With the victory of the October Revolution in Russia and the end of the First World War, the world revolutionary movement flourished, and the Chinese people, especially the youth, began to pay attention to current affairs and politics at home and abroad. The participants included Li Dazhao, Gao Yihan, Gao Chengyuan, Zhang Shenfu, Zhou Zuoren, etc. The meeting publicly elected Chen Duxiu as secretary and editor, and others as writers. The publishing office is located at No. 79, Mishi Hutong, Luomashi Street, outside Xuanwumen, Beijing, and the editorial office is located in the office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences in the Red Building, Peking University. Compared with the theoretical focus of New Youth, the content of Weekly Review is "more rapid, shorter, and more direct to reality", and the two journals complement each other and work together, lighting a beacon for the progress of the New Culture Movement.
On December 22, 1918, Chen Duxiu wrote in the publication of the "Weekly Review": "The purpose of our publication of the "Weekly Review" is to 'advocate justice and oppose power'.
The Weekly Review was banned by the Beiyang warlord government on August 31, 1919, when its 37th issue was about to be published. The first 25 issues were edited by Chen Duxiu, and he and Li Dazhao were both main writers, and the last 12 issues were taken over by Hu Shi because of Chen Duxiu's arrest. The Weekly Review is published every Sunday in eight pages and four editions, typeset in the old No. 5 character, with about 13,000 words per issue. There are 12 columns, including "Commentary on Foreign Events," "Commentary on Domestic Events," "Domestic Labor Conditions," "Editorials," "Impressions," and "New Literature and Art," which have the following distinctive characteristics.
First, advanced ideas and completely new forms. The Weekly Review gathers the current affairs of a new generation of intellectuals such as Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao, and Hu Shih with an ideological vision different from that of previous critics and a novel tabloid format. It was the first journal in China to be named after "Commentary", and it had a demonstration effect on the editorial aspects of column names, layout forms and content boundaries, and under its influence, journals such as "Xiangjiang Review", "Weekly Review", "Qianjiang Review" and "Commentary of Commentary" were launched one after another, leading to the creation of a star-studded era of short form of political commentary and current commentary publications.
Second, it is a clear orientation and incisive discussions. During the May Fourth Movement, the "Weekly Review" played an active leading role in public opinion, calling this great patriotic movement the "May Fourth Movement" for the first time and proposing to study the spirit of the "May Fourth Movement" for the first time. In light of the realities at home and abroad at that time, the "Weekly Review" took a clear-cut stand in criticizing feudal cultural ideology and the autocratic system, and extensively publicized and reported on the situation in Soviet Russia after the October Revolution in Russia and the proletarian revolutionary movement in Europe.
The third is rapid reporting and efficient frequency. The weekly review is published on a weekly basis, which is in line with the rhythm of the changing situation, and can be called a pioneering achievement in the history of Chinese media. Talking about and commenting on current affairs in the press and periodicals is a new tradition of the new intellectuals since the Wuxu Reform. The articles published have both the journalistic nature of "description" and the argumentative nature of "commentary", and the two are organically combined and complement each other, with a strong sense of nation-state care. Advanced ideas inspire the wisdom of the people, so that this militant journal exudes the sparkle of freedom, equality, and progress.
The editor-in-chief and the authors of this small newspaper, which had a lifespan of less than nine months, witnessed the changes in the domestic and international situation around the May Fourth Movement, and the editor-in-chief and the authors continued to explore, discard, and revise against the complex social background of China at that time, especially the excerpt of the "Communist Manifesto" published in the "Famous Works" column, which firmly disseminated Marxism and communist thought. It complemented New Youth and became one of the most important newspapers and periodicals during the May Fourth Movement.
2024-04-12Source: Xinxiang Review