SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This thesis is an exploration of the Chinese literati journalism through the life of Huang Tianpeng 黃天鵬 (1909-1982), one of the Republic of China’s (ROC) most outstanding journalists in the early twentieth century and a respected statesman following the end of World War II. The main argument is that China has its own literati standard. This spirit embodied through journalism and Huang’s life, involved, in Huang’s case, leading him to search for a particular Chinese journalism standard, to reform the Chinese press and to serve his country with written words. Later in his life, he served the ROC as an official and congressman, working to establish a constitutional government. He also founded a charity to create what the philosophers of the past referred to the Great Harmony, the highest ideal of Confucianism. Huang’s values originated from his upbringing in a family with a long history of scholarly achievements and cultivation of Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism. These belief systems fostered his sense of responsibility for ‘the public’, which included upholding the moral integrity of both the state and society. The thesis draws on exclusive access to Huang’s rich personal archive, which has been hidden for over half a century, complemented by a range of further sources, from official records to personal reminiscences. It has the potential to revise existing scholarship, including on Huang’s background, Chinese journalism education and history. In addition to Huang’s journalistic accomplishments, his legacy lives on in Taiwan’s competitive and thriving democracy. The research of Huang is not only a micro history of his life but also a macro history of politics, economics, society and journalism. The identification of Huang’s many pseudonyms and the finding of his family’s contribution to the 1911 Revolution are new findings that may inspire further research.