pre-Communist China Research Articles

The Efficiency of the Chinese Silver Standard, 1920–1933

We test for integration of financial markets in China during 1920-1933 using a new dataset of domestic exchange rates. Our data concerns tael-denominated telegraphic transfers between Shanghai and nine other cities. We find that Chinese financial markets, as measured by the efficiency of silver-point arbitrage, were highly integrated among major commercial hubs in north and central China, but there was a lower level of integration for more remote cities in the south. Our paper presents the first comprehensive assessment of the efficiency of the Chinese silver standard and contributes to a revaluation of market performance during pre-communist China.

A leading French trade house in China: Olivier (1900s–1930s)

The history of the forces of capitalism in pre-Communist China regained momentum at the turn of this century because present Chinese authorities commenced to enhance the valuation of local entrepreneurialism. It had been for a long time identified with a mere form of imperialism or some kind of companionship with the economic offshoots of the Powers having imposed their rules along several Unequal Treaties. Historians can therefore reinterpret the developments of foreign business in the China of the 1900s–1940s to reconstitute the interlocking between actual imperialist forces and more and more strong Chinese houses.

Curating philanthropy and socialist governance: the Chinese Charity museum

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the growing political importance of philanthropy in the People’s Republic of China as presented in the Chinese Charity Museum, probably the only national-level museum in the world to feature permanent exhibits focused solely on the subject of philanthropy. The paper explains why charitable practices, which purportedly flourished in pre-communist China, “disappeared” during the Mao era (1949–1976), and why philanthropy is now a government-endorsed activity. It then examines the state-prescribed role of Chinese museology and the creation of a charity museum in Nantong City, before investigating the socio-political narrative that frames the Nantong collection. It concludes that the museum’s “story” simplifies and elides the significant change in forms of philanthropic institutions and practices in contemporary China, relative to their pre-1949 precursors, but yields new insight into how the Chinese Communist Party is recasting philanthropy as an integral part of socialist culture and state-led welfare provision.

Communism and Hunger: The Ukrainian, Chinese, Kazakh, and Soviet Famines in Comparative Perspective ed. by Andrea Graziosi and Frank E. Sysyn

