The Young Companion

The Young Companion
First issue, 15 February 1926, featuring actress Hu Die
Editor-in-ChiefZhang Yiheng
Former editors
FrequencyWeekly
Founded1926
First issue15 February 1926
Final issueOctober 1945
CountryChina
Based inShanghai (Hong Kong and Chongqing during WWII)
LanguageChinese, English

The Young Companion, known as Liángyǒu (Chinese: 良友; pinyin: Liángyǒu; Wade–Giles: Liang-yu) in Chinese, was a pictorial magazine with captions in both Chinese and English, published in Shanghai beginning February 1926. Although the direct translation of Liangyou is "Good Companion", the magazine bore the English name The Young Companion on the cover. Called an "iconic magazine" and "a visual shortcut for 'old Shanghai'", the magazine has proven useful in modern times to examine the glamorous side of colonial-era Shanghai. It may have been the most influential large-scale comprehensive pictorial in the 1920s, at least in Asia. It ceased publication in 1945. There were 174 issues in total, which includes the two special issues not given monthly issue numbers, the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Special Issue and the Eighth Anniversary issue. Since 1945, it has been repeatedly reestablished, but the impact has not been the same.

The magazine ran a mixture of content, including photography, art, literature and sports.