''Nanyang Sin-Chew Lianhe Zaobao'' (; literally "

Nanyang Nanyang is the romanization of two common Chinese place names. It may refer to: Written as 南洋 (Southern Ocean) * Nanyang (region), a Chinese term denoting the Southeast Asian lands surrounding the South China Sea ;China * Nanyang Fleet, Qing ...

Sin-Chew Joint Morning Paper"), commonly abbreviated as ''Lianhe Zaobao'' (; literally "Joint Morning Paper"), is the largest

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

Chinese-language Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the ...

newspaper with a daily circulation of about 136,900 (print and digital) as of 2021. Published by SPH Media Trust (formerly

Singapore Press Holdings Singapore Press Holdings Limited (SPHL) was an organisation with businesses in property and aged care in Singapore. Since its takeover by Cuscaden Peak in 2022, it has been renamed Cuscaden Peak Investments. Prior to 1 December 2021, SPHL was i ...

), it was formed on 16 March 1983 as a result of a merger between ''

Nanyang Siang Pau ''Nanyang Siang Pau'' or ''Nanyang Business Daily'' () was founded by philanthropist-entrepreneur Tan Kah Kee on 6 September 1923 in Straits Settlements, currently published in Malaysia. ''Nanyang Siang Pau'' is one of the oldest Chinese-langua ...

'' and '' Sin Chew Jit Poh'', two of Singapore's oldest Chinese newspapers. The paper establishes itself as a

broadsheet A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long vertical pages, typically of . Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner and tabloid–compact formats. Description Many broadsheets measure roughly ...

with local news coverage, while international news tend to be largely centred on the

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea ...

region, with a section dedicated to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. ''Zaobao'' has an

n correspondent network spanning

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

Chongqing Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a municipality in Southwest China. The official abbreviation of the city, "" (), was approved by the State Co ...

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, sou ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the Capital city, capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the North Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea ...

and

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

. It is SPH's flagship Chinese daily and the only Chinese-language morning daily in Singapore. ''Lianhe Zaobao'' is the only Chinese-language overseas newspaper which can be purchased in major cities of mainland China. As with all Chinese-language publications currently based in Singapore, the paper is printed in

Simplified Chinese Simplification, Simplify, or Simplified may refer to: Mathematics Simplification is the process of replacing a mathematical expression by an equivalent one, that is simpler (usually shorter), for example * Simplification of algebraic expressions ...

History

In 1974, after the Newspaper and Printing Presses Act was passed in Singapore, the Singapore branch of '' Sin Chew Jit Poh'' was reorganised into a public entity under the name Sin Chew Jit Poh (Singapore), while the Singapore edition of ''

'' became owned by Nanyang Press Singapore. The two Chinese broadsheets in Singapore merged in March 1983 in anticipation of the impending falling readership, due to English being taught as first language in Singaporean schools. The merger led to the formation of Singapore News and Publications, which published the morning paper ''Lianhe Zaobao'' as well as the evening paper ''

Lianhe Wanbao Lianhe Wanbao (; literally Joint Evening News) was a Singapore Chinese afternoon newspaper published daily by SPH Media Trust from 16 March 1983 after the merger between ''Nanyang Siang Pau'' and '' Sin Chew Jit Poh''. ''Lianhe Wanbao'' fo ...

''. ''Lianhe Zaobao'' was the most read newspaper in Singapore among all English and Chinese newspapers, according to a survey conducted by Survey Research Singapore in 1983, with a readership of 689,000 on weekdays and 743,000 on Sundays. On 4 August 1984, the company merged with The Straits Times Press Group and Times Publishing Berhad to form Singapore Press Holdings. From 8 September 2016, the portal also presents news from two other Singapore Press Holdings Chinese-language newspapers, ''

'' and ''

Shin Min Daily News ''Shin Min Daily News'' () is a Singapore Chinese-language afternoon newspaper currently published by SPH Media Trust. First started on 18 March 1967, by Singapore businessman Liang Runzhi (梁潤之) and the renowned Hong Kong writer Louis Cha ...

''. According to a 2021 study from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, the paper has a weekly offline reach of 8% and online reach of 7% in Singapore.

Editorial stance

''Lianhe Zaobao'', as with all SPH media, is regarded as pro-government, or pro-PAP, which is the incumbent political party of the nation state since independence. The newspaper is also regarded as pro-Beijing,⁣ and often includes foreign opinion editorials from pro-

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Ci ...

sources such as ''

People's Daily The ''People's Daily'' () is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The newspaper provides direct information on the policies and viewpoints of the CCP. In addition to its main Chinese-language ...

'', ''

HK01 HK01 () is a Hong Kong-based online news portal launched by Yu Pun-hoi, a former chairman of the '' Ming Pao''. It is operated by HK01 Company Limited, established in June 2015. The website went live on 11 January 2016. It publishes a weekly pa ...

