South China Morning Post newspaper marks 100-year anniversary

HONG KONG, Nov 6 (AFP) - Hong Kong's leading English-language newspaper the South China Morning Post on Thursday marked its 100th anniversary, with a special edition tracing its century-long history.

To mark the anniversary, the paper published a 48-page Centenary Special supplement that entwined articles about the newspaper's history with those tracing events of the former British colony's past.

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"From grand early aspirations to promote the cause of republicanism in China, through the strife of the war years, and beyond the boom times of the 80s and 90s, the Post has become part of the city's landscape," it said in an editorial.

The Post was launched in 1903 when one of the paper's founders Tse Tsan-tai, a contemporary of revolutionary Chinese republic president Sun Yat-sen, wanted an English-language publication that would help promote the overthrow of the imperial Qing dynasty.

The paper has been published continuously ever since, ceasing only during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong of 1941-1945.

"Like Hong Kong, we emerged from the wreckage and rebuilt," the paper said in its editorial, adding "we cannot declare we will continue publishing for the next 100 years. But we hope to do so -- with Hong Kong as our home."

Hong Kong's oldest English-language newspaper was the China Mail, which lasted for almost 130 years before its demise in 1974.

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