1919年10月1日,新加坡《新国民日报》副刊-《新国民杂志》正式面世。由于其大胆采用了白话文章、抨击旧礼教伦常、鼓吹各式新思潮,一直以来都被视为南洋五四期间进步的报刊。可值得注意的是,目前对《新国民杂志》的研究多偏向文学之分析,并没有从事于思想传播的探讨。这一部分非常重要,因为该刊于创刊之初就己然言明以传播实业与教育思想为宗旨。所以若要为该刊于南洋扮演的五四知识传播者的角色进行准确的定位,首先就必须得回顾其于传播实业与教育内容所建立起的思想体系与脉络。通过了解《新国民杂志》在思想内容上的扶择,方能进一步揭示其在南洋五四新思潮中所留下的思想轨迹,并为其定位。
On October 1, 1919, the Sin Kuo Min Journal made its debut as a supplement to the Sin Kuo Min Daily, a newspaper based in Singapore. Owing to its intrepid adoption of vernacular Chinese, and its denunciation of the feudal code of ethics as well as its advocacy of modern thoughts, this journal has always been regarded as a progressive publication during the May Fourth Movement in Nanyang. However, it is worth to note that the current researches on the Sin Kuo Min Journal mostly emphasize on literature analysis rather than discussing its dissemination of ideas. This aspect is important as the primary purpose of publishing the journal was to spread the ideas of industry and education. Therefore, in order to understand the role of the Sin Kuo Min Journal during the May Fourth Movement in Nanyang, it is necessary to reconstruct the ideological context built for the transmission of ideas about industry and education during the May Fourth Movement. By understanding the ideological context chosen by the Sin Kuo Min Journal, then only it is possible to pursue the ideological trajectories and historical role played by this journal during the May Fourth Movement in Nanyang.