A Study Of National Association For Refugee Children(1938～1946)

This paper attempts to study the National Association for Refugee Children (NARC) set up during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression from the perspective of modern paedology, revealing how it was founded, evolved and terminated. In doing so, the author hopes to demonstrate against special historical background, how children’s care was recognized by society, country, group, and individuals, and how the wartime children’s care mechanism was formed. On this basis, the coexisting relationship between children, country and nation is disclosed. The paper centers on exploring the underlying reasons for the founding, evolving and termination of this organization, including its educational concept and practice.On July7,1937, Japan launched "Lugou Bridge Incident", which prefaced China’s War of Anti-Japanese. Children fell the biggest victim to the aggression:countess children were slaughtered in war zone and survivors were sent to Japan to receive enslavement education:incalculable others became homeless after being separated from their families or deserted by their parents during their flight. Worrying about children’s plight and the country’s future, a group of people of vision in Wuhan advocated founding National Association for Refugee Children. With the support of both Kuomintang and Chinese Communist Party, the headquarter of National Association for Refugee Children was officially founded in Hankou in March10,1938, with more branches being set up consecutively in other provinces. On October23,1938, the headquarter was moved to Chongqing. With the ending of China’s Anti-Japanese War in1945, the center was closed at the end of1946after properly arranging all its children.The vertical management of NARC were divided into three levels, namely, headquarter, branch and warphanages. The headquarter enjoys the right of leadership, administration, supervision over the branches. The branches which was supposed to report to the headquarter at regular intervals and obey the demand of headquarter whose leading organ is the council. Song Meiling was the President of the council, Li Dequan was the Vice President of the council and30the council members are Zhang Aizhen, Chen Jili, Tang Guozhen, Deng Yingchao, Meng Qingshu, etc. The president of provincial branches are responsible for the administration of the subordinated warphanages. In order to improve efficiency, the headquarter has three sections, namely, general affairs, care and education, training, and two departments, namely, accounting and supervision.Financing has always been the biggest headache of NARC. Government subsidies and private donations are the major funding sources, with private donation accounting for73.7percent and government subsidies the rest. Before1941, the headquarter allocated capitation grant to each center per month. At the beginning, capitation grant to each center was paid according to their maximum capacity. Because of material shortage, inflation and financing difficulty, later capitation grant was allocated according to the local price level and how many children the center had to support. Those children who have left for middle school and went to work were also covered by the capitation grant although they no longer lived in the warphanages.Out of security concern, Orphanages of NARC were always located in the countryside, using old temples and ancestral halls as residence for the children. The establishment of warphanages usually had a big impact on local culture. On the one hand, the immigrant children brought fresh air to the local residents:on the other hand, the local custom felt shocked by these outsiders. During its peak times, children’s warphanages totaled up to61, which as a result of war, fund shortage, maladministration and confliction between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, some warphanages were forced to be closed, moved or dismissed which reflected the damage made by war and political fight on children.NARC was not like traditional orphanages in old China nor was it the same as infant schools in Europe and the United States. Under special wartime circumstances, China caregivers, finding no other theory to guide, just had to rely on themselves:Song Meiling’s thought and the educator Tao Xingzhi’s education concept served as the guideline. The organization attached importance to cultivating children’s patriotism, national self-respect, sacrifice spirit, courage and perseverance, which still inspires us today.NARC was then nurtured in the special circumstances where women’s liberation campaign was in full swing, national consciousness was surging and Western child-centered theory was newly introduced, which best exemplified the cooperation between Kuomintang and Communist Party to fight against Japanese invaders. Although its orphanages differed from each other in various aspects, we can still discern their common concept, which could be taken trend-making at that time. Undoubtedly, these new ideas of combing child care with education have promoted the development and improvement of the cause of child care in China and shed lights on today’s education.