Transregional networking in the chinese journalistic diaspora hu wenhu sin chew jit poh and guomindang china, 1929 1937

TRANSREGIONAL NETWORKING
IN THE CHINESE JOURNALISTIC DIASPORA:
HU WENHU/SIN CHEW JIT POH
AND GUOMINDANG CHINA, 1929-1937

SHU SHENG-CHI
B. A. (Hons.), NUS

A THESIS SUBMITTED
FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE

2009


i
Acknowledgement

This study is essentially about the exploits of the Chinese newspapermen associated
with “Tiger Balm King” Hu Wenhu‟s Sin Chew Jit Poh in colonial Singapore more
than eighty years ago, in particular their interpersonal connections and interactions
with important professional counterparts based in China under the rule of the
Guomindang Government. Along the long road towards the completion of the thesis,
I have been greatly indebted to many people and institutions. Whatever shortcomings
of this study are solely mine.
First and foremost, my appreciation goes to my thesis supervisor Associate
Professor Huang Jianli for his unwavering patience, support and encouragement. As
an important academic mentor ever since my undergraduate days, his tireless counsels
have played no small part in my growth as a budding scholar. I also thank him for
taking considerable time off his often tight and busy schedule to read my drafts and

offer many deeply-considered comments.
I have also benefited tremendously from the guidance of Associate Professor
Wong Sin Kiong (currently Head of the NUS Chinese Studies Department) and
Associate Professor Michael Feener. Prof Wong opened me to the world of overseas
Chinese studies during my undergraduate days. His course on the Chinese in the
United States had been a source of inspiration for my Honors thesis Ng Poon Chew
and the Chung Sai Yat Po, 1900-1904. Moving on to the graduate years, his research
seminar on the Chinese in Southeast Asia had given me not just a great opportunity to
further my pursuits in the field, but also a viable platform to test the conceptual


ii
framework of transregional networking on the endeavors of the Hakka Chinese in
colonial Malaya in establishing educational institutions both within the colonial
society of their settlement as well as their native places in China. It was a great
privilege for me to be in his seminar and to work with him for the publication of my
seminar paper along with those of my fellow course mates. For the History
Department graduate research seminar which saw this study taking its initial form, I
was very fortunate indeed to have Prof Feener as my instructor. Being a wellestablished scholar in the field of Islamic legal history as well as an avid reader of
works on a great variety of other areas, his erudite and unbridled passion for learning
and generating knowledge continue to inspire. I am also deeply grateful for his highly
constructive feedbacks on the development of my ideas for the study. In fact, the
notion of „interpersonal relationship,‟ which constitutes the crucial feature of the
study‟s conceptual-analytical framework of „transregional networking,‟ originated
from consultation and seminar sessions with him.
I would also like to thank my two other graduate course instructors, Associate
Professor Maurizio Peleggi and Dr Mark Emmanuel, for their interests in my work as
well as the insightful feedbacks they provided. The study‟s application of the concept
of “cultural capital” (which originates from French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu) owes
much to Prof Peleggi‟s reading course on Cultural History, while Dr Emmanuel‟s

work on the Malay newspapers and newspapermen as the constituents of a vibrant
“epistemological community” in the pre-WWII period affords a fascinating and
thought-provoking vista to the currently popular subject of print culture in the
discipline of History.


iii
My warm appreciations also go to Dr Wong Hong Teng (formerly Senior
Lecturer and Deputy Head of the NUS Chinese Studies Department) and Dr Nicolai
Volland. Dr Wong has been a long-established scholar in historical studies on the
Chinese news media in Malaya/Singapore. It has been a great pleasure and privilege
for me to know him. I remain deeply grateful for his enthusiasm in my work as well
as his warm generosity in sharing with me his vast knowledge and expertise and
offering advices based upon his rich experience in conducting research at overseas
institutions. The latter has been of great help for my research trip to Hong Kong in
April 2008. Dr Volland had been part of the distinguished University of Heidelbergbased research group working on Chinese print culture. Upon joining the NUS
Chinese Studies Department in mid 2007, he offered an Honors level course on the
historical development of print culture in China. I thank him enormously for kindly
allowing me to sit in the course, opening me further to the colorful and exuberant
world of print culture and media studies and introducing me to the brilliant
scholarship of the Heidelberg group. I thank him also for the sharing with me his
research experiences in the PRC and offering me beneficial advices prior to and
during my research trip to Beijing in October-November 2007.
The writing of this thesis would not be possible without generous sponsorship
from the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) in the forms of the NUS
Research Scholarship (2006-2008) and the FASS Graduate Research Support Scheme
(2007), as well as that from the NUS History Department in the form of the History
Graduate Research Fund (2008). For the unstinting administrative guidance and
support I have been receiving from the History Department throughout my stint as a
graduate student, I would like to express my appreciations for Associate Professor

