A Study Of Contemporary Charity In Hunan

Charity, a kind of public welfare, has four basic manifestation characteristics in the charitable actions, which are respectively regularization, systemization, scalization and systematization. It is a free salvation, because the whole social public volunteer to help the vulnerable group without anything in return. Developing charity and helping the vulnerable group can not only resolve the polarization contradiction between the rich and the poor appearing in the process of developing the market economy in our country and avoid the large-scale social upheaval, but also carry forward the fine traditions of Chinese nation and promote the cultivation of people's moral accomplishment as well as push forward the healthy and stable development of the society. Nowadays, there are already a lot of works and theses focusing on the research of this field in academic circles. Most of them focus on the study of the charity of the whole country or the charity during certain period However, few have conducted the study of the charity in specific areas. Therefore, from the perspective of charity history, social history and culture history, this thesis takes "A Study of the Contemporary Charity in Hunan" as the theme to systematically study and analyze the charity in Hunan from the foundation of new China to now, with intent to make some contribution to the research on regional charity.This thesis consists of five chapters and an introduction as well as a conclusion.The introduction mainly discusses the significance and value of this thesis, the previous studies in this field and their limitations, the research methods and the novelty of this thesis as well as its limitations.Chapter One investigates the general situations of the charity in Hunan from the foundation of new China to the period before China's reform and opening up. Because of such reasons as politics, economy, ideology and so on, the charity has been adjusted and reformed in the whole range of Hunan province. For example, all kinds of social welfare agencies were set up to house and educate those homeless and sick people; the poor people were organized to work for realizing self-help production; the system of social welfare relief, which was established by the government, took the place of previous charitable institutions to take on the work of social help. It was because of the measures that the charity in Hunan was confined to the previous status.Chapter Two is about the thawing of the charity in Hunan in the 1980's. After the reform and opening up, because people's minds were emancipated, both the folk attitudes and the official attitudes to charity began to change and the charity in Hunan naturally started to thaw. On one hand, the previous charity was resumed and further developed; on the other hand, the folk charity gradually appeared and developed, which attracted the attention and guidance of the government. All of them laid the social foundation for the revival of the charity in Hunan.Chapter Three discusses the revival and development of the charity in Hunan in the 1990's in details. This chapter mainly focuses on three aspects which are charitable institutions, charitable activities and charitable culture. Besides, the reasons why charity can be resumed are also stated. The charitable associations, established in the middle of the 1990's, indicates the approval and support of the government to charity. From then on, with the guidance and help of the government, a lot of charitable organizations were set up one by one, They actively propagated the charity and extensively held various charitable activities, so the charity was quickly developed and made great contribution to poverty relief, disaster relief, education, medical service, support of the old the orphans and so on. Thus, they became an important part of the social security system Chapter Four analyzes the characteristics and social effects of the charity in Hunan nowadays. Four characteristics are stated: first, government plays the leading role in the development of the charity; second, the charitable takes on a tendency of diversification in the process of development; third, there are more and more ways of raising money; fourth, the relief forms are varied. As an important part of social security system, charity helps the vulnerable group by different social resources. It shares the government's burdens and helps the people in difficulty. In addition, it also has great social influence on politics, economy, culture, etc.Chapter five illustrates the existing problems and the relative thinking about them. Because it has not been a long time since the charity in Hunan began to establish, although it has got some achievements, it is no doubt that there are still some problems. This chapter concentrates on three parts: first, the ideology of social charity still doesn't match with the economy development. The public understanding of charity is not complete and the minds on joining the charity needs improving; second, the legal system of charity is not perfect, the activity of social donation is short of specification and the charitable resources are not made use of enough; third, the development of charitable organizations is also not perfect and their functions require further strengthening.In conclusion part, the main contents of this thesis are simply summarized and some suggestions about the development and reform of local charity are put forward here. First, government's organization, guidance and coordination of charity work should be strengthened, so as to create a fine social atmosphere for developing charity; second, it is suggested that the development model of charity suiting the practical situations of local areas should be explored; third, the construction of charitable organizations should be perfected to promote the specialization of charity; fourth, the communication and cooperation among charitable organizations in different areas should be paid more attention to and the contacts among different charitable organizations in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macao and international charitable organizations should be promoted, with intent to study the experience in developing the charity in developed countries and areas, carry on charitable programs together and push forward the mutual development of charity.