The China Mail, which began as a four-page weekly on 20th February 1845, is still the oldest English newspaper in publication, although it is no longer a morning paper. Its new proprietors were at the end of the year producing three daily papers, the South China Morning Post every weekday morning, the Hong Kong Telegraph, a tabloid lunch-time paper published on weekdays from Monday to Friday, and the China Mail, now a weekday evening paper.
The South China Morning Post first appeared on 7th November 1903. The paper was originally founded with considerable support from among prominent local residents in sympathy with the Reform Movement in China. Originally situated in Connaught Road Central, its offices were moved first to Des Voeux Road and in 1913 to the present site in Wyndham Street where a new Morning Post Building was completed in 1926.
The Hong Kong Telegraph was first issued on 15th June 1881, changed hands on several occasions, and finally merged its interests with the South China Morning Post in 1916.
The most notable_English-language periodicals published in the Colony are the Far Eastern Economic Review, established in 1946, and a new monthly magazine Orient, first published in August 1950, specializing in Asian political and cultural affairs.
The leading newspapers of the Chinese press follow distinct political lines. The Wah Kiu Yat Po has a large morning circula- tion and also publishes an evening edition; its aim is to report news independently and it is a generally reliable newspaper. Right wing papers giving reliable news include the Sing Tao Jih Pao, run by the proprietors of the Hong Kong Standard, and the Kung Sheung Daily News, both of which publish evening editions. The Sing Pao, with a circulation rivalling if not exceeding that of the Wah Kin Yat Po, has little political significance and is largely a gossip paper.
The Hong Kong Times is an extreme right wing paper in Chinese, and the two left wing papers Wen Wei Pao and Ta Kung Pao follow the orthodox communist line, the greater part of their circulation being in South China where, by comparison with Chinese newspapers published in China, they open a somewhat wider window on world affairs.
There are altogether some 50 Chinese-language newspapers and periodicals published in the Colony but many of the smaller ones have only ephemeral lives, dying out and being replaced by others not unlike them, and thus popularly referred to as the mosquito press.
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