Overseas Japanese District In Qingdao (1914-1922)

In1914, the outbreak of World War I offered a way to get rid of the financialcrisis and continue with colonial expansion for Japan. The Japanese occupiedQingdao by military means, which had been occupied by Germany for17years withplanning and construction loan. Focusing on the economic benefits of industrialbusiness, Japanese government encouraged Japanese native residents to immigrate toQingdao and invest in there on a large scale to enlarge influence in Qingdao colony.With the support of Japanese government’s policy, a large number of Japaneseresidents came to Qingdao rapidly. During the eight years (1914-1922) while Japanoccupied Qingdao firstly, the number of Japanese nationals in Qingdao increasedrapidly from more than300to about24,000. The urban pattern had being formed byGerman was that different social classes lived in different areas. According to thispattern, a huge number of overseas Japanese can not live in other areas except to openup a new area in the brick area near Large Martin Island, in which they refurbishedstreets and built houses to make live and business collectively.This area was called "new-cho". The area was approximately in the east of thisrailway, south of Wusong Road, west of Shanghai Road, and north of Jiaozhou Road.In New-cho, the area of which was about780,000square meters, structure wasdesigned and built by the Japanese. This area was rich of Japanese style with a greatdeal of Japanese shops and companies. There were several distinctive main streets:Nakano-cho (Liaocheng Road) was the most prosperous commercial street, which haslarge number of various street shops; New cho-West (Linqing Road) was a diningand recreational street, and so the street was mainly with brothels and Japaneserestaurant; The Quangyechang in Market three chome (three-way market) was afamous market in Qingdao with large-scale, which had a two-story buildingaccommodating nearly200Chinese and Japanese businesses; Leaf cherry-cho(Guantao Road) was a financial trading street, which was known as the "Wall Street" in Qingdao and accommodated lots of large commercial enterprises over the worldincluding Japanese companies; Additionally, there were many other streets likeTokorozawa cho (Tangyi Road), Mikazuki-cho (Shanghai Road), Jiaozhou cho(Jiaozhou Road), Woosung cho (Wusong Road), through a market-chome (market allthe way), the market through two-chome (Market Road), New cho two chome (XiajinRoad), Wakaba-cho (Ling Road), Mikasa cho (yellow Tai Road) were also rich ofJapanese style.The characteristics of each street in new-cho derived from that a large number ofoverseas Japanese led their common lives there. The percentage of overseas Japanesein new-cho was about80%-90%of the total number of Japanese nationals in Qingdao.Most of them were in the middle and lower class. They were engaged in public officelife, private business, and recreational industry and so on. Japanese authorities inQingdao gave some more preferential policies to overseas Japanese than others, whichincluded some polices about house and real estate, financial loans, tax system, cargotransportation, administration of justice and so on.Overseas Japanese living in new cho had an important impact on the structureand development of the entire city: On one hand, the buildings and blocks in this areainherited the urban space from German, which maintained the overall image ofQingdao. The region’s geographical location was near the port, and so the activities innew-cho, in the railway and in the port can promote each other. It also promoted thedevelopment of commercial finance industry in Qingdao, which promoted theeconomic and cultural modernization unconsciously as well. On the other hand, therapid increase of the number of overseas Japanese made Chinese people being gotmarginalized and oppressed and lived in poor conditions so that the quality of lifedropped; Lots of Japanese capital with the protection of privilege suppressed thedevelopment of Chinese national capital in Qingdao; And closed neighborhoodintensified ethnic conflicts, and it also had a direct impact on the arrogant, exclusionof outsiders, extravagant consumption psychology of Qingdao citizens.