A Study of 'Shanghai'Magazine, and its Proponents, Focusing on its Literary Column
A Study of 'Shanghai'Magazine, and its Proponents, Focusing on its Literary Column

Summary/Abstract: Prewar Shanghai was characterized by harmony as well as conflict between people and cultures. Against this historical context, Shanghai (『上 海』 ), a Japanese-language magazine, was founded and published between 1913 and 1945. Its content was varied, ranging from translated articles from Chinese newspapers to poems. Thus, Shanghai affords a valuable opportunity for examining interactions between Chinese intellectuals and Japanese residents in Chinese cities. However, the magazine has not been sufficiently studied from this perspective. Two of its core proponents, Cheng Hsiao-hsu (鄭孝胥) and Munakata Kotarō (宗方小太郎), evidently played an influential role in prewar Chinese–Japanese relations. In this paper, I apply discursive analysis of Shanghai’s contents, focusing on its literary column. I focus on the initial stage of Shanghai’s development under its first editor, Nishimoto Shōzō (西本省三), aiming to shed light on the ideas and concepts underlying the literary activity of Chinese and Japanese contributors to the magazine. I also examine the magazine’s standing within the prevailing Shanghai society to reveal relationships between people and the ideas they exchanged via this unique medium during the period leading up to the war.

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