Elite And The Republic Of Taicang Local Community

Taicang is located in the heartland of the fertile Yangtze River delta. It is near theYangtze river in the northeast and with Shanghai in the southeast while facing withchongming, as well as with Kunshan in the southwest and Changshu in the northwest.It can be said that Taicangs economic prosperous relies mainly on the rich agricultureand developed marine traffic. The cultural and studying atmosphere is also of greatprosperity in Taicang area. A number of children were proud of learning at school.The developed local economy, the long cultural tradition and many jinshis all madethe elite group occupied an important position in the traditional power structure inTaicang.However, as the abolition of the imperial examination system, a large number oftraditional local elites lost the way of gaining social status through the originalConfucianism knowledge resources. Their untimely old fame can also no longermaintain their basic social status and political interest gradually. At that time，people in Taicang no matter who had fame or not began to turn their eyes to otherways in order to stable or reestablish their social status. The development of theregional autonomy movement offered new opportunities for the rise of new localelites of Taicang. They exerted their influence mainly by working as autonomousstaffs and thus to consolidate their social status. Another main factor for theformation of new elites was the promotion of their own economic strength. Theybegan to board the stage of local politics by taking part in business operation andmanagement and involving in local politics and hometown affairs.This article mainly focuses on three aspects which contain education, charity,and the traffic of Taicang to explore the effects made by local elites in Taicang societyduring the period of social transition. In the aspect of education, the local elitesprovided more opportunities for people in their hometown to receive educationmainly by founding new schools and promoting new educational ideas. The Taicangtraditional feudal education was also gradually transformed into modern one. In theaspect of charity, the local elites raised donations and rescue victims timely and promptly when natural disasters took place. Their charitable idea changed during thesame time and the Taicang traditional philanthropy started the transition to themodern form. In the aspect of transport, the coach company in Shanghai which wasfounded by local elites was undoubtedly of most significance by making thecommunication between Shanghai and Taicang more convenient and quick especiallyin transportation and people’s concept of time. As the national government revisedits transport policy, the local elites began to fight for their own interests. But what wecant ignore is that the local elites appeal to their own interests always lies behindtheir involvement in local public affairs.