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Missionaries and Modern China’s Book Publication

Author: ZhengYanHong
Tutor: YuanXiSheng
School: Henan University
Course: Journalism
Keywords: missionary modern China’s book publication cultural communication
CLC: G239.29
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2008
Downloads: 278
Quote: 1
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Abstract

Ever since the Opium War western missionaries came to China. They set publishing houses for newspaper and books. Those publishing practices brought China not only advanced machines and ideas on publication, but the renovation of Chinese publishing techniques and the formation of modern publishing industry. They also trained a new generation of publisher for China and promote the birth of private publishing houses. In addition, the book publishing practices of missionaries in modern China had a great impact on broadening people’s eye field and learning about the world as well as on the cultural communication. But according to the historical material accessible now, some missionaries’activities acted as the tool for western powers invading China. Thus in modern China, the influences of those activities on China have always been under hot argument. In this thesis, the author attempts to analyses the influences of missionaries’publishing activities on modern China’s book publication.The Opium War is the mark of China’s turning to modern period, and also the time when missionaries entered China. The culture of Qing Dynasty before the war was in a dull but peaceful circumstances. Accompanied with the Qing Government’s cultural absolution and exclusion, in the early part of Qing Dynasty, the achievements on culture were mainly about arts, and the culture was at the state of abnormal development. From the concurrent development of culture, it can be seen that Chinese culture had its own requirement for social reform and motivation for cultural renovation. A cultural revolution about reform and renovation was unavoidable. China’s publishing industry was also unstill in the reform.The publishing houses set by missionaries in China that can be classified into three types:Those set and run by missionaries alone, special religious publishing houses and those serving for the capitalist invaders. In this part the author first narrates the activities of missionaries on boundary around the Opium War, then with three typical publishing houses as examples, that is, Gezhi Publisher, Meihua Publisher and Guangxuehui, the author analyses their different publishing ideas, features and practices.The missionaries’activities on China’publication in modern China, which was to introduce Chinese culture to westerners and to give the help to the later missionaries, but made an effort for the broadcast of Chinese culture and the east-west cultural exchange. The missionaries set the publishing houses in China and employed Chinese, who worked and mastered the advanced printing technologies and the publishing eidos, which became the basis to theirselves’publishing activities. The advanced printing technology brought by the missionaries made an direct influence to the development and transformation of Chinese printing, the amount, the content and the form of Chinese book also have been changing. But with the time gone, some missionaries began to make the dissemination to the aggression. On one hand, they propagandized by newspaper and magazines, on the other hand, they acted as spies under the guise of charity.

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CLC: > Culture, science,education, sports > Information and knowledge dissemination > Publishing > Countries in the world publishing industry > China > Publishing history
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