iv
Yong Mun Cheong (Head of the History Department, 2009-present), Associate
Professor Albert Lau (Head of the History Department, 2006-2009), Associate
Professor Brian Farrell (Deputy Head of the History Department, 2004-2009),
Graduate Studies Coordinator Associate Professor Thomas DuBois and the
Department‟s Graduate Secretaries Ms Kelly Lau and Ms Gayathri D/O Dorairaju. I
also remain deeply grateful towards Professor Ng Chin Keong and Dr Simon Avenell
for being my referees in my application for the Master of Arts (History) program and
the NUS Research Scholarship.
During my research trip to Shanghai in March-April 2008, I was greatly
indebted to several wonderful people who offered immeasurably generous advices
and assistance. I wish to express my warmest appreciation for Professor Wu Qingtang
吴庆棠教授, currently a research fellow at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences
and author of the seminal work Xinjiapo Huawen baoye yu Zhongguo 新加坡华文报
业与中国 (Singapore Chinese Press and China). Apart from sharing with me his
research experience and current work on contemporary Chinese-language news media,
as well as a number of heartwarming lunch treats, he offered to serve as my tour guide
during my visits to the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences 上海社会科学院
(SASS) and his alma mater, the Fudan University 复 旦 大 学 . His startlingly
unflagging energy and enthusiasm continue to amaze. He also introduced me to his
academic mentors and peers, all of whom are highly established scholars in the field
of journalism studies and history. They include Professor Ning Shufan 宁树藩教授,
Professor Ma Guangren 马光仁教授 and Professor Huang Hu 黄瑚教授兼副院长
(concurrently the Vice-Dean) of the Fudan University School of Journalism 复旦大学


v
新闻学院, as well as Professor Wu Zhiyong 武志勇教授 from the SASS Institute of

Journalism Studies 上海社科院新闻研究所. I have also had the great pleasure to
know Guo Enqiang 郭恩强, a graduate research student at the SASS Institute of
Journalism Studies. I wish to extend my deepest gratitude to them all for their warm
hospitality. Prof Ning, Prof Ma, Prof Huang Hu, Prof Wu Zhiyong and Enqiang had
offered greatly beneficial advices on working and locating source materials in library
and archive collections in Shanghai and shared with me the impressive and
encyclopedic knowledge they had accumulated over their years of painstaking
archival work, research and writing on journalists/newspapermen who made their
careers and names in the Shanghai journalistic circle during the Republican period
and contributed to the splendor of a highly eventful and often turbulent chapter in the
history of Chinese journalism. I would also like to thank Prof and Vice-Dean Huang
Hu for the generous assistance he rendered in helping me to gain access to the
collections of the Fudan University Archive, Humanities Library, and School of
Journalism Library.
The bulk of the research for this study was conducted in the NUS Libraries
and the National Library in Singapore, the National Library of China 中国国家图书
馆 and the Renmin University Library 人民大学图书馆 in Beijing, the Shanghai
Municipal Archive 上海市档案馆, the Shanghai Library 上海图书馆, the Fudan
University Archive 复旦大学校史馆, Humanities Library and School of Journalism
Library 复旦大学文科图书馆及新闻学院图书馆, the Shanghai Academy of Social
Sciences Library 上海社科院图书馆 and the University of Hong Kong Libraries


vi
(including the Fung Ping Shan Library 冯平山图书馆). I would like to thank the staff
of all these institutions for their tireless patience and magnanimity in handling my
copious requests and granting kind permissions to access and reproduce materials that
are crucial for this study.
I have enjoyed the warm friendship cum academic comradeship of several
fellow graduate students. My appreciations go to Ismail Fajrie Alatas, Chi Zhen, Jack

