Immigration During Anti-Japanese War And Social Changes Of Guangxi

Wu Xiangxiang, the author of The History of the Second Sino-Japanese War, held that there had been three large- scale southward immigrations by the Anti-Japanese War Period. The first one took place in the turbulent period when five minority nationalities from north came to disturb China, which had made the main part of Chinese culture, i.e. the culture of Han move southward. The second one happened when Zhao Gao, an emperor of Song Dynasty, ascended the throne in Jiankang (Nanjing) in 1127. And the 8-year Anti-Japanese War witnessed the third large-scale southward immigration. During this period, millions of people kept moving from the coastal areas in the east to the provinces in the northwest or southwest, which was a spectacle in the Anti-Japanese War. The studies concerning the immigration during the Anti-Japanese War has been receiving more and more attentions from scholars. What is more, research about regional immigration deserves more efforts, including immigration in Guangxi during the Anti-Japanese War. Because study concerning the immigration in Guangxi has not only historical significance, but also realistic importance when nowadays population floating is so frequent and more and more attentions have been paying to the regional economic development in the west.When the Anti-Japanese War broke out, the Kuomintang government moved its capital to Chongqing in order to show its determinacy to fight the enemy. Meanwhile, the government implemented a series of policies of immigration so as to stimulate the immigrating of factories, governmental institutions and schools. The policies included: First, planning the immigration of factories; second, regulating the distribution of industry and education, and supervising and helping immigrating; third, trying its best to make factories and schools return to their normal life and help technicians and teachers move to the back. Population immigrating into Guangxi during this period consisted of organized immigrating population, refugees and immigrating countrymen residing abroad, which is characterized by large quantity, diversified origins, rather high ratio of male to female, high percentage of people of industry and commerce. At the same time, Guangxi government also took a series of actions to help the immigrating population. Unfortunately, the immigrating population suffered one immigration after another due to the abnormal circumstances in wartime. Thus, few people became immigrants, since they kept returning to their hometown throughout the wartime. Nevertheless, the immigration during the Anti-Japanese War had still exerted great influence upon society in Guangxi. Firstly, it helped to increase the varieties of industry and to improve the industry structure, which made a industry foundation for Guangxi. In addition, the increase of non-local population and fund also stimulated the development of commodity market. Secondly, the moving-in of scientific institutions, governmental institutions and schools was really an event in Guangxi because the immigrated experts produced rich outcomes and related them to social production. What is more, they also helped to train qualified personnel and provided Guangxi with many valuable ideas for education, which pave the way for the development of Guilin as a cultural city and of opera in Guangxi, and for the rise of fighting against Japanese and saving our nation from extinction. Thirdly, advanced open ideas gradually replaced the old conservative ones. As a result, people held in esteem the idea of fighting against Japanese and saving our nation from extinction, the concept of nation and democracy. And changes also took place in the concept of marriage, life and profession. Thus, new elements of culture were embedded into Guangxi in the interactions of advance culture and backward one, new ideas and old ones.However, war is a stage full of blood and fire. And immigration in wartime is bound to bring many social problems to Guangxi, since the immigrating refugees would have no source of living and broken famil...