[5 October 2026]
Draft (5%)
For general instructions, please review: https://blogs.ubc.ca/asiahist373/assessment/#newspaper
For the draft (one submission per group, listing all members’ names, through Canvas) due by the end of Friday, October 16, please:
- Indicate the week your group is writing your column for (again, please review the original instructions for relevant criteria). In general, use Monday as the start of a week (e.g., October 9–15, 1911).
- Identify the titles of the newspapers your group is using, and which group member is responsible for each. If anyone in your group is able to read Chinese, you are encouraged to use both Chinese- and English-language newspapers. For example:
- Hong Kong Daily Press (Student A)
- South China Morning Post (Student B)
Or
- The China Mail (Student A)
- 香港華字日報 (Student B)
If a member’s newspaper is a weekly, a single issue won’t give that member enough to work with. In that case, use two different weekly newspapers covering the same week in place of one. For example, a pair with one member using weeklies would list three newspapers in total rather than two, and a trio in the same situation, four. If a newspaper has no coverage at all for your chosen week, choose a different newspaper or adjust your week slightly.
- Provide the dates of the issues available for each newspaper (please confirm the availability of the issues using the relevant databases). For example:
Hong Kong Daily Press (Student A; 6 issues available):- 1911-10-09
- 1911-10-10
- 1911-10-11
- 1911-10-12
- 1911-10-13
- 1911-10-14
- 1911-10-15 (not available)
香港華字日報 (Student B; 5 issues available):
- 1911-10-09
- 1911-10-10 (not available)
- 1911-10-11
- 1911-10-12
- 1911-10-13
- 1911-10-14
- 1911-10-15 (not available)
Not all runs are complete, so you may not have seven issues for every newspaper. Read whatever is actually available.
- Provide a paragraph (about 250 words for a pair, about 375 for a trio) explaining what subject your group is planning to comment on in your column. Remember, in the end, your column should include references to at least two of the primary sources that have been assigned (three for a trio), one per group member. So do identify in your draft which primary documents you are planning to use and which member is responsible for each (use any standard citation format or follow my examples in Schedule). If necessary, you may draw on unassigned documents from Faure’s A Documentary History of Hong Kong: Society. In either case, be sure the document you use is dated before your chosen week.
Please note that this draft is a plan for your column, not a first version of the column itself. You do not need to submit any column text at this stage. Your group is free to change direction after submitting the draft, since the newspapers may well take you somewhere you did not expect. Still, please give the draft real thought: a well-considered plan makes your reading more efficient and gives you a firm footing for the assignment.