Chia Meng Tat, Henry Chong Ren Jie, Siriporn Dabphet, E Mei, Yamamoto Fumihito,
Ho Chi Tim, Hu Wen, Kiang Yeow Yong, Kang Ge-wen, Ma Lujing, Grace Mak, Ng
Eng Ping, Pang Yang Huei, Minami Orihara, Dinesh Sathisan, Leander Seah
(graduated from the NUS History Department in 2005 and currently a PhD candidate
in the Department of History, University of Pennsylvania), Seng Guo Quan, Sin Yee
Theng, Panu Wongcha-um, Wang Luman, Wei Bingbing, Xue Liqing, Yang Shaoyun and Zhang Jing. They have enlivened my life as a graduate student and provided
encouragement and support in one way or another. Their respective research
experiences and projects have also provided much food for thought in the process of
broadening my horizons and perfecting my craft as a budding scholar and historian.
Among them, I would like to express my gratitude especially to Leander for sharing
his thought-provoking insights on conceptualizing the history of Chinese migration, in
particular the possibilities offered by the conceptual-analytical framework of
“transregionality” (which he so enthusiastically advocates in his own doctoral
research on the Jinan University and the Nanyang migrants), Eng Ping for
proofreading drafts of my thesis and offering many valuable comments, Dinesh for
his particularly high interest in my work as a fellow „compatriot‟ working on the


vii
subject of print culture (his research topic features Tamil newspapers and
newspapermen in colonial Malaya) and his constructive feedbacks during the History
Department graduate research seminar presentation, Guo Quan for his generous
assistance in helping me get in touch with Prof Wu Qingtang, E Mei, Hu Wen and
Luman for their kind advices on getting around and doing research in the PRC.
During my research trip to Beijing, E Mei had also offered me both warm hospitality
and guidance as my host in her home city. I also thank Zhang Jing and Chi Zhen for
their companionship during my field trip to Beijing in October-November 2007.
Last but not least, to my parents and younger brother Chia-chi, I thank you all
for always being „there‟ as my solace and support throughout the arduous yet
ultimately rewarding journey of graduate study.

viii
Table of Contents

Acknowledgement

i

Summary

x

Notes on Translation, Romanization and Currencies

xiii

List of Tables

xv

List of Map and Illustrations

xvi

List of Abbreviations

xvii

1

Introduction

Chapter 1

From Institutional to a Social History of the ChineseLanguage Press

7

General Journalistic Development, Late Qing – 1930s

12

State-News Media Relations during
the Nanjing Decade

15

Locating the Diasporic/Transregional
Dimension

19

Dynamics of Diasporic Relations in the Context of
Local Singapore Rivalry

33

Pattern of Diasporic Relations during the Nanjing
Decade

33

Pioneering Chen Jiageng/NYSP‟s Early Connections

40

Local Singapore Rivalry between Chen Jiageng/NYSP
and Newcomer Hu Wenhu/SCJP

44

Competitive Accumulation of Cultural-Political Capital
by Hu Wenhu/SCJP

48


ix
Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Professional Networking and the Influence of
China Politics

58

Interpersonal Ties, Mutual Recognitions: Visits of
China Newspapermen to Nanyang/Singapore

62

More Interpersonal Ties Revealed: Reverse Visits of
Nanyang/Singapore Newspapermen to China

65

Collaboration on News Indexing Project

75

Beyond Journalism: Grappling with China Politics

78

High Nanyang Demand for Knowledge and the
Transregional Information Infrastructure

88

Nationalistic Responses to Japanese Incursions and
Guomindang Party-State Politics

88

Contestations over Stationing of China/OverseasBased Correspondents

95

Accumulation of Intellectual Capital through
Transregional Networking: SCJP‟s “SpeciallyCommissioned Weekly Op-Ed”

