New Youth (magazine)
신청년 (잡지)
The Chinese magazine that Chen Duxiu founded in Shanghai in September 1915 as Youth Magazine and renamed in September 1916. The central organ of the New Culture Movement, it led the cause of “democracy and science”, anti-Confucianism and vernacular literature, moving to Peking University in 1917 where professors edited it. From September 1920 it openly supported communism, in June 1923 became the theoretical journal of the Chinese Communist Party, and closed in 1926.
In depth
Founding: Chen Duxiu launched Youth Magazine on 15 September 1915, with the Qunyi publishing house paying 200 yuan a month for manuscripts and editing. “A Call to Youth” in the first issue set the young six challenges: be independent, progressive, forward-looking, internationalist, practical and scientific. When the Shanghai YMCA complained in September 1916 that the name was too similar to its own, it became New Youth.
The Peking University years: when Chen became dean of letters at Peking University in January 1917 the magazine moved to Beijing. Volume 6 was edited in rotation by Chen, Qian Xuantong, Gao Yihan, Hu Shih, Li Dazhao and Shen Yinmo, turning a local magazine of Anhui writers into a national one. It published Hu Shih’s “Preliminary Discussion of Literature Reform” (January 1917) and essays on literary revolution and chastity, Lu Xun’s “Diary of a Madman” (May 1918), “Kong Yiji” and “Medicine”, and Chen Hengzhe’s children’s story; Mao Zedong published his first article in it in April 1917. On 1 May 1919 came a special issue on Marxism edited by Li Dazhao.
A communist organ: after Chen’s contact with Voitinsky in 1920 the magazine took on a Marxist character, and from the issue of 1 September, with its office back in Shanghai, it openly supported communism; Hu Shih left once this direction was clear. From June 1923 it was the CCP’s official theoretical journal, until the Nationalist government closed it in 1926. Thousands of young people, including many later communist leaders, grew up reading it.