Establishing A New Institution:Further Study Of The Imperial Post Office

As a major component of the modern country communication system, post plays an important role in people’s daily lives. The modern Chinese post office originated from the new custom controlled by the westerners.Though it was very normal to see old-to-new systems transformation in the reform waves of the Late Qing Dynasty, the road for the new system was not always so flat.The establishment of the Imperial Post Office is not only owned to the new custom, we also must see something the Qing government had done.The new custom regarded the pots office as a subordinate body at first and provide it with funds, personnel, facilities.Until1911when the post office departed from the custom, the new custom had helped the post office lay a firm foundation and defeat the I-chan, Foreign Postal, Hsin-chu. by its own strength. While the Qing government and some enlightened person had tried to establish the modern post system by opening the Wen-pao-chu, translating I-chan to post office, although these attempts ended in failure. When the National Post was established in1896, the Qing government had announced it a governmental agencies through providing it with policy, law, finance,though it still master by the custom.The thesis mainly discusses the establishment of the post office from the interactions and exchanges with the old communications and old social networks, and gives more attentions to the Qing government and new custom in the discourse.