| The development level of charitable undertaking reflects the social civilization and progress as well as the spirit of an era. In retrospect to the modern history of China, it has undergone many frustrations and great hardship in the development of its charitable undertaking. In particular, against the macroscopic backdrop of the profound changes in the modern society, charitable undertaking has been incorporated into the historical trend of ideology and political movements, and its concept and meaning have been constantly re-defined and re-interpreted according to the main ideological line of different periods. Unfortunately, most of these definitions and interpretations were misunderstandings based on subjective assumption rather than the experience accumulated through the interaction between rational thinking and social practice. These highly political and random interpretation methods have imposed substantial influence on China’s charitable undertaking development since1949and used to result in the slow development of charitable undertaking in Chinese history. Moreover, they have deeply affected the extent to which the people today understand charitable undertaking in theory and practice.Since ancient times, influenced by Confucius, Taoist and Buddhist iedas, China has developed the fine tradition of helping each other and supporting the poor and the weak. And both plain charitable principles and practice have enjoyed a long history. In particular, the introduction of western charitable ideas since the late Qing Dynasty has contributed to a large number of charitable undertakings featured by modern charitable awareness. But during a long period after1949, the entire society was increasingly crazy about a series of political movements owing to the misunderstanding of Marxist thoughts. Totalism spirit has spread out to every corner of the society, while charity was seen as something "hypocritical" and the evil symbol that popularized feudalism and capitalist views on human nature. Because of such a misunderstanding, the social space for charitable undertaking was constantly narrowed since the establishment of the New China in1949and charitable undertaking was finally replaced by social collectivized welfare and relief principle. According to the principle, the charitable undertaking, which was originally a non-governmental matter and movement, was controlled by the government and took the form of the "five guarantees system" in rural areas and the "mutual benefit association", the "labor union" and the "women’s federation" in urban areas. This path of nationalizing charity and welfare was apparently inconsistent with the period characterized by low-level social production and inadequate resources, for it took up the legal foundation, material prerequisite and activity space for the development of social charitable undertaking, which directly resulted in a disadvantaged situation of charitable undertakings in Chinese mainland. The renaissance of modern charitable undertaking in Chinese mainland bears a close relationship to the country’s reform and opening-up and ideological liberation. The progress in market economy has brought China not only tremendous material wealth but also dramatic political, social and cultural changes. The disintegration of highly centralized cultural and economic system controlled by the Party and the government resulted in the absence of the most important support for the original national security system. Worse still, the social welfare and relief system seemed to be inconsistent with the times and were thus seriously challenged. On the one hand, the transformation of the economic system enabled the government to quit from some social undertakings and allow non-governmental groups to play a role in social relief; on the other, the implementation of reform and opening up policy led to noticeable wealth disparity in the Chinese society. Without adequate assistance from the poor government, the existence of a large number of impoverished and disadvantaged people entailed charitable undertaking and poverty relief supported by non-governmental groups. Meanwhile, the formation, development and expansion of the new rich class guaranteed the non-governmental financial resources necessary for the renaissance of charitable undertaking. So, the combination of all these conditions greatly facilitated the rejuvenation of Chinese charitable undertaking at the beginning of the reform and opening-up.As the reform deepened, the role of charitable undertaking in alleviating social contradictions became ever more apparent. Due to some reasons, the achievements of China’s reform and opening-up were not fairly and justifiably shared by all the people across the nation, which resulted in greater wealth disparity and continuous accumulation of social contradictions that imposed serious threat on social stability. Therefore, it was extremely essential to find out an appropriate way to eliminate social contradictions and adhere to correct values in the transitional era featured by dramatic changes. Charitable undertaking is consistent with the needs of the modern society, but it is also different from the previous identification methods which relied on ideology and governmental authority to guarantee the direction of socialism and the pursuit of lofty ethics. As a traditional as well as modern spiritual and cultural value, the concept of modern charity is the "ideology" which is most accepted by the majority in the transitional society of China. In the dramatic social changes, it can gather all kinds of powers, educate the public, facilitate socialist building of spiritual civilization and a harmonious society, and serve as the complement of the building of spiritual civilization in the transformation of the economic system. Hence, despite the challenges and loopholes in the Chinese charitable undertaking today, its social significance has been widely accepted by the public, with both the government and non-governmental groups holding a passionate and positive attitude towards charitable undertaking. So, in modern China, the coverage and significance of rejuvenating and accelerating charitable undertaking have exceeded that of ordinary social organizations and activities and have become an important power that influences national building and social reform.From the angle of historical evolution, this paper centers around the different interpretations and understandings of Marxist concept of charity in the different periods since the establishment of the New China and explores the uneven development of the charitable undertaking in China. With detailed analysis of the history, it aims to give a clear description of the development of the New China’s charitable undertaking and find out the deep reasons hidden behind. The author believes that there were not only misunderstandings of Marxist concept of charity but also rational factors consistent with the development of the modern China in the process. The understanding and recognition of charitable undertaking, to some extent, show that the views of political leadership and non-governmental groups on some values and concepts with general significance directly affected the political practice and social evolution of China. Hence, it is inappropriate to hold a totally positive or negative attitude towards it or even neglect it. Given that few studies have been exclusively done on this issue in China by far, it is very meaningful as well as necessary to do a research on it. |
