The Yuandongbao 遠東報: a Chinese or a Russian newspaper?

The Yuandongbao 遠東報 [The Far Eastern Journal] was the first Chinese-language newspaper in Northern Manchuria and is a critical primary source for Sino–Russian relations and Manchurian history in the early twentieth century. Financed by the Tsarist government, managed by Russian sinologists, and written by Chinese editors, this unique newspaper reflects an intriguing relationship of competition and cooperation between China and Russia in Northeast Asia that neither side could have foreseen. Tracing the history and development of this newspaper from its creation shortly after the Russo–Japanese War until 1921, when Russian and Chinese authorities finally closed it down, this paper departs from traditional historiographies by postulating that the Yuandongbao was in fact an evolving amalgamation of Russian policies and Chinese interests. These in turn resulted from a series of delicate balancing acts between the journal’s Russian managers and Chinese editors. Therefore, any simplification that would reduce the newspaper to a national label— either Chinese or Russian—does not reflect the complicated historical realities in Northern Manchuria in the early twentieth century.