Reporter's Side Story: the Struggle and Persistence of Lower-Level Journalists

Zhang Henshui's "Journalist's Biography" is set in Beijing in the early 1920s and details the career and life experience of Yang Zhibo, a young journalist who first entered the newspaper industry. The novel vividly shows the complex ecology of the news industry in the early years of the Republic of China through the clues of Yang Zhibo's first arrival in the capital, finding a place to live, working in a news agency, and finally joining the large newspaper "Jingshi Bao" as an editor. The work not only depicts the real state of working hard and financially strapped journalists at the bottom, but also deeply reveals the inside story of newspaper operations at that time, the competition and dependence between news agencies, and the struggle of journalists between ideals and reality. "Journalist's Side Story" is not only a novel about the journalism industry, but also a realist masterpiece that profoundly reflects urban life and human feelings during the social transformation period. It has both literary value and historical significance.