The Politics of Philanthropy:

Abstract

This chapter explores philanthropy as a marker of power and a vehicle for enhancing social prestige. The unsuccessful Japanese invasion of Shanghai in 1932 and the Japanese invasion and occupation of the city in 1937 produced massive refugee crises. The 1937 refugee crisis overshadowed the 1932 crisis. Social networks held the refugee relief initiatives together, and their transformation helps to explain the development of a large, ambitious, but very weak Chinese state in the late Republican period. The National Salvation Movement played a critical role in rousing Shanghainese from all walks of life to participate in the refugee relief campaign, and offered the link between the Chinese Communist Party and the elite network helping to coordinate the refugee relief campaign. The return of the postwar refugee relief program in Shanghai to private hands reveals the hollowness of postwar Nationalist state-building efforts.