Ta Kung Pao

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cover of the first issue

Ta Kung Pao (Chinese: 大公報; formerly L'Impartial) is the oldest active Chinese language newspaper in China. It is based in Hong Kong and has been funded by the government of the People's Republic of China since 1949. Widely regarded as the mouthpiece of Communist Party of China, it covers a range of political, economic and cultural topics.

In June 2002, Ta Kung Pao newspaper celebrated its 100th anniversary despite rumours that the PRC Government would cut funding for pro-communist newspapers after the 1997 transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong.

1 History
2 Present
3 See also
4 External link

[edit] History

Ying Lianzhi (英斂之) founded the newspaper in Tientsin, China (now Tianjin) on 17 June 1902 in order to, in Ying's own words, "help China become a modern and democratic nation". In contrast to its present editorial style, the paper put forward the slogan 4-No-ism" (四不主義) in its early years, pledging to say "No" to any parties, governments, commercial companies, and persons.

It stood up to the repression at the time, openly criticizing the Empress Dowager Cixi and the conservative leaders in China in the early 1900s, and promoted democratic reforms, pioneering the use of the vernacular language (báihuà). Readership fell after the Xinhai Revolution in 1911 and Wang Zhilong (王郅隆) bought it in 1916. Still, the newspaper was out of print by 1925 due to the lack of readership. On 1 September 1926, however, Wu Dingchang (吳鼎昌), Hu Zhengzhi (胡政之), and Zhang Jiluan (張季鸞) re-established the newspaper in Tianjin. With "no party affiliation, no political endorsement, no self-promotion, no ignorance" (不黨, 不賣, 不私, 不盲) as its motto, the newspaper's popularity quickly rose again because of its sharp political commentary, especially of the Japanese as the Second Sino-Japanese War/World War II began.

As the war waged on, the journalists fled to other cities, such as Shanghai, Hankou, Chongqing, Guilin and Hong Kong, to continue publishing, but local editions were abandoned as the Japanese captured more and more territory. After the war was won, Wong Wan San (王芸生), the chief editor, re-established the Shanghai edition on November 1st 1945, in the original format and style of the old Shanghai edition. They had also planned to issue editions for other cities, including Guangzhou, but the Chinese Civil War forced this proposal to be shelved. However, in March 1948, the Hong Kong edition was re-issued. A major newspaper during the Republican years, it continued to be influential after re-publication in Hong Kong after 1949, as one of few newspapers that survived foreign invasion and civil war.

The head office of Ta Kung Pao is located on Hennessy Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong Island, with many offices in mainland China, such as in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Inner-Mongolia and Guangzhou.

The paper was the earliest Chinese-language newspaper to establish a website "TaKungPao.com" in 1995.

[edit] Present

Ta Kung Pao was regarded as a paper that published only positive news, to respect the PRC-HKSAR relationship. It has a favourable relationship with the Government, all Blue-Chips, and Pro-CPC parties.

The exact circulation in Hong Kong is unknown, but it is among the three least popular newspapers with less than 10,000 copies being sold every day. Despite losing its popularity, the paper is known for its very low rate of printing errors.