The Shanghai Lodger Association Studies (1921-1937)

Since Shanghai opened the port,the real estate market moved toward modernizing gradually,of which the most sensitive and active part was the leasing market.The Shanghai house rent emerged the high and low fluctuation tendency,whenever it met the abnormal factors,for example,the war or the economic crisis and so on.The housing rental dispute almost reached the irreconcilable contradictions between the landlords and the lodgers in Shanghai area during 1921 and 1937,because the rent increased or reduced. In order to negotiate with the landlords,one group of lodger associations rapidly appeared in Shanghai's neighborhood and block,for example the lodger federations and so on.This article analyzes the role which the Shanghai lodger association acted in the process of solving the house dispute during 1920s and 1930s.As the emerging industry,the real estate gradually flourished in Shanghai.At the same time,the number of the neighborhood residential was built,which satisfied the different type of residents.The formation of the lodger groups was the product that was produced in the process of which the rent market of the real estate was rising and the number of the neighborhood residential was continuously been building.The lodger association adopted the governing system and the bureaucracy that has the modern character in the organizational form,whose leadership mostly has the inferior merchant's background as well as the post in other social group.Because the funds collection was primarily paid by the leadership,it frequently caused the predicament of the shortage of funds.In brief,the lodger association was the modern group that was lead by the middle and lower merchant;whose main body was the Shanghai residents;which adopted the governing system and the bureaucracy in the organization form;whose funds was independently collected.The most important task of the lodger association was to solve the dispute of the house rent and maintain the lodger groups' legitimate rights and interests after it was established.The subject matter that was faced included the dispute of the house increasing rent,the dispute of the house reducing rent,the question of the rent-free in the war zone,the question of collecting rent in the solar calendar,the question of banning the unreasonable house rent.In order to reconcile the dispute and solve the contradiction,the lodger association disbursed the great efforts and obtained certain progress.But the measure which adopted in the process of solving the house rent dispute also had worth of discussing,which caused the defective effect.The external connection of the lodger association was the important attribute which affected its function in the operation process.The lodger association was playing the multiple roles in the association with the Chinese and foreign authorities,which must obtained the Chinese and foreign authorities' acknowledgment and rely on policy in the solution process of house rent dispute,even unconscious fallen into several sides in the disputes.The lodger association adopted all sorts of ways to hope that had their support when they processed with other social group's relations.Once there had the sound of the opposition,the lodger association can also gave to refute,to maintain boarder's legitimate rights and interests.About the appraisal of the lodger association,this article reveals that we need to see the result that the lodger association obtained and the limitation of the lodger association, and must take into consideration the huge difficulty which the lodger association faced. At the same time this article also thought that the lodger association and subordinate's boarder federation were the typical urban basic unit society autonomous organizations, which played the not-ignored role in strengthening the neighborhood relations and accelerating the integration of "the Shanghainese".