shen Bao (). Major took the responsibility of managing the paper, and the four agreed that he would receive two thirds of its profits, with the rest distributed equally between the other investors. He recruited staff for the paper over the course of the year, and sought the assistance of Wang Tao, a translator and newspaper editor living in political exile in British Hong Kong.
Publishing history
Qing period
Shen Bao's first issue was published on 30 April 1872. Jiang Zhixiang, a scholar from Zhejiang, served as the first editor-in-chief, with He Guisheng and Qian Xinbo (Wang's son-in-law) as assistant editors. It saw an initial circulation of around 600 copies. Early issues were printed with a hand-operated cylinder printing press produced by the British firm Harrild & Sons, capable of producing around 100 pages per hour, and written in electrotype typefaces designed by William Gamble and purchased from the American Presbyterian Mission Press.
Later in 1872, Major established the () publishing firm, which began publishing the monthly magazine Yinghuan suoji () that November, the first Chinese literary magazine. The firm launched an unsuccessful periodical in 1876, entitled Minbao (), a triweekly magazine written in vernacular Chinese. In addition to these periodicals, Shenbaoguan published various books.
Shen Bao quickly became the most prominent and successful Chinese-language newspaper in Shanghai. At a price of eight cash per issue, it was much more affordable than its main competitor, the thirty-cash Xinbao; this was enabled by measures such as printing on cheaper paper and reduced advertisement prices for local companies. Additionally, Shen Bao's domestic focus appealed to the public more than the Xinbao's preoccupation with foreign issues. Xinbao was forced out of circulation by the end of 1872, leaving Shen Bao as the only remaining Chinese-language newspapers in Shanghai. The circuit intendant of Shanghai, the local governor, partnered with officials in Xiangshan County, Guangdong, to create a new newspaper in an attempt to counter the growing influence of the Shen Bao. Dubbed the Huibao (), it lasted only a few months before ceasing publication.
The Shen Bao was published in the International Settlement, a foreign concession administered by the Municipal Council, a body elected by local landowners. As Shanghai was not under the jurisdiction of the imperial government or any other country, the Shen Bao was able to publish without censorship. Historian Barbara Mittler described it as "one of the world's most independent papers at that time". Over the following years, paper began to be sold in regions of Zhejiang and Jiangsu neighboring Shanghai; outlets were established in Hangzhou and Ningbo in 1880, followed by one in Wenzhou in 1882. By the early 1880s, it was sold in Beijing and Tianjin and several provincial capitals.
In 1884, Shen Bao boasted of selling 10,000 copies per day. That year, chief editor Jiang Zhixiang passed the imperial examinations and left the company, succeeded in the position by Qian Xinbo. To provide visual coverage of the 1884–1885 Sino-French War, Shen Bao began to include an illustrated supplement named the Dianshizhai Pictorial (printed by the Dianshizhai Publishing Works) alongside the paper. Published every ten days, it was included every as a free supplement for Shen Bao subscribers, and was later available for separate purchase. Unlike four prior short-lived lithographic supplements, the Dianshizhai Pictorial gained significant popularity and longevity. It ran for 14 years, including around 4,500 pictures during this period.
The Major Brothers founded and acquired multiple other companies in Shanghai from the 1860s to 1880s. Among these were the Dianshizhai publishing works, founded in 1877, and noted for introducing lithographic printing on a mass scale to China. In 1889, the various companies owned by the Major Brothers were amalgamated into a single British-owned corporation, Major Brothers Ltd. That same year, Ernest Major retired and returned to England; his total investments in China was estimated to be worth around 30,000 ³.
Competition and financial troubles For much of the late 1800s, Shen Bao had no serious commercial opposition. A major competitor, the Xinwen Bao (), was founded by a joint Chinese-English business venture in 1893. While the Shen Bao was now sold for ten cash per issue, Xinwen Bao's subsidization from ad revenue allowed it to be sold for seven cash. By 1900, Xinwen Bao sold several thousand copies more than the Shen Bao, reaching a daily circulation of about 12,000. Shen Bao was associated with political news, while Xinwen Bao became known for its coverage of commercial affairs.
The defeat of the Qing dynasty in the First Sino-Japanese War and the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki sparked outrage, prompting intellectuals and journalists to write in favor of increased reform and modernization. The number of newspapers in circulation in China rose from about a dozen to over a hundred by the end of the decade. Shen Bao began to face additional competition from more radical papers such as the Zhongwai ribao (), Shibao (), and the revolutionary Liang Qichao's Xinmin congbao (). Shen Bao adopted a more conservative stance after the failure of the Hundred Days' Reform in 1898, resulting in reduced circulation and financial difficulties.
By 1904, the paper was facing bankruptcy, with the Shibao as the most popular paper in Shanghai. The editorial staff of the Shen Bao was overhauled in 1905, with Jin Jianhua serving as chief editor, and the paper took a more reformist line. Although the paper avoided bankruptcy, it continued to be a financial burden to Major Brothers Ltd. In 1907, Major Brothers sold Shen Bao agreed to sell the paper to Xi Zipei, the paper's comprador (foreign business agent) from nearby Qingpu. Two years later, Xi was able to raise the funds to purchase the paper. Although it was now Chinese-owned, the paper's management and editorship did not significantly change.
Republican period The Shanghai news industry entered a period of turmoil following the 1911 Revolution, which saw the fall of the Qing dynasty in favor of the Republic. Some previously revolutionary newspapers were now closely aligned with government interests, while various new political papers attempted to represent the rival Kuomintang and Republican Party.
In 1912, a group of four Chinese businessmen acquired the Shen Bao from Xi. Ownership was split between Chen Jinghan, Ying Jizhong, Zhang Jian, and Zhao Fengchang. They first approached Zhang Shizhao to serve as its general manager, who rejected the offer. After this, they recruited Shi Liangcai, a journalist and teacher with political connections to Zhang. Shi reformed the structure of the paper, establishing separate departments for editorial, financial, and general matters. He appointed Chen as the paper's editor-in-chief, and recruited Shibao staff member Zhang Zhuping as the financial and advertising manager. Zhang prioritized advertisement as a means to ensure the paper's profitability, and established sub-departments for advertisement marketing and design.
Shen Bao upgraded their printing machinery several times in the 1910s. In 1911, they purchased a double-cylinder press able to print 2,000 pages per hour, slow compared to foreign presses, but more than any other firm in Shanghai. A Japanese Marinoni-style press purchased in 1916 was able to produce 8,000 pages per hour, about half of the Western standard. Two years later, they acquired a significantly faster American rotary press, able to print 10,000 copies of a 12-page section per hour.
Xi Zipei nominally served as a manager for the paper following its sale, but had conflicts with Shi. Xi sued the new ownership in 1915, claiming that he had not been paid on time, and that the Shen Bao trademark was being misused. The Shanghai Mixed Court ruled in his favor, charging the owners 245,000 tael. The previous owners withdrew from the paper, and using money borrowed from cotton merchant Xu Jingren, Shi acquired full ownership.
Shi Liangcai's ownership