ABSTRACT
The Anti-Japanese War induced social change and working class formation in Nationalist China’s cities that was both reflected and facilitated by the New China Daily (Xinhua ribao). The Communist newspaper’s reporting on working class conditions and the labor movement gave voice to labor’s grievances, and allowed men and women workers to create an “imagined community” of class. Founded as part of the Second United Front, the New China Daily took on important symbolic and organizational functions. Besides disseminating the Communist Party line and reporting on both international and domestic news, the paper provided literate workers with a forum in which to assess factory social relations and to express their grievances. The participatory form of journalism facilitated the growth of class consciousness. The New China Daily also functioned as an organizational tool in the post-war labor movement. Although shut down by 1947, the paper’s ability to galvanize workers’ public opinion put pressure on state and privately owned industries to develop their social welfare programs, thus setting up the framework for the post-1949 Communist work-unit institution.
