Pan Gongzhan

Name in Chinese
潘公展
Name in Wade-Giles
P'an Kung-chan
Related People

Biography in English

P'an Kung-chan (1895-), journalist and publisher who founded such newspapers as the Ch'en Pao and the Hsin Yeh Pao and who served the National Government as vice minister of information (1939-41) and director of the Executive Yuan's publications screening committee (1942-45). In 1950 he went to New York and became editor of the China Tribune. Wuhsing, Chekiang, was the native place of P'an Kung-chan. He was born into a family of moderate means in Ling-hu-chen, near the silk-producing center of Nanhsün. About 1901 he enrolled at a school where the curriculum included such modern subjects as English, mathematics, and physical education, as well as the Chinese classics. He later attended the First Middle School at Hangchow, where one of his classmates was Hsu Chih-mo (q.v.). In 1910, the year before the republican revolution, P'an went to Shanghai to matriculate at St. John's University. While studying literature at St. John's, he joined the Nan-she [southern society], a literary group which also was a peripheral organization of the T'ung-meng-hui. Membership in the Nan-she enabled P'an Kung-chan to become acquainted with such talented writers and revolutionaries as Liu Ya-tzu, Yeh Ch'u-ts'ang, and Su Man-shu (qq.v.). At the time of the May Fourth Movement of 1919, P'an Kung-chan was teaching at the Shih-pei Middle School in Shanghai. He participated in the mass meetings and strikes that were staged in Shanghai and became the editor of a daily newspaper published by the students' union of Shanghai. The T'ai-tung Book Company commissioned him to write a comprehensive history of the May Fourth Movement, and the resulting Hsueh-sheng chiu-kuo ch'uan-shih [complete history of national salvation by the students] was published in 1920. These activities established P'an Kung-chan's reputation as a writer, and Ch'en Pu-lei (q.v.), the chief editor of the newly established Shang Pao, invited him to become telegraph editor of that newspaper. P'an held that post from 1920 to 1925, and he continued to teach school. The Shang Pao had a conservative editorial policy, for its principal financial backers were such merchants' organizations as the Kuang-chou kung-so [Cantonese guild] and the Ning-po t'ung-hsiang hui [Ningponese guild]. Nevertheless, Ch'en Pu-lei and P'an Kung-chan published a number of articles and editorials which gave support to the Nationalist cause. In 1 925 P'an accepted an offer from the Shun Pao, one of the two oldest newspapers in Shanghai, to become its telegraph editor. He worked there until the summer of 1926, when he resigned because of the entrenched conservatism of the owner and most of the staff. In the meantime, the Shang Pao had been reporting with enthusiasm on the progress of the Northern Expedition. P'an accompanied Ch'en Pu-lei to Nanchang, the temporary headquarters of Chiang Kai-shek, in the autumn of 1926. They were received warmly by Chiang, who joined with Ch'en Kuo-fu (q.v.) in sponsoring their admission to the Kuomintang.

In the spring of 1927 P'an Kung-chan was appointed to membership in the Shanghai branch of the Central Political Council. For the next decade, he utilized his journalistic associations and talents and his familiarity with conditions in Shanghai to become an important party and municipal leader. From 1927 to 1937 he served the municipality of Shanghai as director of the bureau of social affairs, the bureau of education, and the bureau of agriculture, industry, and commerce. In these posts he made important contributions to social welfare, education, and the development of commerce. He represented Shanghai at the Third National Congress of the Kuomintang, held in Nanking in 1929. After the Shanghai hostilities between the Chinese and Japanese armies took place in 1932, P'an temporarily left politics to launch the Ch'en Pao [morning post], the Hsin Yeh Pao [new evening post], the Erh-t'ung Ch'en Pao [children's morning post], and the T'u-hua Ch'en Pao [pictorial morning post]. In 1935 he was elected to the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang. After the Sino-Japanese war broke out in July 1937, P'an Kung-chan edited a series of books about the war of resistance for the Commercial Press. The Japanese soon occupied Shanghai, and P'an went to Wuhan in the spring of 1938. He became a member of the Military Affairs Commission, and in October 1938 Chiang Kai-shek appointed him secretary general of the Hunan provincial government. He held the Hunan post for about a month. In November, Chang Chih-chung (q.v.), the governor of Hunan, made an error in judgment which led to the burning of Changsha. P'an then went to Chungking, the wartime capital of the National Government. From 1939 to 1942 he served as vice minister of information, doing propaganda work. In 1942 he became a member of the standing committee of the Kuomintang's Central Executive Committee. He also found time to serve as director of the Tu-li ch'u-pan she [independent publishing company] and the Cheng-chung Book Company, both of which were affiliated with the Kuomintang. In 1942-45 P'an was the director of the Executive Yuan's committee for the screening of publications, which was concerned with the censoring of potentially seditious books and magazines. Because P'an was required to adhere to the cultural and educational policies of the National Government in making his decisions, he inevitably offended such leftist writers as Kuo Mo-jo and T'ien Han (qq.v.). His censorship activities soon won him the enmity of the Chinese Communist party, which later branded him a "war criminal." At war's end, P'an Kung-chan returned to Shanghai to become the publisher of the Shun Pao, which had passed into the hands of collaborators during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai. Ch'en Shun-yu, a younger brother of Ch'en Pu-lei, became chief editor of the Shun Pao late in 1945. From 1946 to 1949 P'an Kung-chan also served as chairman of the board of the Hsin Yeh Pao and vice chairman of the board of the Shang Pao. When the Shanghai-shih ts'en-i-hui [Shanghai municipal council] was inaugurated in 1946, P'an was elected its speaker. Because of the retrocession of the International Settlement and the French concession under the terms of the treaties of equality concluded between China and her principal Western allies, the council had jurisdiction over a very large area. Thus, the speakership was a job of high importance. P'an discharged his duties with efficiency and resourcefulness. Toward the end of 1948 it became clear that the Chinese Communist would win their struggle with the Nationalists for control of the mainland. In mid-November, P'an's close friend and colleague Ch'en Pu-lei committed suicide in Nanking because of the impending crisis. A few months later, in May 1949, the Chinese Communists reached the outskirts of Shanghai, forcing P'an to leave his home and career. He went to the United States, where he took up residence in New York in 1950. He became the editor of the China Tribune, a Kuomintang organ published in New York's Chinatown. Although he was staunchly loyal to the Nationalist cause, he occasionally wrote articles which were critical of the National Government in Taiwan. P'an Kung-chan was married to an accomplished painter, nee T'ang Yun-yu, who also was a native of Wuhsing, Chekiang.