101

Conclusion

110

Glossary of Chinese Terms, Titles and Names

115

Bibliography

121


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

Summary

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 “Tiger Balm King” Hu
Wenhu (1884-1954) and his Sin Chew Jit Poh (SCJP) newspapermen within
Guomindang China. By doing so, the study demonstrates that the reputational

ascendency of Hu and his newspaper in Singapore over their main local rival Chen
Jiageng (1874-1961)/Nanyang Siang Pau (NYSP) was due significantly to their
success in constructing dynamic transregional journalistic linkages with important
professional counterparts in Guomindang China.
Through these connections, Hu‟s SCJP was able to source, mobilize and
accumulate vital resources to bolster both its journalistic production as well as its
professional reputation in the Singapore Chinese journalistic circle and the Chinese
journalistic world as a whole. The resources garnered by Hu/SCJP came in two main
categories. The first consisted of cultural-political capital in the form of high
recognitions accorded to SCJP by its China/Shanghai-based professional journalistic
counterparts. The second comprised intellectual capital that came in the form of
informational and analyzed knowledge on current affairs of the time that SCJP


xi
exploited in the most conspicuous manner possible to enhance its journalistic
production.
Acquisition and amassing of these resources enabled Hu/SCJP to upstage
Chen/NYSP both in terms of its ranking within the local Singapore Chinese newspaper
competition as well as the scale of its professional reputation. SCJP‟s circulation rate
gradually outdistanced those of NYSP and other competitors in the Singapore Chinese
journalistic circle and its reputational ascendency became firmly established by 1934,
five years after its founding (in 1929). The newspaper further outstripped its local
Singapore rivals by becoming the one and only Nanyang Chinese newspaper selected
into the high-profiled nationwide news indexing project carried out by the Sun Yatsen Institute for Advancement of Culture and Education, a major cultural-political
organization in Guomindang China. SCJP‟s privileged place in the project was a ripe
fruit borne out of its transregional networking that consolidated its high standing in
the Chinese journalistic world.
Through the case of Hu/SCJP‟s network-building and resource-channelling
activities, this study ultimately aims to push for a more concerted effort in the

historical scholarship dealing with Chinese journalism and journalistic players to pay
greater attention to the presence, extent and impact of transregional networking
between the overseas Chinese journalistic players and their China/Shanghai-based
counterparts. Such endeavor affords us a vital avenue to expand the frontier of the
scholarship. The exploits of Hu and his SCJP newspapermen provide a concrete
example in showing how such networking constituted the crucial linchpin of a vibrant,
interactive Chinese diasporic journalistic sphere. In furnishing this fresh perspective


xii
on Hu‟s journalistic enterprise, the study also seeks to move the historical scholarship
on overseas Chinese journalism further beyond the longstanding institutional
framework of analysis.


xiii
Notes on Translation, Romanization and Currencies
Translation
For the sake of convenience, all titles of Chinese-language newspaper articles cited in
the main text of the thesis, the footnotes, and captions for illustrations are translated to
English. The same applies to notices published in Chinese-language newspapers by
civic organizations.

Romanization
Names of Chinese-Language Newspapers and Periodicals
For Chinese-language newspapers with known original names in dialect, this study
retains the usage of such names. All other Chinese-language newspapers and
periodicals are named in the Romanized Pinyin. A listing of the former is given as
follows:

Name adopted

(Name in Pinyin and Chinese characters)

Chen Poh

(Chenbao 晨报)

Chung Ngoi San Po

(Zhongwai xinbao 中外新报)

Hua Tzu Jih Pao

(Huazi ribao 华字日报)

Min Kuo Jit Pao

(Minguo ribao 民国日报)

Nanyang Siang Pau

(Nanyang Shangbao 南洋商报)

Sin Chew Jit Poh

(Xingzhou ribao 星洲日报)

Sin Kok Min Jit Pao

(Xinguomin ribao 新国民日报)

Sin Poh

(Xingbao 星报)

Further Note: The Shenbao 申报, a major Chinese-language daily in Shanghai, had a
dialect name with its transliteration known as Shun Pao. However, the study adopts
the transliteration in Romanized Pinyin with the consideration that this is the more
commonly used version in the current Western-language scholarship.


