Research master thesis | Asian Studies (research) (MA)
open access
This paper proposes a new perspective to understand the local self-government movement during the late Qing New Policies era. On the one hand, this new perspective moves beyond the common practice...Show moreThis paper proposes a new perspective to understand the local self-government movement during the late Qing New Policies era. On the one hand, this new perspective moves beyond the common practice of interpreting the local self-government movement as failed state efforts to bridle the local elite by enlisting them into bureaucracy, and instead looks at it from the perspective of local society. On the other hand, it emphasizes the relations between local self-government institutions and other contemporaneous professional associations, like the chamber of commerce, education association, agriculture association, and the anti-opium bureau. To facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the local self-government movement, this paper examines the case in Jiaxing from 1905 to 1914. This period witnessed the whole process of the first wave of the local self-government movement from its start and preparation in the last years of the Qing to its abolition by Yuan Shikai in the Republic. A clear understanding of local power structure is indispensable for researching local self-government. Previous scholars generally draw a line between upper-degree elites and lower elites, urban elites and countryside-based elites, suggesting that there were serious conflicts between upper urban elites and lower elites during the local self-government movement. My research on Jiaxing shows provides corrective to this interpretation. Traditional degrees and lineage were still important, but they were no longer major factors for elite to form establishments, seek support, and construct identity. By participating in various professional associations, Jiaxing elites gradually began to organize themselves along with associations and take action in the name of these associations. The emergence of professional associations was a significant political development in modern Chinese history. They performed many local works independently and often advocated for public benefits, local self-government and a constitutional government, either alone or together with other associations. There were numerous examples of the close cooperation between different professional associations and local self-government institutions. It were the members of professional associations who first promoted and dominated the self-government institutions. For the Jiaxing elites, local self-government was merely one among the many organizations for them to participate in local affairs and exert influence. All these linkages and cooperation between different institutions and associations contributed to a power balance in Jiaxing society in the last years of the Qing dynasty. Public management functions were clearly delineated among various associations whose members were mainly New Policies activists who wished to make the country better and stronger by building local society. There were some peasant uprisings, but during this period the urban-rural conflict may not have been essential in Jiaxing. The 1911 Revolution changed this kind of balanced local power structure among local officials, self-government institutions, and professional associations. Magistrates gradually lost their control of local society, while local assemblies and executive boards became the major decision-making institutions in the first years of the Republic. The clearly delineated functions among self-government institutions, professional associations and local governments were disrupted. Eventually in 1914, Yuan Shikai abolished all of the local self-government institutions.Show less
Research master thesis | Literary Studies (research) (MA)
closed access
It is simply undeniable that Jean-Jacques Rousseau played his vital part inspiring the world to modernisation, including China. There is also no gainsaying the fact that he had countless ...Show moreIt is simply undeniable that Jean-Jacques Rousseau played his vital part inspiring the world to modernisation, including China. There is also no gainsaying the fact that he had countless ‘apprentices’ in late Qing China, and apparently many Chinese intellectual elites during that period thought so as well. In the field of literature, Émile, ou de l'éducation inspired Chinese intellectual circle, especially realms of literature and publication, and stirred up a trend of ‘novel of education’. In addition, Rousseau’s writings and his image frequently appeared in the new-styled prints in late Qing China. Yet if we make a general survey of Chinese history evolving towards the point of modernisation and afterwards, the course of history in China was essentially advancing forward in its own way. All in all, I will claim that the interpretation, misinterpretation and internalisation of Rousseau’s thoughts in China was a highly complex progress. The new community of modern intellectuals in late Qing China took and adapted what they needed from Rousseau without pursuing Rousseau’s original intention, and such tendency and the transformation of the men of knowledge themselves were underlain by both the macro framework of Chinese society and the internal development within Chinese society that had started several centuries before the Western impact.Show less
This thesis examines China’s transition from empire to nation by looking at intellectual changes and educational reform. There were many continuities between what the (late) Qing state,...Show moreThis thesis examines China’s transition from empire to nation by looking at intellectual changes and educational reform. There were many continuities between what the (late) Qing state, respectively the (early) Republican government, sought to inculcate into the populace, and both sought to use education to do so. This thesis explores why this was the case and argues that some of the causes for these continuities are to be found in the following factors: pre-existing notions of China as an imagined community, nationalism and patriotism; the respective internal and external pressures that were present; intellectual movements (that sometimes constituted a sort of bottom-up initiative); the role of the press in articulating views from elite intellectuals that participated in such movements, as well as the role of the press in disseminating state views; and continuities in education personnel.Show less
