’Disabled But Not Useless’ : Research On The Employment Of Disabled Youth In Shanghai In The Mid To Late 1960s

After the establishment of the new Chinese regime,the CPC,as a modern political party,implemented various policies in all aspects of society in order to build a new socialist society in China,including social welfare policies for people with disabilities.As a Marxist-Leninist party,the CPC attached great importance to guaranteeing the "right to work" of people with disabilities.As a result,the policy of employment of people with disabilities,which aims to achieve the goal of "disabled but not useless ",has become an important part of the social welfare system for people with disabilities and is seen as an expression of the superiority of the socialist system.In the late 1950s,after Shanghai had completed the rehabilitation of the homeless,including the disabled poor,social welfare for people with disabilities was gradually implemented as a separate policy.As one of the major cities,Shanghai,with its socio-economic conditions,is in a better position to implement a social welfare policy for people with disabilities.However,the reality of the material base and other higher priority policies have constrained the implementation of employment policies for disabled youths.This article focuses on the employment of disabled youth in Shanghai in the mid to late 1960s.The first chapter reviews the reconceptualisation of ’disability’ and ’people with disabilities’ and placement policies,and demonstrates the efforts of Shanghai governments at all levels to eliminate social discrimination against people with disabilities and to promote the idea that ’disabled but not useless’.However,in the process of promoting the "not useless" of people with disabilities,the "disability" is accidentally linked to the "old society" and ’counter-revolution’,and homogenises the criteria for evaluating the social value of people with disabilities.Chapter 2 introduces the various realities,considerations and compromises before reality in the Shanghai government’s employment policy for disabled youth: in establishing the new social welfare system for people with disabilities,the Shanghai government continued the old charities in terms of resources and ideas;due to the lack of financial resources of the civil affairs department,the labour department was also involved and became the main implementing department of the employment policy for disabled youths.Although the two departments solved part of the employment problem of young people with disabilities,the priority of economic construction and accumulation,as well as the requirement of increasing production and save,limited the action of the two departments.Avoiding social disruption caused by youth unemployment was also one of the starting points of the employment policy for disabled youths in this period.When the number of disabled youths could not be accommodated in the number of jobs absorbed by the central government in Shanghai,the Shanghai government had to change its original policy of making exceptions for disabled youths and placing them in foreign and in the countryside.Chapter 3 describes how disabled youths and their families confronted the employment policies of disabled youths.With the government taking over the employment arrangements but unable to solve the employment problems of all disabled youths,disabled youths and their families under economic pressure resort to various means to voice their demands to the government in various ways,or find their own way out.