Study On The Early Urban Modernization In

In the middle of the 19th century, because western powers with gunboats knocked at the door of China, the Qing government was forced to sign a series of unequal treaties full of humiliations. With the constant aggravation of the problems at home and abroad, the Qing government realized that the pace towards modernization was a must to survive. Westernization school started and led the westernization movement and then established a number of military industry and civilian industry, which promoted the birth of modern national capitalism and opened the prelude to modernization. In the early 20th century, Changzhou began its modernization. The impact of western capitalist mode of production was the initial motivation of early modernization in Changzhou. The self-regulation and self-development of the national bourgeoisie was the basic power of early modernization in Changzhou. In order to survive in the fierce competition, the local businessmen, made transition to a concentration of manual workshops from scattered cottage industry, and then transformed to the modern machinery industry, starting the economic modernization and boosting the modernization of other industries.The course of the early modernization in Changzhou is the basic research goal of the thesis. The research time ranges from after the First Sino-Japanese War to before the Anti-Japanese War. The research scope of space is historical Changzhou Fucheng and the jurisdiction by the two counties-Wujin and Yang Lake (equivalent to the subject areas of Changzhou today, namely, the present 5 districts-New North District, Wujin District, Tianning District, Zhonglou District and Qi Shuyan District. By studying the relevant historical materials inch by inch, the thesis explores the changing processes of economy, education, culture, transportation, municipal facilities and so on during the early urban modernization of Changzhou. Based on summarizing the experiences and lessons of the early urban modernization of Changzhou, it provides the contemporary construction and management in Changzhou with references. Drawing the outline of the background of changzhou early modernization is the foundation of studying its early modernization. First of all, the thesis illustrates the natural environment, history, population change in Changzhou, and then analyzes six appects-the structure of the urban construction, economic structure, education, culture, politics and society.The changes of Changzhou city construction include the establishment of the modern traffic systems and the formation of modern urban infrastructure. Modern Changzhou basically set up modern transportation systems mainly involving shipping, railway, highway. Passengers could transfer among ships, trains and cars, which greatly facilitated passengers’ travel, and basically fulfilled the traffic integration. Modern transportation brought Changzhou residents fast and efficient way to travel and at the same time promoteed the prosperity of the city industry and commerce.There are two aspects in the modernization of Changzhou urban infrastructure:the urban technical infrastructure renewal represented by postal telecommunications, road construction, river dredging, urban lighting, fire control facilities, urban public health and the modern urban architecture of social infrastructure representated by opening parks, the construction of the libraries, establishing medical institutions. With the construction of modern urban infrastructure, great channges had taken place in the city looks, which met the need of the development of the city modernization.The changes of modern financial industry, commerce, handicraft industry, and modern industry all refleced the progress of the modernization of the economic structure in Changzhou. Modern changzhou had transformed from the old bank financial institutions to the transformation of modern banking financial institutions. Banks grow gradually and eventually dominate. Privates banks and pawn shops, though they survived, were weak in strength, unable to compete with banks. Both new and old financial institutions promoted the development of commerce and industry of Changzhou and the modernization of economy.After the Tang Dynasty, Changzhou, relying on its transportation functions of the Canal and the Yangtze river, became an important commercial city, where economy developed rapidly. Since the Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, business in Changzhou had increasingly boomed. In modern Changzhou, appeared comprador businessmen promoting the sale of goods and purchasing raw materials for foreign businessmen. Businesses increasingly attached importance to publicity of commodity and diversification of promotion methods. With their higher social status, merchants started using their social resources to participate in political movements, served the public interest and took some social responsibilities.In the late Qing Dynasty, there appeared manual workshops in handicraft industries such as Kame industry in Changzhou. Package buyers controlled farmers’ handwoven cloth production. Commercial capital transormed to industrial capital. All this revealed that the modern handicraft in Changzhou had transformed from simple commodity production to capitalist production.On the basis of traditional handicraft industry and business, the modern industry in Changzhou developed. Factories had been set up in textile industry, power industry, food processing industry and other industries. These factories, based on employing laborers, replacing manual labor with mechanization, used more advanced equipments and stepped towards modernization. Changzhou modern industry, whose cornerstone was mechanization, was a new means of production and was on the basis of establishing the joint-stock companies, breaking the traditional handicraft paternalism and was preliminarily equipped with modern management styles. modern industry and financial industry had a close connection. Financial capitals started investing in modern industry and indirectly entered production areas.modernChangzhou had transformed from the traditional education to the modern education and the modern school system had been established. The teaching content changed from the Confucian classics to modern curriculum, which was becoming more and more colorful. The education institutions tended to be formal and strengthen the management of schools and teachers. The quality of teachers has improved and number is larger. Public education started and was popularized. Public schools were widely established, there were literacy activities and cooperatives, and modern leisure activities were spreaded. modern education accelerated the transfer of modern culture so as to train various kinds of talents and promote the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal revolution.In the Qing Dynasty, in Changzhou cultural field, there were more and more talented peopleand greater achievements. During the period of the Republic of China, under the impetus of the Xinhai Revolution and the May 4th Movement, there were great achievements in the academic field. In the field of arts such as calligraphy, painting and drama, the harvest was quite abundant. With the transformation of modern culture, as cultural transmission carriers, books industry and newspapers industry also rapidly developed. The transition from traditional book shops to modern presses was the trend of the book publishing business of modern Changzhou. In the course of afterXinhai Revolution to before the Anti-Japanese War, the modern newspaper industry sprung up.Successively there were dozens of newspapers in Changzhou, promoting the rapid spread of information.In the early 20th century, Changzhou began its political modernization. The establishment of "Wu Yang Chamber of Commerce" in 1905, marked the initial shape of Changzhou bourgeois, who boarded the stage of history. The Chamber of Commerce, with strict rules and complete organizational structure, promoted the development of modern industry and commerce in Changzhou. By various means it directly or indirectly participated in various social activities in Changzhou and had a huge impact. The Chamber of Commerce promoted the early modernization in politics, economy and culture of changzhou. Its’series of revealed that bourgeoisie in Changzhou had become the new political force, boarded the stage of history and become the dominant force to promote modernization in Changzhou.After the victory of Xinhai Revolution, after Changzhou Military Perfecture was established, a series of reform measures were promulgated. To a certain extent these measures promoted the modernization of economy, politics, education, etc. in Changzhou. In the May Fourth Movement, the struggle of the masses in changzhou, the industry has become a patriotic movement against imperialist and traitorous government, in which people of all ranks including workers, students and businessmen participated. Civilians in the cityhad come to realize their own political right in political life and took a variety of opportunities to participate in and influence national political affairs.With the transformation of modern society and change of regime, all kinds of social contradictions increasingly intensified, and there were more and more serious social problems. In the process of transformation from traditional city to modern city in Changzhou there were primarily such social problems as increasing suicides, drug abuse, rampant bandits. The traditional forms of entertainment were still popular among people. New forms of entertainment began to appear and develop. Modern sports arose, mainly including school sports and folk sports. The main content of school sports was the western modern sports, whereas the folk sports still gave priority to the traditional sports.Based on the above analysis, it can induced that there are the following features in the early modernization in Changzhou:combination of internal and external force is the motivation of; Early bourgeois in Changzhou play an important role in the early modernization; all levels of the early modernization in Changzhou are not isolated, closed but linked to each other and influence each other. There are a series of achievements in the early modernization in Changzhou, but there are still some aspects not satisfactory. The overall level of the modernization is limited.