A Study Of Countryman Organization And Immigrant Education In Modern Shanghai (1843-1949)

It is well-known that Modern Shanghai was a city of immigrants. However, the immigrants of Modern Shanghai had their own characters, which were quite different from those of traditional agricultural society. The immigrants went to Shanghai make a living under the circumstance that Shanghai had to change from a traditional Chinese port to a modern metropolis in the intrusion of foreign force. In traditional agricultural society, the immigrants wouldn't have qualitative change in their social production and living styles or their mental characters. But in the process of industrialization and urbanization of Modern Shanghai, the modern production methods equipped with big machines and the advanced city culture required most of those peasants and their offspring coming from traditional Chinese countryside to be educated to promote their quality and realize the transformation from traditional peasants to modern citizens.Countryman Organization was non-governmental social organization that was spontaneously formed in another region , which consisted of immigrants from the same birth place. It was named "HuiGuan (Gongsuo) or Tongxianghui and it exerted self-organized and self-managed functions in immigrants society. Since Modern Shanghai was a famous immigrant city, it was also a city with the most and the strongest countryman organizations. With the transition of Shanghai society to modern society, the structure and function of Countryman Organization were gradually developing into a modern shape; thus the educational issues of immigrants became increasingly important in their career and functions.This research starts from the educational issues of such a special group--immigrants of Modern Shanghai on the way to urbanization, traces the education activities carried out by the spontaneously-set folk society--Countryman Organization, demonstrates the history of immigrant education set up by Chinese traditional folk organizations like Countryman Organization since the modem age , and in the non-governmental view, summarizes the specialties of their school-running and shows their functions in immigrant education, hoping to perceive the characteristics of immigrant education on the urbanization way of Modern Shanghai from the perspectives listed above.Based on this purpose, the research is divided into six chapters: Chapter One: Introduction. Some relevant concepts, the significance of the research, the evolutional situation of the researches sharing the same topic and the virtues and shortcomings of this dissertation are explained.Chapter Two: Countryman Organization in Modern Shanghai primarily reviews the developing process, associates system, organization structure and financial system.Chapter Three: The course of Countryman Organization's school-running in Modern Shanghai. There were four stages in the course according to the characteristics and education needs of Modern Shanghai immigrants, the requirement for the immigrants to get education from the city's urbanization and the developing situation of countryman organizations. This chapter will describe the school-running and teaching of each stage in details: stage one, inchoative period of Countryman Organization's school-running(1898—1911); stage two, booming period(1911—1937); stage three, difficulty in maintaining period(1937—1945); stage four, rallying period(1945—1949).Chapter Four: Countryman Organization of Modern Shanghai and education of the immigrant's offspring. Taking the school-running activities of Ningbo's Association of Fellow Provincials and Guangzhao's GongSuo as typical examples, there is a deep analysis of the practical activities of the countryman organizations' school-running in Modem Shanghai, giving a panoramic recurrence of the practical activities of countryman organizations' school-running and students-teaching and their own characters from three aspects: financial system ; administration system; teaching system etc.Chapter Five: Modern Shanghai's Countryman Organization and immigrant adults' education. This chapter sets forth the educational function of countryman organizations in immigrant adults' education in the period of HuiGuan (GongSuo) and Association of Fellow Provincials and focuses on the fact that the Association of Fellow Provincials set up multiple-forms and colorful social education activities in order to better the adults' quality, help them adjust to city life quickly, and achieve the transition from peasants to citizens in Republic of China.Chapter Six: Conclusion is about the reflection on and inspiration from Countryman Organization's setting up immigrant education in Modern Shanghai. Countryman Organization of Modern Shanghai became an important force in immigrant education by understanding the education requirements of the immigrants , and creating the education form meeting the immigrants' needs with the recognition from the government and applause from the immigrants. Its locality colored its education career with vivid regional character and closeness. At the same time, its locality and capital outlay issues trapped the school-running of countryman organizations in the predicament of imbalance among different areas and dissatisfaction to the enormous education demands from the immigrants. We can draw some lessons from the history of immigrant education set up by Countryman Organization in Modern Shanghai .Firstly,we should pay attention to immigrants Organization's power;Secondly,the schools for immigrant's offspring should enhance quality;lastly,we not only attach importance to the education of immigrant's offspring,but also the education of immigrant adults.