Kwong Wah Yit Poh

光华日报
Kwong Wah Yit Poh
Type Daily newspaper
Format Broadsheet
Owner(s) Kwong Wah Yit Poh Press Berhad
Founder(s) Dr. Sun Yat-sen
Founded 20 December 1910 (105 years)
Language Chinese
Headquarters 19, Presgrave Street,
10300 Penang, Malaysia
Circulation 100,000
Website www.kwongwah.com.my
Kwong Wah Yit Poh
Traditional Chinese 光華日報
Simplified Chinese 光华日报

Kwong Wah Yit Poh or Kwong Wah Daily (simplified Chinese: 光华日报; traditional Chinese: 光華日報; pinyin: Guānghuá Rìbào) is a Malaysian Chinese daily that was founded on 20 December 1910 by Dr. Sun Yat-sen.

The idea of publishing the Kwang Hwa Pao or 'Glorious Chinese Newspaper' was originally conceived when Dr Sun, Hu Hanmin, Huang Xing and Wang Jingwei visited Penang in 1907. The plan was aborted when financial backing wavered due to the collapse of tin prices. The Yangon branch of the Tongmenghui took up the idea and started the Yan Kon Kwang Hwa Pao. After a short run, the Rangoon paper was banned by the British colonial government due to its radical stance. Subsequently, the Rangoon Tongmenghui leader Zhuang Yin'an came to Penang and a committee was formed to revive the Kwang Hwa Pao as a daily paper.

Renamed Kwong Wah Yit Poh, the newspaper was first printed at and published from at 120 Armenian Street, then the address of the Penang Philomatic Union. The first premises of the Kwong Wah Yit Poh is now the Sun Yat Sen Museum Penang. [1] The house where the Kwong Wah Yit Poh was founded has been preserved as the Sun Yat-sen Museum Penang.

Kwong Wah Yit Poh is the oldest Chinese language newspaper in Malaysia and outside of Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well the world's oldest surviving Chinese newspaper (though Ta Kung Pao is the oldest active Chinese language newspaper in the world). However, it is not the first Chinese language newspaper in Malaysia.[2]

The newspaper had ceased publication in 1927 for almost a decade, and then in 1941, due to the World War II and the publication did not resume until 1946.

In 1936, Kwong Wah Yit Poh acquired Penang Sin Poe (established 1895), Penang's first Chinese newspaper which also had originally traced back the history of Kwong Wah Yit Poh. Despite the ownership change, Penang Sin Poe continues to be published until 30 September 1941.

Kwong Wah Yit Poh went into a decline in the 1960s after the death of two directors. In the 1971, The Star began publication and had once worked together with Kwong Wah Yit Poh. However, the newspaper continued to make losses, and The Star became independent from Kwong Wah Yit Poh. The Star became a national daily newspaper in 1976, but the headquarters moved to Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya in 1978 and 1981, respectively.

Despite being Malaysia's longest running Chinese-language newspaper, the daily is not a national newspaper (Nanyang Siang Pau being the oldest national Chinese-language newspaper), but based in Penang, where it has the largest readership in the northern region.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Khoo Salma Nasution (2008). Sun Yat Sen in Penang. Penang: Areca Books. pp. 58–61. ISBN 978-983-42834-8-3.
  2. ↑ "Penang based Chinese newspapers". Retrieved 11 January 2014.


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