Daniela Schneider

Online

ORCID

Phd project: "British Hong Kong’s Press Censorship 1938–1941"

The dissertation researches the administrative setup of colonial press censorship between
the British Hong Kong government and the British administration in London between
1938 and 1941. While previous research on press censorship in the British Empire
has focussed on individual case studies (mainly on British India), this dissertation
works towards understanding the larger Empire framework and the complex negotiations
between London and the Colonial Office-administered colonies. Researching Hong Kong
as one of the most intensely censored British colonies adds to a better understanding of the
local practical embedding of censorship. The colonies’ Chinese newspapers were visibly
censored and gave new insights into the censored newspaper content. Methodologically,
the work combines traditional historical source analysis with close-reading and distantreading
approaches to analyse the quantity and content of Hong Kong Da gong bao’s (大公報) censored articles.
Press censorship administration from London set the framework for the colonies’ local
censorship embedding even though Empire press censorship was never central to the
planners in London, causing problems already at the planning stage. The responsibility
for implementing Empire press censorship was not clearly allocated and involved different
institutions, leading to a lack of consistency. Similarly, all colonies implemented censorship
individually, stressing the need to research them individually as findings for one colony
do not apply to another. On various levels, censorship in Hong Kong differed from
that in the United Kingdom and was adapted according to local needs. Analysing core
dates in Hong Kong’s Da gong bao reveals a complex web of up to four intersecting
layers of censorship, which depended on article origin, mode of transportation, time of
sending and publication language. The visibly censored content from Hong Kong focused
on anti-Japanese and anti-British material and was very specific. This illustrates how,
despite differing views on censorship in London and Hong Kong, the censorship practices
in Hong Kong reflected Britain’s political strategy of appeasing Japan, as exemplified by
a censored newspaper.