Henry Luce’s American & Chinese Century: An Analysis of US News Magazines’ Coverage of General Chiang Kai-shek from 1936 to 1949

Abstract

Time magazine founder and publisher Henry Luce was accused by scholars and critics of using his media empire to support and promote General Chiang Kai-shek and his ruling Chinese Nationalist Party during the pre-war, World War II, and Chinese Civil War periods. The criticism was particularly directed at the content contained in Time magazine, the leading weekly news magazine of the era. However, the coverage of General Chiang was actually much more varied than Luce’s most ardent critics had concluded, and the portrayals differed depending on which events were covered and during which time periods.