Annotation

Eastern Mirror’s first issue (which can be found in the University of Hong Kong’s collection) featured an eye-catching front-page bi-lingual caption that declared in Chinese ‘Published monthly; available in Chinese and English’ and in English ‘A monthly pictorial magazine in English and Chinese’. The issue’s editorial described the publication’s goal: ‘We seek to present month after month a bilingual and profusely illustrated magazine containing glimpses of the many features …of life in the Orient.…in order to bring about a better and more sympathetic understanding between the Chinese and the English-speaking people.’

Its contents promoted Chinese culture, art and customs, introducing readers to the paintings of artists such as Huang Shaoqiang, an exhibition of Chinese art in London, taichi in Shanghai and the beauty of Hong Kong (written by an author called ‘Braga’ in an article titled ‘The Beauties of Kowloon and the New Territories’). Its many photographs and illustrations were each accompanied by captions in English and Chinese. Subjects spanned the ways of life found in different places, social events and political news, the latter including a photograph of a hospitalised Wang Jingwei following an assassination attempt.