The Habitus Construction and Strategic Contention in the Publishing Field of the Republican Era: A Study on the Popular Publishing Practices of the World Book Company (1921–1930)

Abstract

Drawing upon Pierre Bourdieu’s Field Theory as an analytical framework, this paper focuses on the historical experience of the World Book Company in navigating and breaking through the highly monopolized and elite-oriented publishing field between 1921 and 1930. Facing the cultural and economic capital barriers established by the Commercial Press and the Zhonghua Book Company, the World Book Company leveraged the "commercial habitus" of its founder, Shen Zhifang. It keenly captured the burgeoning demand for popular and entertaining cultural products among the emerging urban middle class, proactively opening up a "blue ocean" of mass culture that had been overlooked by the mainstream. The World Book Company developed three core strategies: first, establishing visual cognitive habitus through highly recognizable symbols; second, constructing an author-content matrix to transform author influence into social currency and consumer motivation; and third, implementing a transmedia operation model that formed the early stages of IP (Intellectual Property) value enhancement. Despite ongoing shifts in media technology and market structures, the mass content production paradigm pioneered by the World Book Company continues to offer profound historical archetypes and theoretical insights for understanding the evolution of contemporary and future publishing and cultural industries.