Piccap: | An issue of Chinese Serial. The Chinese text is "History of Joan of Arc" in Hong Kong Museum of History |
T: | 遐邇貫珍 |
L: | Gems from Far and Near |
T: | 遐邇貫珍 |
S: | 遐迩贯珍 |
P: | xiáěrguànzhēn |
J: | ha4 yi5 gun3 jan1 |
Y: | hàh yíh gun jān |
Chinese Serial was the first Chinese newspaper in Hong Kong, since the Treaty of Nanjing. Founded in August 1853 and published by Ying Wa College in binding-book style. It introduced Western history, geography and sciences to Chinese readers, as well as reporting the latest news in China and the West. The paper was written mainly in Chinese, although some stories were in English. The paper was the first Chinese newspaper to have ads.
Walter Henry Medhurst, a London-born missionary to China, was the first editor-in-chief of the paper. The publication terminated in May 1856 as Medhurst's successor James Legge, the third to hold the editorship and then principal of Ying Wa College, was occupied with school management.
A complete facsimile edition of the paper was published in 2006.