Reviewed by: Communism and Hunger: The Ukrainian, Chinese, Kazakh, and Soviet Famines in Comparative Perspective ed. by Andrea Graziosi and Frank E. Sysyn Klejd Këlliçi (bio) Andrea Graziosi and Frank E. Sysyn (Eds.), Communism and Hunger: The Ukrainian, Chinese, Kazakh, and Soviet Famines in Comparative Perspective ( Edmonton and Toronto: CIUS Press, 2016). 158 pp. ISBN: 978-1-894865-47-0. This book offers a comparative analysis of the 1931–1933 famine in the Soviet Union and the 1950 famine in China. It also focuses on different regions and local economic systems struck by famine, such as Ukraine and Kazakhstan. According to the authors, the famines in the USSR and PRC were produced primarily by socioeconomic policies and hence were man-made. Both regimes aspired to "transform and socialize, not just modernize their economic and social structures" (P.2), and both sought to industrialize fast at the expense of agriculture. To catch up with and even surpass capitalist countries' industrial potential, the communist regimes strove to put under the control of central planning authorities the extraction and redistribution of foodstuffs on an industrial scale – to feed the workforce in cities or export abroad. Coupled with despotic and often erratic methods of implementation, these policies produced famines. Besides horrendous human loses, the famines proved the inability of the two regimes to respond to the crises efficiently and contributed to the formation of "dual societies" (Lucien Bianco, P. 64), with the peasantries isolated at the bottom of the social system. While the Chinese famine is analyzed in the book in general terms, the Soviet famine is studied through the distinctive regional cases of Ukraine, the Volga region, Kazakhstan, and Outer Mongolia. Likewise, no attention is paid to the ethnic dimension of the Chinese situation, but the Soviet famine is viewed through the prism of the national question (as an instrument of suppression of national aspirations). This structural asymmetry somewhat undercuts the declared goal of the book to compare the great famines in the USSR and PCR. More balanced are interregional (and international) comparisons of the Soviet famine's variations, or Niccolò Pianciola's chapter on the links between Soviet-controlled Mongolia with precommunist China. The book is thus divided into two parts: (1) the analysis of single cases, namely the Soviet, Chinese, and the Kazakh famines, and (2) a comparison of these cases. In his chapter on the USSR, Nicolas Werth offers an overview of famines in the early 1930s in Ukraine, Kuban, and Kazakhstan. He traces the roots of the famine not only to the politics of forced collectivization but also to the long-term effects of postrevolutionary turmoil [End Page 283] on the agrarian economy (Pp. 11–12). These general structural preconditions were also affected by specific national circumstances. According to Werth, Stalin's goal in Ukraine was to subdue not only the peasantry but also Ukrainians as a nation. Viewing Ukrainian famine as intentional, Werth believes the famine in Kazakhstan was primarily the result of administrative incompetence and mismanagement. The predominantly cattle-breeding Kazakh economy collapsed from excessive quotas, which led to the loss of more than 34 percent of the population. In all the regions, the famine highlighted and further enhanced the Soviet type of hierarchical stratification of society: production-oriented and based on differentiation between valuable and disposable elements. The next chapter, by Sarah Cameron, focuses entirely on the Kazakh famine, presenting a basic historical account of the events and discussing the main approaches to their interpretation. Cameron criticizes the popular historiographic trend that juxtaposes the Kazakh famine to the Holodomor in Ukraine as an "unintended" disaster, a side effect of hastily implemented collectivization and sedentarization of Kazakhs. Turning to the Chinese case, Zhou Xun offers a comprehensive overview of the Chinese famine. Discussing the effect of the Great Leap Forward (GLF) on rural China, she raises a pertinent question: if the GLF followed the Soviet model of centralization and collectivization of agriculture, why did the Chinese authorities fail to anticipate the famine that had accompanied the Soviet precedent twenty years earlier? Xun suggests viewing the GLF in both the domestic and international political contexts. Following in Stalin's footsteps, Mao was preoccupied with consolidating his...

Black Societies and Triad-Like Organised Crime in China

The re-emergence of ‘black societies’ and triad-like organized crime in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has occurred in the context of rapid modernization, socio-economic change and globalization. Socialist market reforms provided illicit opportunities while regulative uncertainty arising from the transition from austere communism to capitalism encouraged the revival of crime groups. With the establishment of the PRC in 1949 crime groups that once flourished in pre-communist China, such as the notorious Shanghai green gang, were eliminated along with drug addiction, feudal remnants and ‘exploitation of the masses’ by the punitive People’s Tribunals. However, rapid change from a socialist command economy to a capitalist market economy over the past three decades engendered a parallel increase in crime (Zhong 2009; Bakken 2005), especially crimes committed by gangs and ‘black and evil’ forces (He 2009; Xia 2006). In the first phase of economic reform (1979-1997) criminal gangs gradually re-emerged especially in the form of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau triads in Shenzhen (Chiu 2010). As early as 1982-1983 the Shenzhen Government issued the ‘Notice on Abolishing Black Society Activities’ in the face of the growing presence of Hong Kong triads (He 2009: 200). Despite the successive waves of strike-hard against crime campaigns launched since the early 1980s, crime groups have continued to emerge and expand their activities (Trevaskes, 2010).

MAKING SENSE OF THE ‘BUSINESS GROUP’ IN MODERN CHINA: THE RONG BROTHERS' BUSINESSES, 1901-37

Some China scholars have suggested that ‘business groups’ in pre-Communist China adopted a ‘hierarchical’ structure of management. This perception is re-examined in a study of the inter-firm relationship among the firms in which the Rong brothers, prominent industrialists of the 1910–30s, invested. We find that equity control, marketing, purchasing, and financing of these firms show a high degree of individuality among the firms, while the Headquarters Company functioned as their coordinator. It suggests that the hierarchical-controlled ‘business group’ structure in pre-war China is either a phantom creation of historians or the projected image of later generations who created it during the nationalisation of firms in the 1950s.

