Ideas Power Interest

From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, under the rule of the Qing government, Shanghai was developing in different way between the Settlement and the Chinese-governed part, for this reason, there was a considerable gap between the two parts little by little. The Settlement expanded and became prosperous day by day, which arising concerns in the Chinese-governed part. Some of the gentry began to ponder the reasons for that and actively sought the way of self-development. Influenced by the theory of modern military defense and programming of city from the West, they fought against the city wall around Shanghai and promoted to destroyed it, here we call them wall-destroyers. Although the city wall was not centuries-old and not grand enough, the view of the demolition met with opposition. There were so many difficulties from the birth of the bill to the action they began to take. In this paper, I will research the complex process of the demolition to study the conflicts of ideas, interests, and power-division among various social forces and groups. The wall-destroyers and the other group called wall-protectors didn't reach an agreement, so they argued and argued. Besides, they had more contradictions than that, for this reason, they argued harder and harder. With the passage of time and transfer of power, the wall-destroyers won finally and realized their dream. The process was not smooth, either. The handling of the various interests of disputes was an indispensable part. Ultimately, the demolition of the wall was made in spite of all kinds of difficulties and obstacles. At an appropriate time, after reasonable arrangement, the wall-destroyers made it.In addition to the introduction and conclusion, the paper has three chapters.In ChapterⅠ, after introducing the history and the basic situation of Shanghai's wall, I mainly state on the first stage of argument about the demolition of the city wall. Both sides put forward their reasons but no conclusion could be reached. Finally, the governor of Shanghai decided to give a compromising solution—opening gates and paving roads through the city.ChapterⅡis on the analysis of speech and action of both sides, observations of their interests and concerns. Intense discussions and active actions lay not only in the differences between their ideas, but more in the conflicts of the status of the two sides and of the power and authority. The wall-protectors took active actions to force the wall-destroyers to accept the compromising solution.ChapterⅢfocuses on the wall-destroyers who got the bill past quickly to destroy the city wall at the victory of the Xinhai Revolution. During the demolition process, the City government inevitably dealt with all the conflicts of interests between the residents and Settlement. At that time, government used its power to deal with all the things requirements, and actively argued with the Settlements of British and French, maximally guaranteed the demolition.Through the analysis of the process of demolishing the city wall, we can see that at the time of Shanghai, because of different status, position and influence, a variety of social forces and interest groups played different roles in the society. They all played their roles in the demolition, which gave birth to a difficult and tortuous process. It can be seen that in the implementation of a public works, the first thing we should do is considering the views of people with multiple interests, and so it goes, under the protection of the necessary power we can achieve the destination of the project.