There is heaven on the top and Suzhou and Hangzhou on the bottom. Suzhou, which used to be regarded as the richest paradise on earth, was devastated during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and is no longer a thing of the past. At that time, some newspaper articles had been titled "Paradise after the Disaster" to describe the tragic situation in Suzhou after the fall. So how did the people of Suzhou, who were in the occupied areas, spend these eight years?
Guangxi Normal University Press and University ask brand new book "After the Disaster "Paradise": Suzhou City Life after the Fall of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression", jumping out of the previous anti-war "anti-enemy" research level, focusing on the ordinary people in the occupied areas, is a downward vision of urban social history, let us see the history, culture and daily life changes of Suzhou during the War of Resistance. In addition, through the study of the urban history of the occupied areas, this book attempts to broaden the research horizon of the history of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and reveals the history of the War of Resistance from the perspective of the ordinary citizens and the life experience of the people in the occupied areas.
Suzhou station is crowded with trains of fleeing people
Why should we pay attention to the cities after the fall of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and focus on the lives of the people in the occupied areas? Why did you choose suzhou? What are the main aspects of urban life after the fall of the War of Resistance? The author Wu Renshu has made corresponding elaborations on the above issues in the book.
1
The origin of the creation of "Paradise after the Disaster"
Regarding the memories of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, I grew up and heard many stories of elders, but what impressed me the most was the following three. I'll outline these three stories in chronological order.
The first story is a personal historical memory before and after the fall of Suzhou. Mr. Zhang Weiren, a retired researcher of the Institute of History and Linguistics of the Academy and an authoritative scholar of the legal history of the Ming and Qing dynasties, spent his childhood in Suzhou. He recalls those days, and his heart is still very sad. When the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out in full swing and Suzhou was about to fall, Teacher Zhang took refuge with his parents to the countryside on the outskirts of Suzhou. One of the things he remembered most was that one day on the outskirts of the city, he witnessed a miserable scene on the river. It turned out that out of nowhere, there were many door panels, and on the door panels there was the body of a half-naked pregnant woman, and her stomach had been cut open. However, this is not the most tragic. Over the next few days, he saw a Japanese soldier in a small boat with many door panels trailing behind him, covered with women who had died horribly. The Japanese soldiers were clearly here to demonstrate. He said that during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he sometimes had to go to the city to buy necessities for the people's livelihood, and many corpses could be seen everywhere on Guanqian Street in the commercial center of Suzhou. He felt that he had lived without dignity at that time, and it was not until after the victory of the War of Resistance that he could finally breathe out a sigh of resentment and walk with his head up and his chest.
The second story takes place in the county seat of Xingning, a remote county in Guangdong. At that time, the Japanese army had opened up the Line between the Guangdong-Han Railway and the Xianggui Railway, and occupied Guangzhou and important nearby major cities, but Xingning County escaped the disaster because it was not at the main point of transportation and did not have much strategic value. However, this does not mean that the people in the county town can be safe and secure. His father, who was only a junior high school student at the time and attended a middle school on the outskirts of the city, recalled that the atmosphere of the class was very tense, because from time to time Japanese planes took off from the airport in Shantou to attack the Chinese army barracks in the county town and Shenguang Mountain near the county seat, so often halfway through the class, when they heard the air raid siren, they had to evacuate urgently. As for daily life, it is still normal.
The third story is heard from mr. Zhang Pengyuan, a well-known scholar of modern Chinese history, an old predecessor of the institute, who in a chat mentioned a sour past. He said that he was in Guiyang during the War of Resistance, and that at the end of 1944, the Japanese army launched "Operation No. 1" had captured Dushan, which was only sixty miles away from Guiyang. At that time, people were panicked, thinking that the country was going to die, and they didn't even know where they were going to flee. He remembers his teacher saying in class, "Even if the country dies, you still have to remember that you are Chinese." "I asked the teacher if he had ever seen a Japanese soldier?" Teacher Zhang replied that he had seen the wounded and captured Japanese soldiers in the hospital, but in fact they were just teenagers.
These three personal experiences reflect the life of civilians in wartime, fleeing, hiding and trying to survive; they also reflect the social mentality of the time, which is panic, tension, helplessness and despair. These stories stimulated my desire to write a special book on the history of the War of Resistance from the perspective of the history of social life.
The origin of the writing of this book is actually very accidental. The author's professional field is the socio-economic history of the Ming and Qing dynasties, although during his service because of his contact with military historical archives and aroused the author's interest, he wrote one or two papers on the history of the War of Resistance, but it can only be regarded as a ticket-playing study, and it is difficult to climb the elegant hall. It was not until I was invited by the French scholar Professor Christian Henriot to participate in the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation's thematic research project "Cities in Turmoil: Historical Geographic Information Systems and Urban Life in Modern China" that I opened a window for my research on urban life in the occupied areas. At the same time, I would like to give special thanks to Dr. Sun Huimin of our firm, because she informed me that our collection contained two newspapers from Suzhou during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. Without the stimulation of Professor An Keqiang and the historical materials provided by Dr. Sun, this book would not have been available.
