Media and popular education: Views and policies on radio broadcasting in Republican China, 1920s–30s

Abstract

Abstract This article focuses on the views and policies about the use of radio broadcasting for popular modern education in Republican China in the 1920s and 1930s. The development of radio technology for broadcasting in China during the first half of the twentieth century has been often justified on the ground of its importance as a tool for mass education. After the establishment of the Nanjing government in 1927, and especially in the second half of the 1930s, efforts were made by the Nationalist Party to advance the use of broadcasting for modern education. This cultural agenda partially reflected an international trend, but it was mainly just one aspect of a more general understanding about which should be the proper role of the media in a modern society. Although in China the use of radio broadcasting as a tool of popular education was hindered by many factors, the assumption of a strong nexus among progress, mass education and media technology shaped both the public opinion’s perception of the medium and the Chinese State radio policies.