xiv
Names of Chinese Personalities, Organizations, Places and Terms
For the sake of convenience, the names of some highly well-known personalities in
Chinese history retain their transliterations based on the Wade-Giles system, as
commonly adopted in the Western-language scholarship. All other names of Chinese
personalities, organizations, places and terms are given in the Romanized Pinyin. A
listing of the former is given as follows:

Name adopted

(Name in Pinyin and Chinese characters)

Chiang Kai-shek

(Jiang Jieshi 蒋介石)

V. K. Wellington Koo

(Gu Weijun 顾维钧)

H. H. Kung

(Kong Xiangxi 孔祥熙)

Sun Yat-sen

(Sun Yixian/Sun Zhongshan 孙逸仙/孙中山)

Currencies
The currency used in Guomindang China during the Nanjing Decade (1927-1937)
was denoted in yuan (元 or 圆). Adopted officially by the Qing imperial government
in the late nineteenth-century, the yuan had been fixed to the Mexican silver dollar, a
type of the Spanish silver dollar which gained wide circulation in Asia since the
sixteenth-century. This currency system persisted until the 1935-36 currency reforms
implemented by the Guomindang Government. The reforms enacted the issuance of
the so-called fabi 法币 (or “Fiat money”) fixed to the British pound sterling and the
US dollar to replace the prohibited silver yuan. [Reference: Zhongguo Renmin
Yinhang Zonghang Canshishi 中国人民银行总行参事室, ed., Zhonghua Minguo
huobishi ziliao 中华民国货币史资料 (Source Materials on Monetary History of
Republican China), Vol. I, 1912-1927 and Vol. II, 1924-1949 (Shanghai: Shanghai
renmin chubanshe, 1986, 1991)]
The currency used in British Malaya, including the administrative unit of the Straits
Settlements (comprising Singapore, Malacca and Penang) during the period covered
in this study was denoted in Straits dollar. Introduced in 1867 at par with the Spanish
silver dollar, it was fixed to the British pound sterling from 1903 until 1967. In 1939,
the name of the currency was changed to Malayan dollar. [Reference: Li Sheng-Yi,
The Monetary and Banking Development of Singapore and Malaysia, 3rd edition
(Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1990), pp. 7-16, 53-66.]

xv
List of Tables

Table 1: Percentage Distribution of Chinese Dialect Groups, Singapore,
1891-1947

32

Table 2: Circulation Rates of Chinese Newspapers in Singapore,
1929-1937

55


xvi
List of Map and Illustrations

Figure 1

China, Japan, and Southeast Asia (or the “Nanyang”),
1931-1937

Figure 2

Sin Chew Jit Poh manager Lin Aimin and Ge Gongzhen

xix

Figure 3

Ge Gongzhen‟s visit to Sin Chew Jit Poh‟s office on
11 September 1932

xix

Figure 4

Sin Chew Jit Poh‟s entire staff at the end of 1934

29

Figure 5

“Nanyang Huaqiao tycoon Hu Wenhu came to
Shanghai,” in Shenbao Pictorial Supplement, 12
November 1934

30

Figure 6

“Various organizations held a grand welcoming reception
for Hu Wenhu yesterday,” Shishi xinbao, 9 November
1934

31

Figure 7

Lin Aimin, Cai Yuanpei and Chen Binhe

56

Figure 8

Lin Aimin and Ma Xiangbo

56

Figure 9

Cover of Ribao suoyin (Master-key to the News), Vol. 1,
No. 5 (30 September 1934)

57

xviii


xvii
List of Abbreviations

CCP

Chinese Communist Party

GMD-CPC

Guomindang Central Propaganda Committee

GMD-CPD

Guomindang Central Propaganda Department

CRDA

Chinese Rubber Dealers Association

INA

International News Agency

MKJP

Min Kuo Jit Pao

NYSP

Nanyang Siang Pau

SCJP

Sin Chew Jit Poh

SCWOE

Specially-Commissioned Weekly Op-Ed

SDNA

Shanghai Daily Newspapers Association

SDRFRS

Shandong Disaster Relief Fund-Raising Society

SJA

Shanghai Journalists Association

SKMJP

Sin Kok Min Jit Pao

SYSIACE

Sun Yat-sen Institute for Advancement of Culture and
Education


xviii

Japanese –occupied
Manchuria (1931), later
The State of Manchuria
(1932) and The Great
Empire of Manchuria
(1934)

