Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture Overview — Social Undertakings (IV)
Section 4: News and Publishing. News and publishing in Xiangxi is an emerging industry that developed only after the founding of New China. Previously, although Yongshun County's Popular Ten-Day Journal was founded in 1927 (16th year of the Republic of China), becoming the first newspaper in the prefecture's history, after the 1930s the ten counties in the region successively founded Min Bao, Qing...
This article has been compiled from historical materials in the "Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network" (33519.com · City Overview section). Some administrative divisions, population, socioeconomic data, and policy information may be outdated and are for reference only; for the latest situation, please refer to official releases by the local government and scenic areas.
Section 4 News and Publishing
The news and publishing industry of Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture is an emerging trade that gradually developed only after the founding of New China. Prior to this, although in the 16th year of the Republic of China (1927) the Yongshun County 'Popular Ten-Day Journal' was founded, becoming the first newspaper in the prefecture's history; after the 1930s, the 10 counties in the region successively founded more than 20 newspapers and periodicals such as 'Min Bao', 'Youth Daily', and 'Eighth Normal School Student', but by the 1940s, all had ceased publication one after another. On October 1, 1952, the local Party newspaper of the CPC Xiangxi Miao Autonomous Region, 'Tuanjie Bao' (Unity Daily), was founded, and on October 28 of the same year, it first published the masthead inscribed by Chairman Mao Zedong himself—'Tuanjie Bao'—which has been used to this day.
I. 'Tuanjie Bao'
From October 1952 to May 1957, apart from carrying Xinhua News Agency dispatches, local news accounted for more than 80% of 'Tuanjie Bao'. Around August 1955, when the Xiangxi Miao Autonomous Region (Prefecture) marked its third anniversary, the newspaper office not only systematically organized reports reflecting achievements in agriculture, industry and communications, finance and trade, culture and education in the autonomous region (prefecture), but also organized people from all walks of Miao society to publish special articles, praising the absolute correctness of the policy of regional ethnic autonomy with facts they had seen and heard. The editorial department sent out reporters to write more than 10 news features under the title 'The Miao Autonomous Prefecture Is Advancing', which, from a historical and cultural perspective, recounted the past and present of the Miao people, with typical examples, characters, scenes, and commentary—vivid and lively, highly infectious, and well received by readers. In the spring and summer of 1957, to coordinate with the visit of the Hunan Provincial Tujia Visiting Delegation, the newspaper office sent reporters to accompany the delegation deep into Longshan, Yongshun, Baojing, Guzhang and other counties, on the one hand promptly reporting the delegation's condolence activities and the joy of the Tujia masses, and on the other hand gathering a large amount of Tujia customs, folk legends and cultural traditions, publishing articles one after another, which were deeply loved by the Tujia people.
From 1957 to 1965, the Tuanjie Bao office went through a tortuous and difficult course. Under the leadership of the CPC Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture Committee, it closely focused on the Party's central work and organized many highly effective publicity reports. These included the September 1957 report on the establishment of the Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, the 1958 report on mass water conservancy construction, reports during the three difficult years on rectifying work style and consolidating communes and uniting to get through the 'hard days', and reports after 1962 on restoring production and vigorously developing agriculture, and so on. The obvious characteristic was that the ideological, theoretical and practical nature of publicity reporting was greatly strengthened. In the autumn of 1965, the newspaper office changed from hand-copying Xinhua News Agency dispatches to receiving them by facsimile.
After the 'Cultural Revolution' began in 1966, the work of the Tuanjie Bao office was seriously disrupted.
