Writing in a Republic — Printing What They Damn Well Liked

Abstract

China was changing, and the Chinese were changing and, though generally considered hopelessly sclerotic, some elements in the imperial court were also changing. The dynasty was limping to its death but some tried desperately to modernise it in an ultimately futile attempt at last-minute regime survival. The launching of two publications backed and conceived by Thomas Franklin Fairfax Millard — the China Press in August 1911 and his own more personal vehicle Millard's Review in June 1917 — was to have a profound and lasting effect on the foreign press of the China coast. Though the Americans had burst upon the scene with their new concepts, designs, and energy, they were far from getting it all their own way. Despite the Nationalist revolution and the excitement over the rise and fall of Yuan Shih-kai and then Sun's return, the onset of the First World War saw foreign newspapers lose interest in China while the local foreign press also naturally concentrated on events in Europe as invariably increasingly demanded by their readers. The most influential newspaper North of Shanghai is described. The chapter also considers Arthur de Carle Sowerby as a naturalist, adventurer, and editor.