China

Japan

Nanjing • •Shanghai

PACIFIC OCEAN
•Hong Kong
British Burma
Rangoon •
Siam

French Indochina

Philippine Islands
(US protectorate)

British Malaya
• Singapore

Dutch East Indies

By author

Figure 1: China, Japan, and Southeast Asia [depicted by and known to the Chinese
as the “Nanyang 南洋” (South Seas) during the period covered in this study],
1931-1937.

xix
Figure 2 (left): Sin Chew Jit Poh 星洲日报
(SCJP)‟s manager Lin Aimin 林霭民 (left)
and renowned Shanghai-based journalist Ge
Gongzhen 戈 公 振 (1890-1935, right),
during the Lytton Inquiry Commission‟s
transit stop in Singapore on 11 September
1932. Ge Gongzhen is the author of the
landmark book Zhongguo baoxue shi 中国
报学史 (History of Chinese Journalism).

Figure 3 (below): Ge Gongzhen‟s visit to the
office of SCJP during the Lytton Inquiry
Commission‟s transit stop in Singapore on
11 September 1932. Included in the group
were SCJP‟s chief editor Fu Wumen 傅无闷
(4th from left), Ge Gongzhen (centre, 5th
from left) and SCJP‟s manager Lin Aimin
(4th from right).
Source: “Starlight Pictorial Supplement,” SCJP, 15 September
1932.

Source: “Ge Gongzhen strives hard towards greater international publicity for China,” SCJP, 12 September 1932.


1
INTRODUCTION

Special Exclusive Telegram to our Newspaper from
Shanghai Press Association

Renowned Journalist Ge Gongzhen,
Accompanying the [League of Nations] Inquiry Commission to Europe,
Stops by Singapore
--- Sin Chew Jit Poh, 7 September 1932

Inquiry Commission Left Hong Kong
On its Way to Singapore
(Our Paper‟s Exclusive Telegram from Hong Kong)
--- Nanyang Siang Pau, 8 September 1932

The two major Chinese-language dailies in Singapore heralded the imminent arrival
of the Lytton Inquiry Commission for a brief transit-stop. The origin of the
delegation‟s journey could be traced back to the invasion of Manchuria by the
Japanese Kwantung Army a year ago. In the face of the Japanese onslaught, Chiang
Kai-shek had chosen the course of seeking international diplomatic assistance over
that of military resistance. 1 The Guomindang Government lodged a protest against
Japan to the League of Nations in the hope that the international community would
eventually mete out effective punitive actions against the aggressor. In response, the

1

See Gu Weijun (V. K. Wellington Koo), Gu Weijun huiyilu, I, trans. Institute of Modern History,
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (Beijing: Zhonghua shujü, 1983), pp. 415-442. See also Youli
Sun, China and the Origins of the Pacific War, 1931-1941 (New York: St Martin‟s Press, 1993), pp.
19-24 and Stephen G. Craft, V. K. Wellington Koo and the Emergence of Modern China (Lexington:
University Press of Kentucky, 2004), pp. 104-109.


2
League dispatched an inquiry commission headed by Victor Robert Bulwer-Lytton,

the second Earl of Lytton, to Manchuria. Among the members of the commission was
Chinese diplomat V. K. Wellington Koo, who served as the official Chinese assessor.
Ge Gongzhen (1890-1935) accompanied the commission as a representative of the
Chinese press to provide roving reporting on the commission‟s movement and
activities. Upon the completion of the commission‟s inquiry mission in Manchuria,
the entire group, including Koo and Ge, headed for Europe for the League Council
and Assembly sessions in Geneva in November-December 1932.2
Ge Gongzhen hailed from Dongtai, Jiangsu and gained wide respect for his
work as a journalist as well as his dedications and contributions towards journalism
studies and the proliferation of professional journalism education in Republican
China.3 He began his formal journalistic career in the Shibao sometime between 1912
and 1914 and over the next fifteen years his position gradually rose from local section
editor to chief editor. In 1927, he journeyed overseas to Europe, the United States and
Japan on an international affairs and press fact-finding tour. Between 24 and 30
August 1927, he participated in the International Conference of Press Experts
organized by the League of Nations. 4 Because of his wealth of experience in the
international arena, he was chosen by the Shanghai Baojie Lianhehui (Shanghai Press

