Abstract

This paper looked at the development of “Yizhen”(Charity Disaster Relief, 義賑) over the first half of the 20th century since the Late Qing. In particular, attention was paid to the collaborations between “Guanzhen(Government Disaster Relief, 官賑)” and “Yizhen”. This was intended to reveal the characteristic aspects of disaster relief in the 20th century from the perspective of ‘Disaster Governance.’ “The Great Drought Disaster in North China” of the Late Qing clearly revealed the limitations of Guanzhen. On the other hand, new attempts and experiences related to disaster relief were accumulating in the charity sector, which is so-called Yizhen. Since then, the Yizhen activity continued, and there was a distinct trend by the Late Qing Dynasty and Early Republic of China. Of course, even before Yizhen, there were small-scale and peripheral private relief activities covered in the magnetic field of Guanzhen, but Yizhen is clearly distinguished from this historically. Yizhen overcame regional and hierarchical closeness due to social and economic changes in modern China. It expanded its scope of activity throughout the country, secured ‘autonomy’ to the government as a social force, and it improved the rationality of the operating system. This emergence of private Yizhen is significant in that it has led to a change in the disaster relief system itself, that is, a new disaster governance, by supplementing the decline of Guanzhen in Late Qing. In the summer of 1931, an unprecedented major flood occurred in the Yangtze River basin, and Chinese society''s response to this disaster was also new and effective unprecedented. This was possible because the collaboration between Guanzhen and Yizhen developed very efficiently at the national level. That means that Yizhen which was started in Late Qing, maintained vitality until 1931, and the representative organization was “Shanghai''s Association for Planning Rapid Relief for Those Provinces Stricken by Flood(上海籌募各省水災急賑會).” This Association efficiently raised donations from a wide range of classes and carried out relief activities nationwide across the 16 Provinces and 3 Cites. In addition, it has the basic characteristics of Yizhen, which excludes Guanzhen and collects it from the private sector and processes it directly by the private sector, and applies efficient and transparent procedures and regulations. In addition, “Collaboration Relief of Government and Charity(官義合賑)” was typically conducted at the scene of the disaster. A close cooperation relationship, that is, harmonious ‘disaster governance’, was formed between the central and local governments and nongovernmental Yizhen. From the summer of 1942 to the spring of 1943, drought damage was severe in Henan. The victims were neglected because it was a ‘war situation’, and the tragedy reached its peak. Accordingly, there was active criticism from domestic and foreign media, and domestic and foreign public opinion sympathizing with the victims was a great burden on the national government. The National Government urgently took relief measures, but the effect was very limited. As Guanzhen was sluggish again this time, Yizhen supplemented it. At that time, the Yizhen organization representing Shanghai was the “Shanghai Association for Rapid Relief of North China(上海各界華北急賑會).” Shanghai was under the “Wang Jingwei Regime(汪精衛政權)”, but the main figures that made up this Association were those who had led the Yizhen in the Nanjing National Government Period. “Chongqing National Government”, “Wang Jingwei Regime”, Japanese Army, Shanghai''s national Yizhen, and Xian(西安) and Zhengzhou(鄭州)''s Yizhen intertwined with each other appeared. After the establishment of the People''s Republic of China, “Catastrophic Flood(特大洪水)” occurred in Yangtze River basin in 1954. People''s Government responded actively and had a relatively effective effect, thanks to preemptive repair projects and the rapid establishment of a relief system in the early days of its foundation. The fact that the People''s Government was so active is deeply related to its experience of emphasizing disaster relief during the revolution. In addition, disaster relief was a ‘political project’ to strengthen political support for the New Regime. Through the practice of “politicalized” disaster relief, the ‘governance’ structure was ‘nationalized’ as the state''s control penetrated widely and deeply into the underlying society, which led to a change in the subject of disaster relief. Now, the social relief system independent of state power has disappeared. Disaster governance, which has been composed of a collaboration between Yizhen and Guanzhen since the Late Qing, has been transformed into “Yizhenless governance”.

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