A Study On Shanghai Hooligan Group In Late Qing Dynasty

Urbanization is an integral part of modernization.With the expansion of capacity,the structure of the city becomes increasingly complex,and the "pathological" phenomenon in the city arises,which increases the difficulty of social governance.The problem of the rogues’ immoral behaviors in the city is one of them.With this issue as a starting point,it is helpful to present some symptoms of modern "urban disease" and to provide an angle of view for both urban history and social history.In the late Qing dynasty,with the turbulent situation,the complex social environment,the unbalanced development of urbanization and modernization and a large number of refugees appearance,the social foundation of the emergence of urban hooligans were formed.However,due to political corruption,low quality and other factors,the government and officials played a limited role in the governance of society and the stabilization of the society at the grass-roots level,so it was difficult to severely crack down on the rogue groups and punish them.Meanwhile,the abnormal development of urban social atmosphere,the prevalence of consumerism,the distortion of values,the decay of morality and the corruption of discipline etc.,all these factors led to the continuous development of the hooligan group,which finally became a serious social problem in the late Qing dynasty.While Shanghai,which gradually evolved into a commercial city after its openingup,whose peculiarities including the expanding area,the developed transportation,the existence of concessions and exterritoriality,the relatively stable social environment etc.,led to the rapid growth of population and so was the density of population.However,the population structure tended to be un balanced.At the same time,the development of the city had been changing people’s social lifestyle,mentality and values which led to serious money worship.Coupled with the co-governance of the Chinese and western countries,the omission in the law enforcement,all contributed to the growth of the rogue group.In the late Qing dynasty,Shanghai’s urban hooligans were numerous and widely distributed.They showed contempt for law and discipline,behaved in a rampant manner,and committed many crimes.They often committed petty crimes,or even picked quarrels and stirred up trouble and disturb the social order.Usually,their criminal behaviors were occasional,most of which were caused by individuals or small groups.The crimes of the hooligans ranged from personal injury to causing gratuitous nuisance affecting others’ life in the late Qing dynasty.And the common behaviors of the hooligans also included various fraud and blackmailing,robbery,kidnapping,rape,abduction and so on.In other words,they were so unscrupulous that they committed all manners of evil.Moreover,the hooligans became more savage when they found patrons such as petty officers or even officials.The control and punishment on the rogue group in the late Qing dynasty in Shanghai can be explored from two aspects: the Qing government and the concession.There were certain amounts of ordinances and laws which were relative.From central imperial court to local officials,some specific instructions could be seen,so were certain punishments given by local officials.Moreover,the policing institutions’ establishment which were promoted by the political and legal system modernization in late Qing dynasty and the detention and continuous development of education institutions for the criminals also conduce to control and punish rogues.In order to maintain the domination,the upper class of the Qing government subjectively tended to punish the rascals strictly,but the punishment intensity was limited in the concrete process.The main punishment method was corporal punishment and the main purpose of it was to warn and educate.At the same time,the authority attempted to help the rouges make a living in a proper way through the development of indoctrination institutions in which they were taught skills,trying to fundamentally reduce the emergence of rogues.Also,the police establishment also showed a trend of modernization in the late Qing dynasty.Although it failed to play a greater role in punishing hooligans due to the short implementation time,it laid a foundation for the later police development.In terms of the concession,under the influence of the unequal treaties,China was forced to cede some judicial power to the west,and the two sides jointly governed Shanghai to some extent.Institutions like Municipal Council strengthened the management and control on the rouges and public security through the establishment of police stations,the regular patrol of the police in certain places,the encouragement to police officers.Mixed court was also founded to progress the judicial procedure,in which both the cooperation and conflicts occurred between of Chinese and western authorities.To some extent,this also influenced the crackdown on the rouges.The rogue groups endanger public security and harm ordinary people.If they are not properly controlled,not only will the quality of people’s lives suffer,but the government’s credibility will also decline.With the development of the rogue group,it is possible to form a large gang,which provides the soil for the formation of the party.At the same time,the existence of a large number of rascals also makes the social ethos more corrupted,greatly affecting the orderly and healthy development of the society.It must also be noted that the emergence and development of rogue groups are not isolated phenomenon.It has to be evaluated in certain time periods.Political turmoil,changes in economic structure and social environment have brought new opportunities to the people,but there are also great challenges.In this case,the lack of effective state control will lead to disorderly development of the society.In other words,when the level of state control of society lags behind the negative impact brought by social changes,when the quality of urbanization does not match the speed of it,the city will get sick,and the existence of rogue groups is a kind of urban disease.In order to promote social progress,we must develop in a balanced way and improve the quality of development so that the city can recover its health and thrive.