The citizen publication in China’s war-time home front: campus wall newspaper at National Southwest Associated University (1938–1945)

This article adopts a media archaeological approach to examine the campus wall newspapers (bibao 壁報) of National Southwest Associated University (Guoli Xinan Lianhe Daxue 國立西南聯合大學, NSAU) during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It reconstructs the historical trajectory of these newspapers across different NSAU campuses on China’s wartime home front. Under conditions of bombings, scarcity, and political control, flexible yet fragile wall newspapers functioned as a form of citizen publication, produced by underground Communist organizations, progressive leftist students, and the San-min Chu-i Youth Corps to articulate competing expressions and to link campus life with national and international events. Despite recurrent episodes of physical destruction and administrative censorship, the production and dissemination of wall newspapers created a dense and contested intellectual space within NSAU.