Gia Dinh Bao

Gia Định Báo (chữ Hán: 嘉定報), was the first Vietnamese newspaper. It was published in Saigon from 1865 to 1910. Pétrus Ky was the editor in chief.^[1] "Gia Định" is a historical name for Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City. It was a gazette that published official and legal documents, although it also included articles on Vietnamese culture and agriculture.^[2] Woodblock printing in Chinese characters remained the norm until the early 20th century, so the paper's use of the modern typography and the Latin alphabet were innovations.^[3][2] In the 1890s, it was Vietnam's newspaper of record.^[4]

The front page of the newspaper

The first issue of the newspaper is dated April 15, 1865, and regular publication ended in 1897. The last issue is dated December 31, 1909. The format is 25 x 32 cm. It was published weekly and the price was 0.97 dong. It was four pages long, later expanded to 12.

Many of the newspaper's contributors were Catholics.^[5][6]

References

1. Pham, David Lan,Two Hamlets in Nam Bo: Memoirs of Life in Vietnam Through Japanese Occupation, the French and American Wars, and Communist Rule, 1940-1986, 2008. "Petrus Ky gave birth to the first Vietnamese newspaper, the Gia Dinh Bao."
   "Pétrus Ky" "Britannica, "In 1867–74 Pétrus Ky taught Oriental languages in Saigon and wrote prolifically in the French-sponsored Vietnamese language newspaper Gia-Dinh Bao."
2. A Companion to the History of the Book edited by Simon Eliot, Jonathan Rose, p. 124.
3. Mark W. McLeod, Thi Dieu Nguyen,Culture and Customs of Vietnam, 2001. p. 74.
4. Peters, Erica J.,Appetites and Aspirations in Vietnam: Food and Drink in the Long Nineteenth, 2011. p. 187. "From 1893 to 1895, Gia Định Báo (the Vietnamese newspaper of record) featured advertisements Vietnamese, generally boilerplate adaptation of French ads, promoting French wines..."
5. Philippe M. F. Peycam The Birth of Vietnamese Political Journalism: Saigon, 1916-1930 2013 "The familiarization of the Vietnamese with newspapers in quốc ngữ was the second major contribution of the Catholic ... information periodical in Vietnamese, Gia Định Báo (Gia Định News), the interpreters used it to develop their skills in this ..."
6. Charles Keith Catholic Vietnam: A Church from Empire to Nation 2012 -- Page 122 "... to train new colonial administrators. The French also placed Catholic proponents of the script in positions of power. most notable were trương Vĩnh Ký and huỳnh tịnh Của, who through their role in the first quốc ngữ newspaper Gia Định Báo ..."