The Research Of Women Relief In Beijing1902-1937Based On Official Activities

In modern China, with the conflict and integration of Chinese and Westerncultures, the traditional social structure, life style, ideas began the pace ofmodernization. The relief of women in China also began to realize modernization.Because of special political and cultural status, the transformation of women relieffirst occurred in Beijing.In traditional social relief mechanism, besides Qingjietang, Yangjiyan, Pujitang,Zhouchang and Nuanchang also had the function of relief women. To these agencies,the goal of relief mostly restricted to maintain the recipients’ life, with little regard tohelping them get the ability to earn their own living. Qingjietang, with a strong colorof the feudal ethics, was to help the widows to keep chastity.Since the late Qing Dynasty, with the introduction of modern western feminism,women’s fate was combined with the development of the country, which finally makeWomen’s Liberation Movement set off in China. Under these circumstances, thepresence of prostitutes, maids and concubines was considered as a symbol ofbackwardness. In order to achieve social progress and development, those problemsmust be faced and solved. These tragic women began to be regarded as specialvulnerable groups. In the process of social relief transformation in the late QingDynasty, new relief agencies like Elderly Women House, The Door of Hope andFemale Factories came out. The relief objects not only included the elderly, disabled,the poor women and widows, but also included prostitutes, maids and othervulnerable groups. The new relief agencies began to teach the tragic women someskills, hoping that they could be self-supporting in the future. These changes not onlyreflected the modernization of women relief, but also represented the change of socialconsciousness. The prostitute began to get more sympathy of public opinion, andwomen could get out working in the factory. These changes were not only advocatedby the intellectual elites, but also supported by the feudal rulers. In the period of the Beijing Government, with the impact of May Fourth and newculture movement, tragic women gained unprecedented public attention. Thegovernment began to assume the primary responsibility to relief them. Imperial PoliceAgency not only enacted laws and policies to help women, but also supported TheDoor of Hope and The Factory for Women to Learn Skills. Those twogovernment-run women’s relief agencies not only provided the tragic women withshelter, but also gave them cultural and skills education. All the work they had donewas to help them to have a happy marriage. Because of political corruption and poormanaging ability, women’s relief policies were passive and conservative, the reliefagencies paid little attention to the education.After the establishment of the Nanjing National Government, the governmentstrengthened the management of women relief agencies, and formulated morepolicies and laws to protect prostitutes, maids etc. Some women with moderneducational background were hired as the head of the women relief agencies, whofocused on the cultural knowledge and life skills education. The goal of women’srelief was no longer merely to qualify tragic women for wife and mother, andculturing the idea and ability of independence became the main purpose of womenrelief. Unfortunately, the further development of women relief was limited by the lackof relief funds and strict management. But women relief still moved towardmodernization in times of hardship.In short, the work of women relief in Beijing made great progress in therealization of modernization from1902to1937, which reflected the evolution ofsocial consciousness and modernization of municipal administration in Beijing.