| Journal of Chinese Rural Areas, an important journal with its aim on studying rural issues, is published by Chinese Research Council of Rural Economy in the1930s and1940s. It’s an extremely rare one as compared to similar publications under the leadership of the communist party of China at that time for its covering over ten provinces for about a decade with thousands of various articles. It’s also a typical one among the coeval progressive magazines on rural issues. Whenever concerned with rural issues, whether in domestic and overseas, city and village or the upper and lower newspapers, it will undoubtedly play a part in it.However, the academia has not done sufficient research on Chinese Rural Areas. Except for a few achievements related with Chinese Research Council of Rural Economy, founder and authors of Chinese Rural Areas, the controversies and criticisms of Chinese Rural Area involved in, and some surveys on rural issues and so on, it lacks a comprehensive, systematic and intensive study on Chinese Rural Areas, which is in ill-match with its status in the history of academy and also the ideology and culture.Thus, this paper, drawing upon a systematic introduction on the Journal, attempts to discuss its contributions to investigation on social and economic issues in rural areas, debates on rural social problems, criticisms on rural reformism and rural anti-Japanese national salvation movement, thereby analyzing its social and historical position, enriching studies on newspapers and periodicals history of the republic of China and Chinese academic history.This paper first presents the reasons of selecting the topic, review of academic history, structure of the paper as well as innovations and deficiencies, research methods and data, etc., then conduct a monographic study in six chapters. An introduction of establishing the journal Chinese Rural Areas is given in the first chapter, including the journal’s development history, publication, distribution and dissemination, authors and readers, etc. The second chapter sheds light on some specific rural problems, such as rural social investigation and practice, rural land issues, rural business and financial problems etc. The third chapter elaborates on China’s rural social problems in three aspects, i.e., debates on nature of rural society, arguments on research methods of China’s rural economy and controversies on revival of Chinese rural areas. The fourth chapter discusses the criticism on China’s rural reformism, mainly consisting of the changes of the attitude toward as well as three different stages of criticisms on the reformism from being radical to being fierce and then to being moderate. The fifth chapter expounds China’s rural anti-Japanese national salvation movement from three aspects, which are publicity of rural anti-Japanese national salvation movement, creating a rural anti-Japanese national salvation movement united front and rural work in wartime. The sixth chapter analyzes its influence and impact on changes of modern Chinese social nature, indicates its culture publicity policy in accordance with Communist Party of China’s position under former social and economic condition, and then analyzes its historical status in modern Chinese history of ideology and culture from the perspective of the social and historical position of Chinese Rural Areas. In the end, the author proceeds from journal evolution and historical changes, makes an objective assessment of its achievement and gives a practical and realistic analysis on its significance to historical progress and also the analysis to its social limitations.Judging from a historical perspective, as far as I am concerned, the historical significance of this journal is that it has strived to fulfill its purpose of seeking China’s national dependence in the rural crisis and completed its career on social journalism. Meanwhile, its cognition on rural social nature have made a far-reaching influence on changes of China’s social nature in historical evolution. |
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