ABSTRACT Title of Thesis: CHINA’S SMILING FACE TO THE WORLD: BEIJING’S ENGLISH-LANGUAGE MAGAZINES IN THE FIRST DECADE OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC Leonard W. Lazarick, M.A. History Directed By: Professor James Z. Gao Department of History In the 1950s, the People’s Republic of China produced several English-language magazines to inform the outside world of the remarkable transformation of newly reunified China into a modern and communist state: People’s China, begun in January 1950; China Reconstructs, starting in January 1952; and in March 1958, Peking Review replaced People’s China. The magazines were produced by small staffs of Western- educated Chinese and a few experienced foreign journalists. The first two magazines in particular were designed to show the happy, smiling face of a new and better China to an audience of foreign sympathizers, journalists, academics and officials who had little other information about the country after most Western journalists and diplomats had been expelled. This thesis describes how the magazines were organized, discusses key staff members, and analyzes the significance of their coverage of social and cultural issues in the crucial early years of the People’s Republic. CHINA’S SMILING FACE TO THE WORLD: BEIJING’S ENGLISH-LANGUAGE MAGAZINES IN THE FIRST DECADE OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC By Leonard W. Lazarick Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts 2005 Advisory Committee: Professor James Z. Gao, Chair Professor Andrea Goldman Professor Lisa R. Mar © Copyright by Leonard W. Lazarick 2005 Preface This project began two years ago with a suggestion from Professor James Z. Gao about thesis topics I might pursue that reflected my interests in Chinese journalism in the communist era and American views of China in that period, yet could be conducted largely using primary sources in English. At first I focused on the Peking Review, which began publishing in English in March 1958. Some scholarly work had been done on its later years, but not on its start and initial years. Then came the realization that Peking Review was actually preceded by People’s China, another English-language magazine published by the People’s Republic of China begun in 1950 just two months after the nation’s formal founding. I remember clearly the day in the late fall of 2003 when I picked up a box containing three rolls of microfilm with the entire eight years of People’s China, and original hard copies of most of the first two years of Peking Review from 1958 and 1959. I was astounded not only with my good fortune, but I was actually allowed to walk out of the University of Maryland library with this precious cargo in hand. This allowed me to make my own copies of the microfilm and the early issues, and opened up a new window on the first decade of the People’s Republic. After spending many months with these magazines and then reading their own internal histories and memoirs from early editors and writers, I am struck how much I have learned about the magazines and 1950s China. I am also aware how little I know about some aspects of the magazines, particularly the mechanisms of direction and control. From conversations with many Chinese journalists over the last 12 years, I know the topic of ultimate political control and how it operates in Chinese news organizations is usually discussed in only the vaguest of terms with outsiders. This thesis is dependent i on the fragile memories of aging editors, who have their own biases and recollections that sometimes differ from published accounts. The published histories by Peking Review and China Reconstructs, which began publishing in 1952, also have contradictory accounts on some points, and there is no published history at all of the defunct People’s China. The professors who have read drafts of this work have raised important questions, some of which I have been able to answer, but answering the others will require more research in Beijing and elsewhere. I deliberately narrowed my study of the content of the magazines to social and cultural issues that were important but not the prime focus of the magazines, which published thousands of articles on a wide range of topics in more than 16,000 pages during the period discussed here. With such a vast scope, there is always more to be learned and explored. I want to thank the people who helped in this initial exploration. First of all, Professor Gao, who helped me find an engaging and important subject that I could pursue despite my severe limitations in Chinese. From our very first conversation in the summer of 2002 in which we identified common interests in Chinese history, he has helped a longtime journalist navigate the unfamiliar channels of graduate school. Thanks to the other members of my advisory committee, Professors Andrea Goldman and Lisa Mar, who brought their own insights and wide reading to the text. I wish I had had the time to pursue all the avenues of additional research Professor Goldman suggested. My gratitude goes as well to Professor C. Ron Lilley who read parts of the text, and earlier introduced me to a sophisticated understanding of Korean history. This thesis does not deal with the magazines profuse coverage of the Korean War from 1950 to 1953, but because of Professor Lilley, the larger context of Korea enveloping the magazines’ early years was ii not a mystery to me. Thanks as well to Professor Marlene Mayo for introducing me to ancient and modern Japan. No student can understand twentieth century China without coming to grips with Japan’s long and incomprehensibly brutal involvement in that history. And thanks to my friends and collaborators in Beijing, to the staff at Beijing Review and China Today for the histories they supplied. Thanks to my old friend Zhu Yu, who goes by Ruby, a retired foreign liaison official for the All-China Journalists Association, and my guide and translator. Without his good offices and familiarity with the foreign affairs protocol of Chinese journalism organizations, I would not have known about and been able to interview Lin Wusun, who provided key information about the early days of Peking Review. Thanks most of all to Zhang Yan, retired deputy editor of China Today. Before I set up the interview, I knew about his work at China Reconstructs, the earlier name of China Today, but I had not known of his important role as the founding managing editor of People’s China. This would be a very different work without the information he provided. I regret that I did not get to meet his old friend and colleague Israel Epstein, who died several weeks before my scheduled interview. I would also thank all the faceless librarians who aided me in this project particularly those at the Center for Research Libraries who sent me the microfilm of original copies of the magazine. It is a traditional in closing for writers of theses and monographs to thank their spouses. I now understand why. For my wife, Maureen Kelley, this thesis has been “the other woman” and she will be happy when it has left my life. Without her support and forbearance, this study and this degree could not have been completed. iii Contents Preface ……………………………………………………………………… i Introduction: China’s Windows to the World ……………………………….1 1 The Magazines: Background, Content, Audience and Staff……………... 11 2 The Social Side of Liberation: Women, Marriage, Children ……………. 39 3 The New Face and Voice of China’s Language, Culture and Arts.……… 91 4 Political Problems and a New Magazine ……………………………….. 140 5 Conclusion …………….………………………………………………... 166 Bibliography ………………………………………………………………. 184 iv Introduction: China’s Windows to the World Exactly three months after Mao Zedong officially proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949, the leadership of the newly reunified nation, despite immense tasks ahead of consolidating political control and reviving the flattened economy, launched an English-language magazine called People’s China. In its first issue, the twice-a-month magazine proclaimed: “This is a journal dedicated to cementing unity and friendship between the Chinese people and the progressive people of all lands and to the cause of lasting peace and people’s democracy.” With so much else to accomplish in the rebuilding of the economy and the political consolidation of power, the creation of a new magazine in English, under the direct leadership of aides to Premier Zhou Enlai, including Qiao Guanhua (Chiao Kuan- hua), listed as its chief editor, may seem an odd distraction from the priority tasks at hand. Yet in fact, this and the other publications in English, Japanese, and other major languages were direct continuations of outreach to foreigners in publicity and publications from the late 1930s. In the case of People’s China, the effort was directed by the same small staff that had produced the fortnightly China Digest in English from a Hong Kong office from 1946 to 1949, and the new magazine started with the same small list of several thousand subscribers to China Digest.1 Rather than a distraction, the presentation of New China to the world in its own voice was not a diversion of energy at all, but a core mission of the leadership. These longtime nationalist fighters, who had survived and overcome the Japanese invaders and 1 Zhang Yan, interview by the author, tape recording, Beijing, 14 June 2005. Qiao is first listed as editor in PC, July 1, 1950, 1.