'', ''

Ming Pao ''Ming Pao'' () is a Chinese-language newspaper published by Media Chinese International in Hong Kong. In the 1990s, ''Ming Pao'' established four overseas branches in North America; each provides independent reporting on local news and colle ...

Global Times The ''Global Times'' () is a daily tabloid newspaper under the auspices of the Chinese Communist Party's flagship newspaper, the '' People's Daily'', commenting on international issues from a Chinese ultra-nationalistic perspective. The pub ...

,'' ''

China Times The ''China Times'' (, abbr. ) is a daily Chinese-language newspaper published in Taiwan. It is one of the four largest newspapers in Taiwan. It is owned by Want Want, which also owns TV stations CTV and CTiTV. History The ''China Times'' was fo ...

'', '' Beijing Youth Daily''. It is one of the few foreign newspapers allowed in China, where foreign media is tightly controlled.

Format

Broadsheet The paper is published daily by SPH and usually hits newsstands and homes by 5 am local time. ''Zaobao'' is currently published in four segments. The first comprises breaking news (焦点新闻) and local news under ''ZaobaoSINGAPORE'' (早报新加坡), followed by a sports section (早报体育). The second comprises ''ZaobaoChina'' (早报中国), the daily editorial, commentaries, letters to the press, other international news from the

ASEAN ASEAN ( , ), officially the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a political and economic union of 10 member states in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, milita ...

, followed by a finance section ''ZaobaoBUSINESS'' (早报财经). A supplementary lifestyle, arts and entertainment segment is named ''zbNOW'' (早报现在). A minor segment comprises

obituaries An obituary (obit for short) is an article about a recently deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on positive aspects of the subject's life, this is not always the case. Acc ...

and

classified advertising Classified advertising is a form of advertising, particularly common in newspapers, online and other periodicals, which may be sold or distributed free of charge. Classified advertisements are much cheaper than larger display advertisements used ...

. The Sunday edition is titled ''zbSunday'' (早报星期天), with a

tabloid Tabloid may refer to: * Tabloid journalism, a type of journalism * Tabloid (newspaper format), a newspaper with compact page size ** Chinese tabloid * Tabloid (paper size), a North American paper size * Sopwith Tabloid The Sopwith Tabloid an ...

-format lifestyle supplement pull-out ''zbWeekly'' (早报周刊). Zaobao Digital The newspaper is available in Southeast Asia, China, Hong Kong as well as organisations such as the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

. The online version of the paper Zaobao.com was launched in August 1995 under the name of "''Lianhe Zaobao Online''". It serves as a news portal drawing news not just from the ''Lianhe Zaobao'', but also from other Chinese newspapers in the region, numbering as much as 100 sources in total. A large proportion of ''Lianhe Zaobao'''s daily readership is derived from China, with the official website cites a monthly online readership of 4 million originating from China. Zaobao.com is targeted at audiences in Greater China, while Zaobao.sg (re-launched in September 2016) targets local and non-China readers.

ZBSchools.sg

ZBSchools.sg is an online portal hosting several publications targeted at students such as zbCOMMA (早报逗号), Thumbs Up (大拇指), Thumbs Up Junior (小拇指) and Thumbs Up Little Junior (小小拇指). zbCOMMA is targeted at secondary school students, Thumbs Up at upper primary students, Thumbs Up Junior at lower primary students and Thumbs Up Little Junior at kindergarten students. zbCOMMA used to be known as Friday Weekly (星期5周报) before its revamp on 7 January 2009. It consists of follow-ups on news on Lianhe Zaobao, articles written by Zaobao reporters and blurbs for Zaobao news that serve to connect students with Zaobao. Thumbs Up reports both international and local news. It has a section with mock examination questions to help students prepare for examinations. Thumbs Up promotes arts education by featuring art pieces selected by local artistic guides. It also has a section for fun and games, which features Chinese comics contributed by readers, as well as a weekly cartoon story on the mascot of the paper.

Blocking in mainland China

The ''Zaobao'' online website is occasionally blocked in China, or has its posts removed on Sina Weibo. In 2009, the ''Zaobao'' website was temporarily blocked in China, analysts in China believed it was likely related to an article ''Lianhe Zaobao'' ran headlined "Cyber Crackdown in China Angers Netizens" which sparked the temporary ban, as discourse against the Chinese government is often censored in Mainland China. The paper was again reportedly blocked in 2017 with no official reasons cited.

Print sources

*

', Our 70 years: history of leading Chinese newspapers in Singapore (1993), Published by Singapore Press Holdings

References

External links

*
Zaobao.com
', official site of Lianhe Zaobao *
ZBSchools.sg
' * * {{Authority control 1983 establishments in Singapore Newspapers published in Singapore SPH Media Trust Chinese-language newspapers (Simplified Chinese) Publications established in 1983 Chinese-language mass media in Singapore