2

See Gu Weijun, Gu Weijun huiyilu, II, trans. Institute of Modern History, Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences (Beijing: Zhonghua shujü, 1985), pp. 14-26.
3
Ge‟s biodata comes from “Renowned journalist Ge Gongzhen departed for Europe with League of
Nations delegation,” Sin Chew Jit Poh (SCJP), 7 September 1932. See also a biographical profile
written by his nephew Ge Baoquan, “Huiyi wo de shufu Ge Gongzhen (shang),” Renwu, 4, 1980, pp.
127-140, as well as Hong Weijie, ed., Ge Gongzhen nianpu (Dongtai: Jiangsu renmin chubanshe, 1990),
pp. 1-67. Jin Xiongbai (aka Zhu Zijia), who had been Ge‟s colleague in the Shibao during the 1920s,
recounted Ge‟s stint with the newspaper in his memoir, Jin Xiongbai, Jizhe shengya wushi nian, I
(Hong Kong: Wuxingji shubaoshe, 1975), pp. 60-62.

4
See Ge Gongzhen, “Guoji baojie zhuanjia dahui zhi xiansheng,” Dongfang zazhi, 24, 14, 25 July 1927,
pp. 17-30.


3
Association) and the official Zhongyang Tongxunshe (Central News Agency) to cover
news on the League delegation.5
For SCJP, NYSP and other Chinese-language newspapers catering to the
informational needs of the Chinese migrant community in Singapore, the appearance
of Ge, Koo and the Lytton Inquiry Commission provided a precious and eagerly
awaited opportunity to come in close touch with events in China through direct
contact and interactions with the key news makers. While all the contending players
in Chinese journalistic circle in Singapore shared a common high interest in the
visitors, the coverage and content of the reports churned out by the different
newspapers on 12 September 1932 (the day after the event) demonstrated the
advantage that SCJP and NYSP enjoyed over their competitors in terms of influence
and resources and at the same time somewhat exposed the intense rivalry between the
two major dailies. SCJP and NYSP were able to devote one full “local news” page to
reports on the commission‟s activities in Singapore and interviews with the Earl of
Lytton, Koo and Ge, while Sin Kok Min Jit Pao (SKMJP, a Guomindang-sponsored
newspaper6) and Union Times (a newspaper with an origin as the opinion organ of the
pro-Reformist Movement literati in the 1900s7) were only able to make it with threequarter of a page and less than half-of-a-page respectively.8 In addition, SCJP and

5

“Remarks by Ge Gongzhen with respect to the role of Singapore‟s Chinese press,” Nanyang Siang
Pau (NYSP), 12 September 1932.
6
Yong Ching-fatt and R. B. McKenna, The Kuomintang Movement in British Malaya (Singapore:

Singapore University Press, 1990), p. 182.
7
Chen Mong Hock, The Early Chinese Newspapers of Singapore, 1881-1912 (Singapore: University of
Malaya Press, 1967), p. 86.
8
“Dr Wellington Koo hopes all nationals could learn from Chen Jiageng,” NYSP, 12 September 1932;
“League of Nations Inquiry Commission stopped by Singapore with V. K. Wellington Koo and Ge
Gongzhen yesterday,” SCJP, 12 September 1932; “Remarks on conditions in the three Northeast
provinces,” Sin Kok Min Jit Pao, 12 September 1932; “League of Nations delegation stopped by
Singapore,” Union Times, 12 September 1932.


