The Making of the Socialist Media Censorship System in 1950s Shanghai

• In Event: Futures in the Making: Writing, Reading, and Filmmaking in China, 1925-Present

Abstract

Media censorship in contemporary China has been one of the most heatedly debated issues in the academic fields and the global media. However, few studies on media culture of the Mao era have dealt with the issue of media censorship. This paper explores how the Chinese socialist media censorship system was established and operated at the grassroots level in 1950s Shanghai. Drawing on previously unassessed archival material, this research reveals that the operation of media censorship in early socialist China cannot be understood as simply a form of top-down coercion imposed by the state, as commonly assumed. Instead, it was much more complex and contested. In order to uphold the cause of New Democracy and distinguish itself from the previous Nationalist government, the PRC could not set up an official censorship organ and enforce outright censorship after 1949. Further, although the CCP established a state-dominated media system, their capacity of exercising control was far from absolute. In this context, the CCP partially relied on cooperation with the news media personnel in enforcing censorship. Intriguingly, Shanghai media workers were also willing to cooperate with the state, implement self-censorship, and even actively seek prepublication censorship, due to their need to frequently check the political correctness of the media contents for their survival in the state-dominated media system. Thus, media censorship in 1950s Shanghai could be enforced effectively not necessarily by top-down coercion, but by making censorship an integral part of the daily journalistic practice at the grassroots level both ideologically and institutionally.

Author

• Sei Jeong Chin, Ewha Womans University