Patriots, and not parochial: a critical survey of Lat Pau ’s and Thien Nam Sin Pao ’s reportage of the Russo-Japanese War, 1904–1905

Abstract Throughout the Russo-Japanese War, Lat Pau and Thien Nam Sin Pao , both based in Singapore, followed the war closely, fueling the nationalism of their readers. Far from portraying China as a passive non-belligerent, both newspapers drew attention to both China’s precarious international position and her self-strengthening efforts. Chinese nationalism was born out of an international outlook among the overseas Chinese, who were concerned with the fighting in Manchuria, even though the battlefields were distant from both their hometowns in southern China and Southeast Asia. To them, the Russo-Japanese War was not simply a localized conflict on East Asia’s periphery; China’s fate hinged on its outcome, and it threatened to escalate into a worldwide conflagration anytime. The keen interest displayed by overseas Chinese in the war is indicative of their international outlook, and the nationalism that partly resulted from this attention to the war ultimately fueled their participation in the 1905 anti-American boycott as well as revolutionary activities.