Biography in Chinese

潘公展
潘公展(1895—),新闻记者、出版家,创办《晨报》、《新夜报》。1939—41年任国民政府宣传部副部长,1942—45年任行政院图书审查委员会主任,1950年去纽约主编《中国论坛》。
潘公展原籍浙江吴兴,他出生在蚕丝中心南浔附近菱湖镇的一个中等人家。1901年他进入一个有英语、数学和体育等近代课程的学校,该校也教中国古文。不久进杭州第一中学,同班同学有徐志摩。1910年民国革命前一年,到上海进圣约翰大学,学文学,加入了同盟会的外围文学组织“南社”。作为“南社”的一名成员,他得以结识这样一些有才能的文人和革命家如柳亚子、叶楚伧、苏曼殊。
1919年五四运动时,潘公展在上海市北中学教书,参加群众集会和罢课,成为上海学生联合会发行的一份日报的编辑。不久,大东书局请他写一部五四运动史《学生救国全史》,该书于1920年出版。
这些活动使潘公展取得了作家的声誉。新创办的《商报》主编陈布雷请他去当该报电讯编辑,他自1920年担任此职到1925年,同时还继续教书。由于《商报》主要的经济支柱是广州公所、宁波同乡会等商人组织,因此它的编辑方针是保守的,但陈布雷、潘公展还是在这份报纸上发表了不少支持国民党事业的文章和社论。1925年,潘受聘于上海两家最老的报纸之一《申报》,任电讯编辑。他在那里工作到1926年夏,因报馆老板和大部分工作人员过分保守而辞职。与此同时,《商报》则热烈报道北伐的胜利。1926年秋潘公展陪同陈布雷去南昌蒋介石临时司令部,受到蒋介石的热烈欢迎,蒋与陈果夫介绍他们加入了国民党。
1927年春,潘公展任中央政治会议上海分部委员,此后十年间,由于他与新闻界的联系和个人才能以及熟悉上海情况,成为上海市党政重要领导人物。1927—1937年,他在上海市任社会局、教育局、农工商局局长。他在这些岗位上,对上海的社会福利、教育、商业的发展都作出了重要贡献。他以上海代表资格出席1929年在南京召开的国民党第三次全国代表大会。1932年中日军队在上海发生冲突后,潘公展暂时脱离政界,经营《晨报》、《新夜报》、《儿童晨报》、《图画晨报》。1935年被选入国民党中央执行委员会。
1937年7月,中日战争爆发后,潘公展为商务印书馆编辑抗战丛书。不久,日军占领上海,1938年春,潘公展去武汉,任军事委员会委员。10月蒋介石任命他为湖南省政府秘书长,他任此职为时约一月。11月,张治中因判断错误火烧长沙,潘公展遂去国民政府战时首都重庆。1939—42年任宣传部副部长,从事宣传工作。1942年任中央执行委员会常务委员,并负责经管国民党的独立出版社和正中书局。1942—45年任行政院图书审查委员会主任,审查煽惑性的图书杂志。由于他作决定时不得不遵守国民政府的文化教育政策,他不可避免地触犯了如郭沫若、田汉等左翼作家,他的审查活动很快招致共产党的仇视,后来把他定为“战犯”。
战争结束后,潘公展回上海,当《申报》发行人,日本占领上海时,该报曾落入汉奸之手;1945年末由陈布雷的弟弟陈训悆任主编。1916—1949年潘还任《新夜报》董事长、《商报》副董事长。1946年上海市参议会成立,潘公展任议长。由于中国和西方盟国之间缔结的平等条约的规定,将公共租界和法租界收回后,参议会能够对一个很大地区行使主权,因此议长一职是非常重要的。潘有效而机智地履行了他的职责。1948年底,中国共产党在与国民党争夺大陆的斗争中获胜的局势已十分明显。11月中旬,潘公展的密友和同事陈布雷因感于危机将临而在南京自杀,几个月后,1949年5月,共产党军队抵达上海郊区,迫使潘公展放弃自己的家庭和事业。1950年他去美国,住在纽约,担任在纽约中国街出版的国民党机关报《中华论坛》主编。潘公展虽矢忠国民党,但对台湾的国民政府有时也写文章进行批评。
潘公展与名画家唐容余(译音)结婚,她也是浙江吴兴人。

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