Chinese Prostitution: Consequences and Solutions in the Post-Mao Era

This paper examines the development of Chinese prostitution in pre-communist China during the Mao regime and the post-Mao era, drawing lessons from the Chinese Government's efforts to eradicate prostitution. It discusses the relationship between prostitution and sexual disease, and argues that China's market economy, lack of religious beliefs and diverse cultures have contributed to the revival of prostitution in the post-Mao era. In order to effectively control the problem, it is necessary to adopt a comprehensive approach to change Chinese people's beliefs and ways of life.

The Clash of Traditional Chinese Culture: A Personal View on The Day the Sun Turned Cold

Confucian filial piety was a basic social norm to consolidate family ties in pre-communist China. However, Confucianism was fiercely attacked by communist ideology under the Mao regime. What kind of principle have the Chinese people followed to deal with family relations in the post-Mao era? The Day the Sun Turned Cold (in Chinese tian guo ni zi ) provides an excellent case study in explaining these questions by demonstrating a complex murder story based on a real-life Chinese criminal case. This film won the Best Film and Best Director awards at the 1994 Tokyo Film Festival.

Le Qigong et la Tradition Sectaire Chinoise

During the 1980s and 1990s, Qigong or “breathing arts” became the most wide-spread form of popular religiosity in Chinese cities. Thousands of charismatic Qigong masters appeared, promoting Qigong methods through transmission networks covering the whole country. Falungong became the biggest Qigong group by the mid-1990s. The article examines the hypothesis of links between Qigong and a galaxy of groups which were widespread in pre-Communist China, often called “sectarian” in the academic literature and also known as “White Lotus” sects. By comparing the ideology, the practices and the structure of these groups, it is possible to conclude that Qigong is a modern expression of the Chinese tradition of popular sectarianism.

Teaching History through Simulation: The Guomindang-Communist Struggle in Rural China

civilizations. We could tell them about the importance of knowing what preCommunist China was like and the tremendous benefits Communism brought to the lives of China's peasants. We could tell them that this knowledge is key to understanding the ultimate victory of the Chinese Communist Party in winning the hearts and minds of the Chinese people. We could tell them about the interconnectedness of nation-states in today's global economy, of China's status as the world's most populous country, and China's emergence as a major economic power. But such abstractions often fail to impress students, and history teachers are left to face the realities of the classroom: how to capture student interest. Like others concerned with the teaching of history, we know that simulations can be effective in engaging students in active learning, and in motivating them to turn their attention and interest to a different place

Good-bye to old Peking: the wartime letters of U.S. Marine Captain John Seymour Letcher, 1937-1939

For two and a half years (1937-1939), Captain John Seymour Letcher commanded a company of the U.S. Embassy Marine Guard in Peking. During that time, he wrote a series of letters to his parents in Virginia describing the life of a Westerner in the former imperial city. During that same time, China was invaded by Japan. Captain Letcher describes the flavor of life in pre-Communist China - the food, servants, cold Peking winters and torrid summers, hunting, and excursions to the major tourist sites. But his letters also tell of the Japanese slaughter of Chinese troops in the opening days of the Sino-Japanese War. He wrote about life in a city under Japanese occupation and the stirring story of the Chinese guerrillas rebounding from devastating defeat. These letters and accompanying introduction, preface, and notes, draw attention to the Western experience in a place and time largely overlooked by military historians and modern China specialists.

Capital Formation and Operating Profits of the Kailuan Mining Administration (1903–1937)

The Kailuan Mining Administration (Kailuan or the KMA) ran one of the two largest colliery combines in pre-Communist China. Because it was a Sino-British company, most previous studies have concentrated on the important role it played in China's political history before 1949, but its equally important role in China's economy has been little studied. This paper contributesto remedying that deficiency.

