Urban Development and Everyday life of Ordinary People in wartime Chongqing:1937-1945

Abstract

After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese war on 7th July 1937, Chongqing was set as thewartime capital of China. Before the war, Chongqing was a common commercial city in southwestof China. Due to geographical factors, the city was situated away from the political centre of Chinafor a long time. Furthermore, as a part of Sichuan province the city greatly suffered because of thelocal warlords’ civil war from the 1920s to the 1930s. Although it was faced with many difficultiesChongqing still had some industrial and economic development with the support of local warlords.It laid a foundation for the future political and industrial development of Chongqing.After Chongqing became the wartime capital great changes happened. The city not only changedpolitically and economically, but it also changed socially because of the impact of these changes onthe ordinary people. The social order and structure changed during wartime, while the ordinarypeople were re-made and re-shaped by the changing daily life. The Guomindang governmentreached the peak of its power during the war, while what was the distance between the power andthe private space of ordinary people? The local individuals were deeply influenced by the politicaland historical events in their daily life. However they were not only observers of the historicalchanges that occurred around them but they can also claim ownership of the changes that theyhelped bring about. I use the perspective of “from the bottom” to examine the ordinary people’sdaily lives and try to explore why and how the ordinary people changed, and the result of thechanges.With an examination of the westward industrial shift and the ordinary people’ joining the factory towork, this thesis aims to discover how new customs and culture were formed during the process,and how social hierarchy was replaced and remade. The new hierarchy not only distinguished theindividuals but also the enterprises themselves. This newly-forming industrial hierarchy structured anew political system. During the wartime, millions of young single people swarmed into the cityand spent their youth working in the factories. These young people were pulled out of the traditionalhierarchical spaces based on blood relations, and were now disciplined in new spaces such as dininghalls and dormitories in the factories. These spaces were highly politicised during wartime. In thesespaces the nation’s ideology deeply involved and infiltrated the daily lives of ordinary peoplethrough new daily behaviours and regulations. The daily life was repetitive and unavoidable, so there is no doubt that most people were disciplined in these spaces.The contribution of the War to these changes is clear. Due to the intense bombing, the governmentincreased its control of the people by the evacuation and permit system. Although many peoplecould not find any jobs after evacuation the government appeared to ignore their plight. However,the authorities eventually lost the support of the ordinary people because of the inconveniencebrought by the evacuations and permit system, and also because the adverse effects of theseregulations on the daily lives of the ordinary people were ignored. It showed how crucial it is forany government to consider the effects of any regulation on the daily lives of ordinary people.The resistance from below also appeared in the late wartime period, as the power of the ordinarypeople formed during the process of disciplining. Because of patriotic pressures, the resistance frombelow was limited, but the coming victory over Japan released the power of ordinary people.Resistance in daily life appeared and also happened in other areas of the people’s lives, such as thefight for fair salaries and anger about inflation and the black market.Compared to these remarkable political and industrial changes, changes to the lives of ordinarypeople may not appear so notable but were in fact profound and long-lasting. After experiencing thewar in the city the ordinary people were totally different from the people before the war. Thechanges that occurred actually influenced future social and political affairs. I argue that the dailylives of ordinary people profoundly impacted on social changes during wartime. Moreover, thechanges during the war influenced the destiny of the nation. Although the power from below wasstill largely undetectable and underground, it influenced the succeeding civil war from 1946-1949.Furthermore, the wartime changes in Chongqing promoted the position of Chongqing within China.Historically, it was a hinterland political centre, now and into the future.