In September 1978, the Tuanjie Bao office established a Committee of the Communist Party of China and restored the Editorial Committee. In 1979, the newspaper office gradually eliminated the influence of 'Left' tendencies and embarked on the path of reform and development. 'Tuanjie Bao' underwent major changes in both content and form. The layout was adjusted to page one for important news, page two for a comprehensive local news page, page three for supplements, and page four for Xinhua current events and advertisements. It successively used columns such as 'Brother Ethnic Groups Are Advancing', 'New Construction, New Achievements', 'All Over the Motherland', 'Photo News', 'International Outlook', 'Major International Events of the Week', and 'Current Events Summary' to report on the tremendous achievements in building the material and spiritual civilization of socialism with Chinese characteristics as well as international current events. At the end of 1986, it began publishing a Sunday 'Weekend Edition', with the masthead and key headlines printed in red. Layout beautification was also greatly improved, with special pages for art, photography and calligraphy works edited in a timely manner. In 1992, the layout of 'Tuanjie Bao' developed further: the comprehensive local news page on page two included columns such as 'Economy', 'Education, Science and Health', 'Great Market', and 'Poverty Alleviation'; the supplement on page three included 'Theory and Practice', 'Ethnic Unity', and 'Readers' Letters'; and the 'Sunday' weekend edition included 'Important News', 'Social Life', 'Window on the World', and 'Cultural Plaza', which were quite popular with readers.
In June 1997, the newspaper raised 380,000 yuan to purchase a set of phototypesetting and plate-making equipment from Peking University Founder Electronics Co., Ltd., greatly improving printing and publishing quality. On New Year's Day 1999, 'Tuanjie Bao' expanded from quarto four pages to folio four pages. To meet the needs of the expanded format, a laser printer and computers were purchased. From December 19, it began using pictures from the Internet, enhancing the timeliness of news. In February 2000, the newspaper's advertising operations began using competitive bidding and contracting. In January 2001, 'Tuanjie Bao' expanded from a six-day weekly to a seven-day weekly, adding an evening edition published every Wednesday. On July 2, it created the 'Tuanjie Bao' news webpage linked to Hunan Rednet, with the URL: http://jstjb.rednet.cn. On December 2, the color version of the Tuanjie Bao weekend edition was published. On April 3, 2002, the color version of the evening edition was published. On June 20, the Tuanjie Bao office signed an 'Agreement on the Relocation of the Tuanjie Bao Office and Development of the Old Site' with Xiangquan Real Estate Development Co., Ltd., and construction broke ground on the new office site in the Qianzhou New District of Jishou City. On October 28, a grand celebration was held to 'commemorate the founding of Tuanjie Bao and the 50th anniversary of Comrade Mao Zedong's inscription of the masthead for this newspaper'. In November 2003, the overall relocation and technical transformation project of the Tuanjie Bao office was fully completed and put into use. In just one year, more than 20 million yuan was raised, 25.5 mu of land was requisitioned, and a news building, printing center, commercial storefronts, staff canteen, and staff dormitory buildings were newly built, with a construction area of 23,000 square meters. During the overall relocation process, funds were raised through employee shareholding, and comprehensive technical transformation was carried out simultaneously. The Shanghai Gauss high-speed rotary color printing production line was put into operation, ending the history of only being able to print red-overprint newspapers and achieving the goal of publishing color newspapers every day; the Peking University Founder automatic news gathering and editing system was put into use, and after printing bid farewell to 'lead and fire', editing and gathering bid farewell to 'pen and paper', achieving office automation and intelligence.
After 2001, the Tuanjie Bao office, taking reform of the personnel and distribution systems as a breakthrough, organized and implemented comprehensive internal reform. By changing the appointment of middle-level cadres to competitive selection, changing work assignments to full staff employment, changing personnel deployment to open recruitment, changing fixed income to performance-linked pay, and establishing systems for monthly evaluation of excellent articles by editorial staff, quality service by administrative staff, and production and business experts by printing staff, it broke the lifetime tenure system for middle-level leadership positions and the practice of 'eating from the same big pot' in distribution, mobilized the enthusiasm of the broad ranks of cadres and staff, further standardized the newspaper office's internal management, and further improved the quality of the newspaper.
