Newspapers are a very interesting thing. They are weak when facing strong people, but they are strong when facing weaker people.
Shanghai is the city with the most newspapers in the country, including regular broadsheets such as "Shen Shen" and "News", as well as gossip tabloids such as "Jing Bao" and "Robin Hood".
During the Republic of China, the atmosphere was very open, but the ideas were very conservative. The effect of "people's words are fearful" brought by newspapers was very terrifying.
Historically, Ruan Lingyu was driven to death by gossip tabloids. Lu Xun couldn't stand it and wrote an article specifically to criticize those gossip newspapers. The title was "On the Fear of Human Words".
Not only Ruan Lingyu, but one year before Ruan Lingyu committed suicide, a female writer named Ai Xia also committed suicide because she couldn't stand the public opinion. Lianhua Pictures also specially adapted this incident to make a movie, and cast Ruan Lingyu to play Ai Xia. In the film, it was revealed that
The ugly faces of tabloids and reporters.
But what was the result?
The Shanghai Journalists Guild jointly protested, believing that the film vilified journalists, so Lianhua Pictures had to publicly apologize and proactively delete relevant film content.
During the Republic of China, there were many enthusiastic journalists, but there were also many vitriolic ones. Moreover, due to imperfect laws and supervision, those tabloids had no professional bottom line. There were only gossips and scandals, and there were even real people.
When I was writing the story, even the bed situation was described in a convincing way.
Even after Ruan Lingyu committed suicide, unscrupulous journalists did not let her go, because public opinion at the time generally sympathized with Ruan Lingyu and resented tabloid reporters. These inhumane reporters actually distributed leaflets at the entrance of the funeral home, distorting the true cause of Ruan Lingyu's suicide, and secretly
Refers to the fact that Ruan Lingyu died in a movie she had starred in.
…
Zhou Mansion.
Zhou Hexuan frowned and put down the "Jing Bao" and asked: "How are you going to respond?"
"I..." Ruan Lingyu lowered her head and said weakly, "Mr. Zhou, I won't come to your place tomorrow, lest others make irresponsible remarks and ruin your reputation in vain."
"Why do I have such a bad reputation?" Zhou Hexuan said with a smile, "It's you, please don't let it get to you."
"Yeah." Ruan Lingyu responded without saying anything.
The "Jingbao" revelations were very ferocious, revealing everything about Ruan Lingyu's life experience. For example, her mother was a maid of the Zhang family, Ruan Lingyu lived with the master's young master at the age of 16, and she relied on nepotism to become a movie heroine, such as
Said she seduced Zhou Hexuan for money.
The most outrageous thing is that the "Jing Bao" article is also mixed with all kinds of conjectures. The newspaper analyzed, why can a maid's daughter afford to attend an aristocratic girls' school? It is probably because the maid has an affair with the Zhang family master
.
"Jing Bao" even stated that He Aying's other adopted daughter was the illegitimate daughter of Ruan Lingyu and Zhang Damin, and made it up in a convincing way.
Ruan Lingyu is only 20 years old, and her sister is almost 10 years old. Could it be that she could give birth to an illegitimate daughter when she was 10 years old?
It's a pity that most people choose to believe this kind of illogical fabrication, because the information is not smooth, and because rumors cost nothing to spread.
In an instant, Ruan Lingyu went from a popular movie star to a reviled slut.
"This matter is not simple," Zhou Hexuan sneered, "The reporter is not a detective, how can he know you so clearly? I think someone is up to something, and it's someone who knows you very well."
"Someone is harming me?" Ruan Lingyu said in shock, "No way! What good will this do to him?"
"Designing a frame-up is nothing more than enmity and interest," Zhou Hexuan said. "The first is public enmity, with Mingxing Film Company being the most suspect; the second is private enmity, with the Zhang family being the most suspect. Can't we find out if we find someone to investigate?"
Ruan Lingyu thought for a while and said: "Let's forget it. The more we do it, the more trouble we get. I'll make it clear to the reporter."
"Don't worry about it, I'll take care of it." Zhou Hexuan said.
"Yeah." Ruan Lingyu smiled miserably, but at the same time she felt very comfortable. It was really good to have a man to rely on.
Zhou Hexuan had more on his mind. While he asked Du Yuesheng to help with the investigation, he personally visited Shi Liangcai, a strange man in the newspaper industry.
This is an exchange between newspaper people and newspaper people, and Zhou Hexuan is also a newspaper person.
…
"Declaration" Building.
This is a building built a few years ago specifically as the office space for the "Declaration".
This move can be regarded as a big deal. The construction of the headquarters building in Shanghai, where land is at a premium, shows the financial resources of Shenbao.
Just last year, Shi Liangcai even bought his archrival "The News" and became the owner of China's two largest newspapers. Unfortunately, due to the intervention of the Kuomintang and the dissatisfaction of the original shareholders of "The News", Shi Liangcai only received
Partial equity.
"Chairman, Mr. Zhou Hexuan is looking for you. I will arrange for him to be in the reception room." The secretary knocked on the door.
"Mr. Zhou?" Shi Liangcai stood up quickly, put down the pen in his hand and went out to greet him in person.
Shi Liangcai quickly walked into the reception room and laughed: "Mr. Zhou, why do you have time to come to our company?"
Zhou Hexuan clasped his fists and said, "I have long admired Mr. Shi's name, and I came here to pay my respects today."
"Don't dare, please sit down quickly!" Shi Liangcai greeted enthusiastically.
Shi Liangcai is a standard southerner. He is short and thin, with his hair combed back, revealing a broad forehead. Such an inconspicuous middle-aged man is the most powerful newspaper tycoon in China. Now "
The single-day circulation of "Declaration" has reached nearly 200,000 copies, and it has branches and distribution points in dozens of cities at home and abroad.
Zhou Hexuan admired Shi Liangcai very much, not only for his business talent, but also for his professional ethics and national integrity.
Although "Shenbao" is very commercialized, you can see advertisements everywhere when you open it. It was ridiculed as an advertisement paper by Zhang Jiluan and Hu Zhengzhi. However, Shi Liangcai was not a person who only valued money. After the September 18th Incident, he
Becoming more and more progressive and patriotic.
When the Federation of Left-wingers was severely suppressed by the Nanjing government, Shi Liangcai reorganized the supplement "Free Talk" of Shenbao and invited two left-wing writers, Lu Xun and Mao Dun, to publish a large number of progressive articles criticizing the current ills, so that he was warned and punished many times.
Because Shi Liangcai publicly opposed the "suppression of bandits", refused to subscribe for huge bonds, donated huge sums of money to the 19th Route Army that insisted on resisting Japan, and published articles criticizing the Kuomintang dictatorship from time to time, he finally completely angered the Nanjing government.
But Shi Liangcai's social influence was too great, and Chang Kaishen wanted to kill him but did not dare.
Once he couldn't bear it anymore, Chang Kaishen called Shi Liangcai over and threatened: "Mr. Shi, I have an army of one million!"
Shi Liangcai straightened the rocker and said at the same speed and tone: "Chairman, I have one million readers!"
The duel between the gun and the pen ended with the victory of the gun.
Shi Liangcai died. He suffered a shameless political assassination and died at the hands of Kuomintang agents.
The two chatted for a while, and then Shi Liangcai asked: "Mr. Zhou is here today. Is there anything important?"
Zhou Hexuan smiled and said: "I want to initiate the establishment of a group, the China Newspaper Association, not only to standardize the industry ethics of journalists, but also to unite and cooperate among major newspapers to fight against the speech dictatorship of the Kuomintang. I hope Mr. Shi can support it."
"This is a good thing!" Shi Liangcai said happily.