Water Conservancy Construction And Local Society In Huangyan County During The Period Of The Republic Of China

This article is to discuss the relationship between local water conservancy construction and the local society.Take Huangyan County during the period of the Republic of China as an example,the interaction between its water conservancy construction and local society reflected the operation model of local society,as well as the development of the government controlling the country through the local administration.The present paper is to investigate how local water conservancy construction and local society interact through study the way how state power works and the role what it plays.Through a great amount of literature reviews regarding regional documents of Huangyan County,this article explores the social interactive pattern and situation in water conservancy construction during the period of the Republic of China with an academic perspective of Social History.The introduction part conducts reviews for past academic ideas on this topic,explains the topic significance and research methods and innovation.The article mainly consists of five parts:the first part introduces the historical and social background of water conservancy construction in Huangyan County including natural and social environments and previous construction status;the second part presents the implementation and management for water conservancy construction in Huang Yan including the framework and details of water conservancy organizations and hydraulic projects established by national government;the third part analyzes the leading nature of central government and the interactive pattern among central government,local government and public,for instance,the behaviors of local elites and grassroots when they faced to the conflict of interest;the fourth part shows the important role the grassroots played in the management and maintenance works;the last part demonstrates the social impact of regional water conservancy construction on local regions.The turbulent political and social environment compelled the central government of the Republic of China to gradually decentralize its controlling power to local governments,especially in infrastructure construction such as water conservancy construction.Due to the decentralization,a series of transformation occurred as follows:gentries started to organize public to repair water conservancy,and public spontaneously constructed water conservancy.The financing and investment patterns also varied to be diverse,instead of fully depending on government funds.In addition to government-driven arrangement,more accesses for initiative public to organize construction activities were opened.In the period,both cooperation and confliction were existed between central and local government and hence a new dispute form known as 'lawsuit' appeared.Because of 'lawsuit' mechanism,more people started to fight for their water right through legal approach.On the other side,both central and local government started to pay more attention to management and maintenance of water conservancy facilities and hence cooperated with each other.In the cooperation,the central government assisted local government with techniques,while the local government was responsible for construction implementation.Hopefully the research on the construction and revitalization of water conservancy in Huangyan County during the period of Republic of China will provide more ideas and insights into the interactive pattern between central regime and local society.