Over the years, the Tuanjie Bao office has always adhered to the correct orientation of public opinion, and the quality of the newspaper has continuously improved; it has always adhered to a people-oriented approach, and management has been continuously strengthened; it has always taken reform as the driving force, achieved leapfrog development, and scored one achievement after another. In January 1991, Tuanjie Bao reporter Hong Zhenhu was awarded the title of National Outstanding Journalist; in March, at the 10th National News Photography Works Selection, newspaper reporter Chen Tingmao's photo 'The Female Shop Assistant Bravely Seizes a Pickpocket' won the gold medal; in 1994 and 1995, in the Hunan Province newspaper quality evaluation, 'Tuanjie Bao' won the title of Class I Newspaper; in June 2000, the Publicity Department of the CPC Hunan Provincial Committee, the Provincial Press and Publication Bureau, and the Provincial Science and Technology Department held the first Hunan Province 'Top Ten Newspaper Offices' selection, and the Tuanjie Bao office was on the list and received commendation; in 2005, the office was rated as a provincial-level 'Civilized and Hygienic Unit' and a provincial-level 'Garden-Style Unit'. The number of awards and the levels of awards won by Tuanjie Bao in national and provincial good news competitions both rose substantially, and for several consecutive years it won first and second prizes in national prefecture and city newspaper good news competitions.
II. Other News Publications
In addition to 'Tuanjie Bao', 'Journal of Jishou University' sponsored by Jishou University, 'Xiangxi Historical and Cultural Materials' sponsored by the Historical and Cultural Materials Research Committee of the Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, 'Xiangxi Science and Technology' sponsored by the Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture Science and Technology Information Research Institute, 'Xiangxi Work' sponsored by the CPC Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture Committee, and 'Biancheng Audiovisual News' sponsored by the Prefecture Broadcasting Bureau, among others, are all news publications of Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture.
'Journal of Jishou University' was founded in July 1980. Since its founding, it has attracted attention at home and abroad for its distinctive local and ethnic characteristics. The social sciences edition's 1981 'Special Issue on Ethnic Issues: Tujia of Xiangxi', 1982 'Special Issue on Ethnic Issues: Miao of Xiangxi', 1988-1995 'Special Issue on Shen Congwen Studies', and 1991 'Special Issue on Ethnic Culture Studies' have become important scientific research documentary materials for ethnic history, culture and Shen Congwen studies at home and abroad. Many papers in the social sciences edition have been included in major abstract publications such as 'Xinhua Digest' and the 'Renmin University of China Newspaper and Periodical Materials Center'. The natural sciences edition is regularly indexed by domestic and international abstract publications such as 'Chinese Mathematical Abstracts', 'Chinese Physics Abstracts', 'Chinese Inorganic Analytical Chemistry Abstracts', 'Chinese Agricultural Abstracts—Grain and Economic Crops', 'Mathematical Reviews' (USA), 'Physics Abstracts' (USA), and 'Chemical Abstracts' (USA). Countries and regions with which 'Journal of Jishou University' has overseas exchange distribution include Japan, South Korea, the United States, France, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Australia, and China's Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.
'Xiangxi Historical and Cultural Materials' was founded in May 1983. By 2005, 48 volumes had been published, totaling 6.82 million characters, with each volume having a circulation of 5,000 copies. Among them, the journal's overall volumes No. 12 (comprehensive), No. 13 'Military Disasters, Bandit Calamities and Popular Uprisings in the Sichuan-Hunan-Hubei Border Area During the Republic of China Period', No. 30 'Special Issue on Xiong Xiling', and the combined volumes No. 34 and 35 'Famous People of Xiangxi' are all important historical documentary materials and have been highly praised by all sides.
In December 1958, the Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture People's Publishing House was established, operating jointly with the 'Tuanjie Bao' office, with two signboards but one set of personnel. The Xiangxi People's Publishing House implemented the policy of 'serving politics, being mass-oriented, and popularizing', and also undertook the task of publishing in the Miao script, uniting authors and actively publishing books. By 1963, it had successively published 76 types of books of various kinds (including 1 reprinted external edition), with a cumulative print run of 534,644 copies. Among them were 14 types in the social and political category, 37 in agriculture, 21 in culture and education, 3 in literature and art, and 1 in health. It also published several types of Miao-language textbooks.
On February 19, 1991, the Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture Culture Bureau established a News and Publication Section, responsible for approving internal books and materials, managing printing plants, and, entrusted by the Hunan Provincial Publication Bureau, issuing book, newspaper and periodical printing permits on its behalf.