4
NYSP were quick to capitalize on recognitions by members of the delegation not
enjoyed by their competitors. Koo and Ge paid a visit to the manufacturing plant of
NYSP‟s founder Chen Jiageng. NYSP took the visit as the main story on their page and
highlighted Koo‟s lauding of Chen as a role model in national salvation through
promotion of industry. On its part, SCJP stressed its close relationship with Ge and
produced a report featuring Ge‟s visit to SCJP‟s office in addition to the paper‟s onepage report on the delegation (Figure 3).
The episode involving the Lytton Inquiry Commission and the Singapore
Chinese press is a harbinger of the aims of this thesis. It first and foremost reflected
the undercurrent of the growing anti-Japanese motherland nationalism swirling in the
Chinese migrant community in Singapore during the 1930s. Moreover, the Singapore
Chinese newspapers‟ enormous interest in the visiting League delegation showed the
concerns of the Chinese press in China and the overseas Chinese communities over
the international dimension of Guomindang China‟s precarious position in the face of
Japanese militarism. These add up to the larger context of the study‟s main themes
derived from threads emerging from the episode. The special telegram that the
Shanghai Press Association transmitted to notify SCJP of Ge‟s impending stop-over
in Singapore with the League delegation and Ge‟s visit to SCJP‟s office implies the

existence of a professional journalistic network linking a major Singapore Chinesemedium newspaper to newspapers and newspapermen in Shanghai, the key hub of
journalistic production in Republican China. At the same time, the special emphasis
that SCJP and NYSP placed on the respective recognitions they received from
important China news makers or journalistic counterpart suggests that China politics


5
and interpersonal connections with the Chinese journalistic circle in Shanghai played
a significant role in shaping the local Chinese newspaper competition in Singapore.
This study takes as its starting point the contestation between two leading
overseas Chinese entrepreneurs of the era and their respective newspapers, Chen
Jiageng (1874-1961, known as the “Rubber King of Malaya”)/NYSP, and Hu Wenhu
(1884-1954, popularly known as the “Tiger Balm King”)/SCJP. 9 The two parties
were bitter rivals vying with each other for power and influence within the
Nanyang/Singapore Chinese migrant community, as well as recognitions from
Guomindang China for their philanthropic/patriotic efforts. As to be discussed in
greater details in Chapter 1, British colonial inhibitions of Chen‟s patriotic activities
and more crucially the devastating impact of the world economic depression in the
1930s on Chen‟s rubber enterprise caused the balance of the rivalry to shift in favor of
Hu /SCJP. The latter in turn put up highly conspicuous efforts in strengthening their
position within the competition in the Nanyang/Singapore Chinese journalistic circle,
as well as establishing their name in the journalistic field of Guomindang China. The
overall timeframe of the study begins in 1929, the year of the founding of SCJP, and

9

For a notable, carefully researched and written biography of Chen Jiageng by a professional historian
working on the overseas Chinese, see Yong Ching-fatt, Tan Kah-Kee: The Making of an Overseas
Chinese Legend (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1987). For the Chinese translation of the
biography, see Yang Jinfa, Chen Jiageng: Huaqiao chuanqi renwu, trans. Li Fachen (Singapore:

Global Publishing, 1990). As for Hu Wenhu, there have been several historical studies as well as
popular biographies. Among historical studies in both the English and Chinese languages that have
dealt with various aspects of Hu‟s life and career, the most notable ones include Li Fengrui and Wang
Dong, “Hu Wenhu pingzhuan,” Lishi jiaoxue wenti, Special Issue (Shanghai: Huadong shifan daxue,
1992), Li Fengrui, ed., Hu Wenhu yanjiu zhuanji (Longyan: Longyan shifan zhuanke xuexiao, 1992),
John S. N. Chan, “An Exploratory Study of Aw Boon Haw‟s Thought,” Nanyang Xuebao, 52, 1998, pp.
22-57, and Huang Jianli, “Entaglement of Business and Politics in the Chinese Diaspora: Interrogating
the Wartime Patriotism of Aw Boon Haw,” Journal of Chinese Overseas, 2, 1, May 2006, pp. 79-110.
Among the popular biographies of Hu, the most notable ones are Kang Jifu, Hu Wenhu zhuan (Hong
Kong: Longmen wenhua shiye gongsi, 1984), Zhang Yonghe, Hu Wenhu (Xiamen: Lujiang chubanshe,
1989) and Sam King, Tiger Balm King: The Life and Times of Aw Boon Haw (Singapore: Times Books
International, 1992).