On the Lives of Women Unwed by Choice in Pre-communist China: Research in Progress

On the Lives of Women Unwed by Choice in Pre-communist China: Research in Progress

Socioeconomic Relations in Pre-Communist China

In an earlier issue of Modern China, Ramon H. Myers (1980: 243) challenged what he believed was the view held by most concerned scholars that in prerevolutionary China the relationships between landlords and tenant-farmers were invariably and-exploitative. Limiting himself to north China, he makes excellent use of the substantial material gathered and produced by Japanese social scientists before World War II. Dr. Myers has long been known as an authority on those materials as well as an economist who has done important work relating to Taiwan. It somewhat startling in view of his long association with data concerning landlord-tenant attitudes and activities to find him attributing modification of the view that landlord-tenant relations were oppressive to recent work by Ralph Thaxton (1975, 1977). A major point for which Myers (1980: 243) gives credit to Thaxton is the insight that Chinese tenants in the early twentieth century held certain rights and expected these rights to be upheld by the groups with which they were dealing. As a matter of fact, the same point has been made before. Indeed, the present writer underlined it in his dissertation more than

China's Economic Revolution.

Professor Eckstein's book is a study of China's efforts to achieve rapid modernization of its economy within a socialist framework. Eckstein begins with an examination of economic development in pre-Communist China, specifically focusing on the resources and liabilities inherited by the new regime in 1949 and their effects on development policies. He then analyses the economic objectives of the Communist leadership - narrowing income disparities, maintaining full employment without inflation, and achieving rapid industrialization - and argues that the implementation of these goals required a potent ideology capable of providing a strong faith and motivational force for the mass mobilization of resources. In discussing the methods used by the government to achieve its aims, Eckstein makes a thorough evaluation of China's general framework for economic planning, particularly in regard to the distribution and pricing of farm products and the allocation of resources in the industrial sector. The author also evaluates the radical institutional changes in property relations and in economic organization in the People's Republic of China.

China's Economic Revolution

Professor Eckstein's book is a study of China's efforts to achieve rapid modernization of its economy within a socialist framework. Eckstein begins with an examination of economic development in pre-Communist China, specifically focusing on the resources and liabilities inherited by the new regime in 1949 and their effects on development policies. He then analyses the economic objectives of the Communist leadership - narrowing income disparities, maintaining full employment without inflation, and achieving rapid industrialization - and argues that the implementation of these goals required a potent ideology capable of providing a strong faith and motivational force for the mass mobilization of resources. In discussing the methods used by the government to achieve its aims, Eckstein makes a thorough evaluation of China's general framework for economic planning, particularly in regard to the distribution and pricing of farm products and the allocation of resources in the industrial sector. The author also evaluates the radical institutional changes in property relations and in economic organization in the People's Republic of China.

Agricultural Development in China 1368-1968.

Journal Article Perkins (D. H.) et al. Agricultural Development in ChinaChang (J. K.). Industrial Development in Pre-Communist ChinaN.-R. Chen and W. Galenson. The Chinese Economy under Communism Get access Agricultural Development in China 1368-1968. By D. H. Perkins et al. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1970. Pp. xv + 395. £6.00.)Industrial Development in Pre-Communist China. By J. K. Chang. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1970. Pp. xiv + 148. £2.50.)The Chinese Economy under Communism. By N.-R. Chen and W. Galenson. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1970. Pp. x + 250. £3.00.) Kenneth R. Walker Kenneth R. Walker School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Economic Journal, Volume 81, Issue 324, 1 December 1971, Pages 1009–1012, https://doi.org/10.2307/2230366 Published: 01 December 1971

Industrial Development in Pre-Communist China: A Quantitative Analysis. John K. Chang

<i>Industrial Development in Pre-Communist China: A Quantitative Analysis</i>. John K. Chang

Industrial Development in Pre-Communist China: A Quantitative Analysis

Industrial Development in Pre-Communist China: A Quantitative Analysis

Economic Growth in Communist China

Recognising that pre-Communist China in the 1930s was not a very prosperous or well-ordered community, even before the Japanese invasion, we should nevertheless examine what information is available about the level of its productivity and well-being, as a standard with which to compare such information as we can obtain today. This is fairer than comparing productivity in recent years with that of 1949, which is what Communist propagandists prefer to do (and many western economists are naïve enough to follow them). In 1949 the country was so disorganised that a substantial improvement in productivity was to have been expected as soon as any stable government was established.