Research On The Transformation Of Nanjing Children Relief In The Republic Of China (1912-1937)

From the late Qing dynasty to the Republic of China, Nanjing had experienced frequent natural and man-made disasters. Deterioration of the living environment leaded the people in poverty. A large number of children who lost their parents and whose families were in extreme poverty state were in dire need of relief. Compared with Shanghai where there were a large number of children relief agencies, Nanjing lacked children relief agencies, and most of the salesian institutions were traditional relief agencies which pay much more attention and resource to maintenance than education. In the beginning, Shanghai Homes of Poor Children which was founded in 1902, many places funded the new-type salesian institutions, such as orphanages, homes of poor children. These institutions which shifted from the negative remedy which pay much more attention and resource to maintenance than education to the positive remedy of upbringing which mostly combined support and education with engineering like the West Salesian orphanage mode. The emergence of these new-type children relief agencies played an exemplary role in Nanjing children relief. In the modern times, the foreign missionaries founded a large number of orphanages in China. Some Chinese people constantly introduced and paid attention to western salesian career. Under the influence of western secular eastward, many communities who were keen to philanthropy began to change the traditional salesian institutions. In this social context, Nanjing children relief career also began the transformation in the Republic of China.In this paper, the three children relief agencies in Nanjing in the Republic of China, the Infant House which was founded in 1912, the Buddhism Charity Kindergarten founded in 1924, the Private Orphanage founded in 1934, are the example. The paper examines the transformation of Nanjing children relief in the Republic of China. The transformation ar mainly in about three aspects:First, as for the organization and management systems and the funding sources of Nanjing children relief agencies, it shifted from official to folk. In terms of the funding sources, the main funding of traditional Salesian agencies came from the government, and the rest came from the social contributions. The Infant House was founded by Huang Xing who served as the head of the Nanjing, so its funding mainly depended on the government. But the funding of the Buddhism Charity Kindergarten and the Private Orphanage mainly relied on the social contributions and the founding funding. In terms of organization and management, the traditional salesian institutions were supervised by the government and the gentlemen handled specific matters. The authority of the traditional salesian institutions were in the hands of government officials. Although there were a large number of political directors as the director of the Infant House, however it depended on the government funding, its management might be subject to government intervention force to some extent, the authority of the Buddhism Charity Kindergarten and the Private Orphanage were in the hands of the nongovernmental group which founded them. From the folk of the funding sources and the de-bureaucratization of organizational management, we can find the transformation of Nanjing children relief from official to folk. The incident of replacing dean which happened in 1924 makes us see the the failure of official power.Secondly, Nanjing children relief agencies remedy shifted from the negative relief to the positive relief. The education level of teaching staff was improved. These relief agencies attached importance to education, discipline, knowledge education and vocational education. The Children who were succoured accepted standardized education. These relief agencies formulated strict management regulations. They trained self-reliance and self-care ability of students. They made the clothes, food and accommodation of students standard. These measures made the lives of students ordering. After graduation, good students continued to go to school and other students who were recommended by these relief agencies worked in factories and shops.Finally, the transformation of Nanjing children relief agencies are mainly in the following aspects. The students came from all over the country. Many students came from Anhui, Hunan, Hubei and other provinces. These relief agencies had strict admission conditions. They only adopt healthy, no infectious diseases, no mental illness and age-appropriate children to school. The students participated in community-oriented activities. The students participated actively in patriotic activities, basketball, scouts parade and other social activities.However, compared with Beijing and Shanghai children relief agencies, it still had many problems. For example, the number and the funding of relief agencies were less, sex ratio was unbalanced, equipment of relief agencies was poor, vocational education was insufficient development and so on.