Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations Arts & Sciences Summer 8-15-2017 Between Political Tendentiousness and Mass Media: Popularizing Propaganda under Party Politics (1927-1937) ---A Case Study of Shenbao Free Talk Lei Qin Washington University in St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, and the Mass Communication Commons Recommended Citation Qin, Lei, "Between Political Tendentiousness and Mass Media: Popularizing Propaganda under Party Politics (1927-1937) ---A Case Study of Shenbao Free Talk" (2017). Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1243. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds/1243 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Arts & Sciences at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS Committee on Comparative Literature Dissertation Examination Committee: Robert E. Hegel, Chair Paul Michael Lützeler, Co-Chair Lingchei Letty Chen Zhao Ma Marvin Marcus Between Political Tendentiousness and Mass Media: Popularizing Propaganda under Party Politics (1927-1937) ---A Case Study of Shenbao Free Talk by Lei Qin A dissertation presented to The Graduate School of Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2017 St. Louis, Missouri © 2017, Lei Qin Table of Contents Acknowledgement ............................................................................................................ iii Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 Part I: Galvanizing the Citizens-Shenbao Free Talk, an Institutional History ........ 25 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 25 Chapter 1 The Making of “Free Talk:” Its Origin, Function and Position in Shenbao . 34 Chapter 2 Political Galvanization Under Party Politics ............................................... 68 Part II: Between Literature and Combat – Literary Reportage and the International Left-Wing Movement ........................... 95 Chapter 1 Kisch and Literary Reportage ....................................................................... 97 Chapter 2 The Workers Correspondence Movement and the League of Left-Wing Writers ......................................................................................................................... 111 Chapter 3 Chinese Reception of Literary Reportage and Kisch .................................. 133 Part III: Zawen - Signature Genre of Free Talk ........................................................ 156 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 156 Chapter 1 Zawen in Free Talk and Its Development into a Distinct Genre ............... 163 Chapter 2 Cross-Mediational Genre: Zawen and Public Speaking ............................. 195 Chapter 3 A Militant Genre for the Masses ................................................................. 223 - Zawen Co-shaped by Social and Intellectual Forces. ............................................... 223 Conclusions .................................................................................................................... 250 Bibliography .................................................................................................................. 260 ii Acknowledgement This work would not have been possible without the generous financial and technical support throughout the years from the Graduate School of Washington University in St. Louis, and Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange. I owe my greatest gratitude to my dissertation committee chairs, Professor Robert E. Hegel and Professor Paul M. Lutzeler, without whose prompt and constructive advice in the innumerous communications this work would not be possible to be accomplished. In the long dissertation writing/revision process, Professor Hegel has played the triple-role of academic adviser, editor/proof-reader and cheer- leader, who has sailed me through the whole process. I am of course also greatly indebted to other committee members, who have provided efficient academic suggestions and have showed great empathy to me as a person. I am also very grateful for Professor Lynn Tatlock, Chair of Comparative Literature, for the great concern and help she provided as professor, mentor and department chair. Last but not least, I owe my most profound thanks to my family, without whose unconditional support I would not have make it to this stage. Lei Qin Washington University in St. Louis August 2017 iii Introduction As part of the grand celebration of the 65th birthday of the People’s Republic of China in 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping held a forum on literature and art on 14 October with over a hundred Chinese writers, film directors, dancers, actors and painters. According to the Xinhua news report,1 President Xi urged artists to put “the people central” and to create “more excellent works living up to the times,” to “carry forward the Chinese spirit and concentrate Chinese strengths and encourage the people of all ethnicities in the entire country to march toward the future of vigour and vitality.”2 A huge media campaign in China followed the talk, with a significant number of articles published on various media platforms: editorials were published in almost every major party organ – People’s Daily, Guangming Daily, China Daily, Global Times and so on – vigorously supporting the talk; major commercial news portals including QQ, Sohu, Sina, and 163 also released news reports, articles and features ranging from celebrities’ excitement about the speech3 to articles showcasing resolution to follow the guide and to more analytical feature articles on Xi’s understanding of literature and art. A wave of study activities on “President Xi’s spirit on art” were held among party members, state and local officials, state owned work-units’ employees, as well as among popular organizations.4 1 Xi’s full speech was not published until one year later in form of a pamphlet, whereas the speech was reported in summary by the state news agency Xinhua the next day after Xi’s talk. 2 Xinhua News. Oct. 15, 2014. Retrieved at: http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2015- 10/14/c_1116825558.htm. 3 Represented by the highly popular Chinese comedian Zhao Benshan, who said in an interview that he was “so moved by the talk that he could not sleep.” 4 See reports on news media outlets, for example, the half state sponsored and half commercial Ifeng at http://culture.ifeng.com/a/20161208/50384837_0.shtml Party organ Renmin devoted a special column just for reporting on the provincial study activities and analytical essays on the talk. See: http://cpc.people.com.cn/GB/67481/371956/371962/index2.html 1 The talk was reported by major Western media, such as New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Foreign Policy, with sccorn, concern and criticism.5 Comparisons between Xi’s talk and Mao’s (in)famous “Yan’an Forum Talks” in 1942 were drawn, strengthening the already popular analogy in Western media between Mao and his admirer Xi.6 Indeed, the analogy is highly visible: both talks stress the social function of art in which artistic works are supposed to shoulder the task of appealing to the people in promoting socialist values and cultivating a consciousness that serves the political agenda. The article in The New York Times on 15 October 2014 was able to point further to the writer and journalist Wang Shiwei 王实味, a typical dissident who was condemned, punished and hacked to death for his critical article on Mao and the Party shortly after the Yan’an talks in 1942.7 The example was mentioned to warn of the danger that Xi’s talk might destroy artistic creativity in China and of potential unjust condemnation of talented artists under the arbitrarily political judgment of the value of art – criticisms generally shared among Western reports. While there is sound ground for worries as well as legitimate reasons to mock the shallow appraisal of Xi’s cultural policy, to simply criticize the talk for conflating literature and politics is to oversimplify the CCP’s (the Chinese Communist Party) propaganda strategy. Xi’s Beijing Forum on Literature and Art came at the high tide of China’s active promotion of soft power internationally. The lavish Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in 2008, using a cast of over 10,000 with a sky-rocketing budget directed by the most influential film director Zhang 5 https://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/16/xi-jinping-calls-for-artists-to-spread-chinese-values/; https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/22/opinion/murong-xuecun-china-the-art-of-xi-jinping.html; http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/10/22/is-this-the-new-face-of-chinas-silent-majority/; http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/10/17/xi-jinping-isnt-a-fan-of-weird-architecture-in-china/; 6 Bonnie S. McDougall. Mao Zedong's "Talks at the Yan'an conference on literature and art": A Translation of the 1943 Text with Commentary. Ann Arbor: Center