| The main mode of population changes is the population migration, which is also thefundamental mode of the community changes and is vital to the development of the wholesociety. In modern histories of China, famines have taken place in Shandong provincecontinually for several years. Consequently, the society has not been very stable and a largescale of immigrant tides have appeared and meanwhile the problems of immigrants have beenthe focus in the academic area. The subject of my study is the incident of “Shandongneseentering Shaanxi province” happening in the late Qing Dynasty. And these Shandongneseimmigrated into Guanzhong (the central part of Shanxi Plain). Based on the historicalmaterials, by investigation and application of economics, sociology, culturology andcomparative study, this paper analyzes how these Shandong immigrants fused with the localaboriginal inhabitants from the perspective of the economy and society and meanwhile howthey developed their own economy and how commonly promoted the restoration anddevelopment of the economy and society in Guanzhong.After the natural and man-made calamities in the late Qing Dynasty, there was a sharpcontrast between the population and arable land in Shandong Province, which became themost important driving force of immigration. The incident of “Shandongnese enteringShaanxi province” was a spontaneous and organized action of massive immigrants. Becauseof the loose immigrants policy and participation of Shandong governmental official JiaoYunlong, the speed and scale of immigration were further quickened. After moving to thecentral part of the Shaanxi province, owing to special need of feudal agricultural societyexpelling the land, they settled down along the sparse area in east of Guanzhong, such asSanyuan County, Gaoling County, Yanliang Distric, Lintong District etc and several countiesin the north part of Weiher River, such as Fuping County, Dali County, Weinan City andPucheng County, etc and meanwhile a lot of villages constituted by immigrants---Shandong Villages were established. By the preliminary evaluation, up to now the populationin these areas has reached more than300,000.Agricultural economy is the body of the immigrant economy in Shandong Village. They actively opened up virgin soil and reconstructed water conservancy project and changed theunitary production mode–grains and cotton were mainly planted in the central part ofShaanxi Plain. They introduced western tobaccos, planted mulberries, raised silkworms,enlarged the areas of cotton planting and planted oil-bearing crops and horticultural crops. Asa result, diversified managing pattern presented in agricultural production. These Shandongimmigrants provided enough labor forces to the production of Guanzhong and made thearable land in Guanzhong more comminuted, accelerating the process of formation of themode of the central Shaanxi plain, further improved irrigation system in Guanzhong,reestablished the leading status of grains and cottons in the central part of Shaanxi Plain andgreatly contributed to rapid restoration of postwar agriculture in Guanzhong.Handicraft industry and commercial economy in Shandong Village were subsidiary toand complementary to agricultural economy. The mode of handicraft industry management inShandong Village was based on the mode of agricultural industry management of feudallanded property and a small piece of land management. The mode of management is mainlyoperated as family workshop and mainly engaged in agricultural products processing.Due to the small market and lack of capital and technology, family handicraft industrywas short of power of expanded reproduction and the way of business categories andoperation was very narrow. The main mode of the business in the Shandong Village wasselling handicraft products, therefore the flow of goods and marketing channel were greatlydependent on the rural market. Although the scale of business management was restricted bycapital, market and purchase power, and could not break through from the regionalperspective so as to move from the rural area to the urban area, it was actually contributed tothe prosperity of trade and business in rural areas of Guanzhong region.The society of the Shandong Village was an acquaintances society, built up by ties ofblood and geoborderunity. Because of their moderate and retreating strategy, the warsbetween the aboriginals and Shandong immigrants were avoided. And also they had noconflicts with the aboriginals about the arable land and water resources. And they wererespected by the Guanzhong local villagers by the strategy of making concessions for the sakeof advancing. These villages were mainly administered by Elders, and disciplined by villagerules. Shandong Villages were mainly located near the field and independent of other villagesand were distributed in the shape of continuous net. These villagers seldom considered theinfluence of Fengshui. The construction of these villages center around the geoborderunityand the expansion centers around the ties of blood and the main expanding mode can becalled the type of cabbage. The early folk houses in Shandong Village mainly havecharacteristics of immigration. For example, these villagers mainly live in the straw shed of Shandong style in the flat area; and others mainly live in the pit cave in loess highland. And astime went on, these folk houses were gradually assimilated by those of central part in ShaanxiPlain. The marriage scope of these early immigrants was mainly restricted in the internalpart of these villages and did not intermarry with the locals. Meanwhile, owing to therestriction of their customs and economic level, their wedding and funeral ceremony werethriftier than those of locals. Because of the independent settlement, the invasion fromforeign cultures to Shandong Village was very limited, as a result, their own unique languagesand customs such as dietary habits were completely inherited.The Christianity in the central part of Shaanxi plains was mainly missioned by theseShandong immigrants in a different way, that is, Christians existed first, and then missionariesand churches followed. And the majority of these Shandong immigrants became Christians.These Shandong immigrants put more emphasis on their children’s education than the locals.Private education was very popular in the early days. After the civil-service examinationsystem was abolished, the majority of these immigrants’ kids were educated in missionaryschools and the girls were educated in missionary schools for girls.The establishment of the missionary school met the needs of cultural reform andGuanzhong society in late Qing Dynasty. And its perfect discipline arrangement andinnovative teaching approach have had the prototype of modern education of science.In order to have a good knowledge of the current living situation of the peasants inShandong Village, I made a survey in the Dali village and Xumu village in Sanyuan County.And the sampling survey results indicate that the overwhelming majority of villagers believethat the development of immigrant economy in general level is superior to the local villages inGuanzhong area. During the process of getting along with the Guanzhong local villagers, theywere extremely satisfied. Nowadays, in the process of communicating with their fellows,apart from visiting relatives and friends bases on the ties of blood, their main communicationcenters around the economy based on business. As a successful example in the modern historyof immigrants, these immigrants in Shandong Village provide valuable experience ineconomic development and social integration mode for the contemporary immigrants... |
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