Social Reform Illustrated: A Critical Study of the Pictorial Magazine of Current Affairs in Guangzhou

• Main Author: 侯京吾
• Other Authors: 陳熙遠
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/00787890963202551300

碩士 === 國立清華大學 === 歷史研究所 === 100 === While most studies of the late Qing pictorial magazines dealt with those published and circulated in Shanghai or Northern China, little scholarly attention was paid on the publishing center of southern China, Guangzhou. Although the technology of lithography had developed in Guangzhou for years, there was no pictorial magazine published in the city until a revolutionary painter Pan Dawei founded the Pictorial Magazine of Current Affairs (Shishi Huabao) in 1905. This pictorial magazine once moved its headquarters to Hong Kong in 1909, ceased temporarily publication in 1910, was reopened in 1912, and was finally disbanded in 1913. A salient feature of this magazine is its continuing critique of the social customs through its illustrations and narrations, which is the major focus of this thesis. “Social customs” was a common theme prevailing in most of the late Qing pictorial magazines. The Pictorial Magazine of Current Affairs had frequently depicted various kinds of the local “corrupt customs” in hope that the local natives would eventually get rid of them. In 1907, the editors even added a column named “Collections of Social Customs” which combined illustrations with Cantonese folk songs (yue’ou). After the nationalist revolution of 1911, some of the critique were even put into practice and became the public policy realized by the military government of Guangdong. Through examining related materials and comparing with other pictorial magazines of the period, this thesis attempts to explore the significance of the Pictorial Magazine of Current Affairs in the context of popular enlightenment and social reform embraced by local elites. Customs reform was generally regarded as the path to modernity, yet different perception or reception of “modernity” might lead to different ways of identifying what the corrupt customs were and how to rectify them. Keywords: the Pictorial Magazine of Current Affairs (Shishi Huabao), Guangzhou, customs reform, the late Qing