Hu Lin 胡霖 Hu Cheng-chih 胡正之 Hu Lin (1893-1949)

Hu Lin (1893-1949), chief editor of the Ta Kung Pao (1916-25), who became general manager of the newspaper and related enterprises of the Hai-chi Company in 1926. He also served as a resident member of the People's Political Council (1942-45) and as a non-partisan member of the Chinese delegation to the United Nations Conference on International Organization at San Francisco in 1945.

Little is known of Hu Lin's background or childhood except that he was born and educated in Szechwan and that he received a college education in Japan, majoring in law and science. After returning to China in 1911, he passed the bar examinations in Shanghai. He served briefly as a private tutor and then joined the staff of the Ta-kung-ho-pao [great republican paper] as a translator of Japanese news items. Hu wrote so well that he soon was asked to contribute articles to the Ta-kung-ho pao and other Shanghai newspapers.

About 1914 Hu Lin left Shanghai to serve as judge of the Chinkiang branch of the Kiangsu provincial high court. In 1915 he went to Peking, where he combined his two major interests by teaching at Peking Law College and serving as Peking correspondent for the Takung-ho-pao and other Shanghai newspapers. When Japan presented the Twenty-one Demands in 1915, there was a complete news blackout on the matter in China, and Chinese reporters could not gain access to any of the high officials who took part in the negotiations. Because he knew both Japanese and English, Hu was able to glean some information about the negotiations and the Japanese terms from foreign correspondents -in Peking, notably Frederick Moore of the Associated Press and William Giles of the London Daily Mail and the Chicago Tribune. Thus, he was able to write exclusive stories for his Shanghai papers.

In mid-1915, after the Ta-kung-ho-pao suspended publication, Hu went to Kirin to serve as counselor of the provincial government in charge of financial affairs and foreign relations. He returned to Peking in 1916 to become a counselor in the ministry of interior. About the same time, he became chief editor of the Ta Kung Pao. This newspaper, founded in 1902 by Ying Lien-chih (q.v.), had built up a large circulation in the Tientsin-Peking area and a reputation as a constructive and impartial journal. After Ying had relinquished the chief editorship in 1913, the paper had suffered from lack of management and policy. Hu, on assuming the chief editorship, determined to restore the Ta Kung Pao to its former eminence. In 1918 he undertook a two-year tour of more than twenty countries to increase his knowledge of world affairs and to broaden the coverage of the Ta Kung Pao. His dispatches from abroad, especially those from the Paris Peace Conference, were read avidly in China.

After returning to China in 1 920, Hu founded the Hsin-she-hui-pao [new society daily] in Peking. The following year, he went to Shanghai to establish the Kuo-wen News Service, which was the foremost news agency in China for many years. He also founded the Kuo-wen Weekly and served as director and general manager of both enterprises. Ying Lien-chih died in 1926, and the Ta Kung Pao suspended publication for a brief period. It was reorganized in September under a holding company, the Hai-chi Company, which was directed by Wu Ting-ch'ang ,q.v.). Hu Lin became general manager, and Chang Chi-luan (q.v.) was appointed editor in chief. The new company also assumed direction of the Kuo-wen enterprises.

The reorganization of the Ta Kung Pao coincided with the Northern Expedition. The paper supported the aims of the Kuomintang, and it was vehemently anti-imperialist and anti-warlord. Although Hu Lin did not join the Kuomintang, he supported the Northern Expedition and Chiang Kai-shek's leadership in the National Government. As the Kuomintang consolidated power, the Ta Kung Pao's influence and circulation increased commensurately. Because the Ta Kung Pao was based in Tientsin, its editorial freedom in criticizing government policies was greater than that of newspapers in the Nanking-Shanghai area. It became known as a liberal newspaper.

In April 1936 a Shanghai edition of the Ta Kung Pao was established, partly because of the increasing threat to north China by Japan. By September 1936, the tenth anniversary of its reorganization, the Ta Kung Pao had a staff of 700 and a combined circulation of about 100,000, and the Kuo-wen Weekly had attained a circulation of about 20,000. These achievements reflected the managerial and journalistic abilities of Hu Lin.

In 1937, after the Sino-Japanese war began, both editions of the Ta Kung Pao had to suspend publication. Hu went to Hong Kong to establish a new edition, using machinery evacuated from Tientsin. The Shanghai plant was moved to Hankow in September and to Chunking in October, where a new edition was established. Although the Chungking edition of the Ta Kung Pao endorsed the war policies of the National Government, it became sharply critical of many government policies. The Hong Kong edition began publication on 13 August 1938. After Hong Kong fell, Hu went to Chungking. From 1942 to 1946 he served as a resident member of the People's Political Council. In November 1943 he was appointed to a mission to England headed by Wang Shih-chieh. The delegation arrived in London on 3 December and returned to Chungking, by way of the United States, on 27 March 1944. Hu participated in the 1945 United Nations Conference on International Organization at San Francisco as a non-partisan member of the Chinese delegation. He also utilized his second overseas trip to talk and correspond with manufacturers about the purchase of printing machinery for postwar expansion of the Ta Kung Pao.

When the war ended in 1945, the Ta Kung Pao quickly reestablished its Tientsin, Shanghai, and Hong Kong editions. It now was the most formidable newspaper complex in China. During the struggle between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communists for control of the mainland, the Ta Kung Pao moved steadily toward endorsement of the Communists. Hu Lin became ill and died in 1949. Although the Ta Kung Pao continued to publish after his death (in Peking and Hong Kong), its traditional policies and viewpoints died with him, and the paper became a news channel for the Central People's Government.