Living Standard Of Citizen Under The Change Of Taiyuan City In The Republic Of China

Modern is the time of China’s urban transformation period, in this period, the gradual opening of the city affected by the institutional and culture of the West changed the organization, form, function of the city. Especially the cities along the coast, such as Shanghai, Guangzhou and other cities, started the earliest of the modernization process. However, in the environment of turmoil politics and dual economy, urban development is not balanced. The non-open inland cities had few opportunities to exchanges with the West, continuing to follow the development path of the traditional city. Especially in the time of the Republic of China, the whole country’s political system has undergone a fundamental change, driving the modernization process of the traditional city. So in this transformation, what happened to people’s life of the city? Whether the standard of living improved due to the reform or decreased due to turbulence? This thesis studies and speculates the influence of modernization on people’s lives according to the living conditions of citizens in Republican of China.Under the changes of the city’s modernization in the Republic of China, occupational structure of Taiyuan residents is analyzed, and based on the level of public spending, the Engel coefficient was calculated to examine people’s living standards; according to job classification and total consumption, Difference Coefficient of Alimony was calculated to examine the gap between rich and poor. According to the index coefficient, the most standard of living of the people at that time were affluence, and the gap between rich and poor was larger. However, when we analysis the specific structure of the consumers, we find the consumers consumption for surviving purpose in the main, which contradicts to the index level calculating wealthy. Through detailed analysis of consumer items, extending to the development of the industries which provided these consumer, it is consistented with the consumption structure and unresolved the conflicts. Finally, from stage features of the primitive accumulation of capital in Taiyuan, we find the original model of development capital accumulation phase has a reaction to improve the people’s living standards, and this reaction offsets part of life benefit from economic development. Another negative impact of rapid capital accumulation of capital to a small number of people and a few industries is that makes the income gap widening and potential problems for social stability existing.This thesis uses the mathematical statistics method to calculate and plot the cost of living in order to illustrate the indicators of problems, and extensively reference, analyze and demonstration to first-hand historical materials. This research makes the research direction of city history of microscopic residents living research shifted from the economic research on the macroscopic, of traditional city in Central China’s shift from a study of modern coastal cities, and of mathematical statistics analysis from descriptive study. It analyze the traditional characteristics of the central city in the modernization process and its impact on living standard of the citizens.