In the past, the author was mainly engaged in the study of the socio-economic history of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the Jiangnan region was an important research focus, especially Suzhou was the core of Jiangnan research. I am relatively familiar with Suzhou in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and when I participated in Professor An Keqiang's research program, I naturally chose Suzhou in the Republic of China period as the research object. As the Chinese saying goes, "There is heaven on the top and Suzhou and Hangzhou on the bottom." "Suzhou, which used to be regarded as the richest paradise on earth, was destroyed during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and is no longer the scene of the past. At that time, newspaper articles were already titled "Paradise after the Disaster" to describe the tragic situation in Suzhou after the fall. Perhaps some readers who see part of the contents of this book, especially the mention that the leisure service industry after the fall of Suzhou was more prosperous than before the war, will mistakenly think that the author is trying to overturn the case for the wang jingwei puppet regime at that time. In particular, I would like to state that this book was not written to rationalize the Wang puppet regime or the Japanese rule over the occupied areas, but in fact the most primitive and simple motivation was only to rediscover one aspect of history, that is, how the people in the occupied areas spent those eight years.
2
In addition to Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing
Suzhou is also an excellent example of urban life in the occupied areas
The eight-year all-out war against Japan was a Chinese "holy war," during which The richest part of China, Central China, fell one after another, and in 1943 the arable land area in the Areas Occupied by Japan (including North China, Central China, and South China) accounted for about 46 percent of all of China; the proportion of crop production was 54 percent of wheat and 60 percent of cotton; the number of modern factory workers accounted for 90 percent of the country's total, and the amount of production accounted for 94 percent. The status of the occupied areas of central China, in terms of agricultural productivity, is about the same as that of the occupied areas of north China, but the industrial productivity is three-quarters of all the occupied areas of Japan. After the fall of Central China, it was plundered and controlled by the Japanese and puppet regimes, and its economy withered, industry, commerce, and finance contracted, and agriculture declined; coupled with the shortage of grain, the shortage of daily necessities, and soaring prices, the people were not happy. In terms of cities, the phenomenon of population decline, serious damage to urban construction, and degradation of urban functions has become the impression of ordinary people. However, in October 1943, in the newspaper of suzhou that fell, there was an editorial entitled "Gossip Wuzhong Siguan" that said:
It is true that our Suzhou place, after all, is a paradise, although the living index, a day to increase the day, all hundreds of prices, like an airplane, but the business of the four museums, but still "the seat is often full", on this point, you can also see the deformity of society. ...... As for what are the four halls mentioned in this article? It is "teahouses, taverns, hotels, and tobacco houses."
The article pointed out that after the fall of Suzhou to the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, these four kinds of operators in the area were not only not affected by soaring prices, but instead had a deformed prosperity of "often full of customers". There is a huge gap between such a scene and our past impressions, is it the newspaper's exaggeration and whitewashing? Or is it true? If this is true, it shows that our past research on the occupied areas during the war period was insufficient. More importantly, what are the reasons for this phenomenon? What kind of structural changes have occurred in wartime cities?
The platform of Suzhou Railway Station was destroyed
The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was a very important field in the study of the history of the Republic of China, and the study of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in the past had accumulated considerable fruitful results. However, whether it is Chinese academic circles or European and American academic circles, most of the focus is still on the level of "anti-enemy", and for a long time scholars' attention has been less extended to discussions other than anti-enemy activities; at that time, the vast occupied areas that occupied almost one-third of China's territory and had more than half of the population were ignored by scholars. If we look at it from the perspective of urban history, although the study of urban history in modern and modern China has flourished in the past 20 years, the study of cities during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, especially the urban life in the occupied areas, is very poor as a whole, except for a few works. The fall of Suzhou during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the establishment of the puppet regime as the capital of the puppet Jiangsu Province are an excellent example of urban life in the occupied areas.
3
Through the analysis of four leisure industries
Explore the urban life of Suzhou during the Fall of China
The 1943 newspaper editorial "Gossip Wuzhong Siguan" pointed us in a path. Through the analysis of the four industries of teahouses, restaurants, hotels and tobacco houses, the author intends to explore the urban life of Suzhou during the fall of Suzhou.
The first chapter, "From Tradition to Modernity," explores the transformation from tradition to modernity in Suzhou's important leisure industry, the "Four Pavilions", before the war. These four have developed to a considerable extent as early as the traditional period, that is, the Ming and Qing dynasties. In the Republic of China period, these four industries also gradually moved towards modernization, whether it is from teahouses, restaurants or hotels can see the transformation of modernization, such as new teahouses, Western-style restaurants and Western-style modern hotels began to appear, and is closely related to the influence of Shanghai. The origin of the tobacco house is later than the first three, starting from the late Qing Dynasty, many opium smoke houses appear in Suzhou. In the Republic of China period, especially in the era of warlord chaos, suzhou's tobacco houses were particularly popular. After the Northern Expedition, the Nationalist government began to ban opium, so many anti-smoking centers were established, and the practice of opium smoking only slightly declined.
The city of Suzhou was bombed
The second chapter, titled "From Heaven to Hell," explores the period from the early days of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression to the fall of Suzhou from destruction to restoration, to the establishment of puppet regimes. In March 1940, the Wang puppet regime was established in Nanjing, gradually stabilizing the order in the occupied areas. In the financial structure of the Wang puppet government, the special consumption tax comes from the city's tea houses, restaurants, hotels, and other operators; in the material control policy, the grain control and rationing system have a considerable impact on tea houses and restaurants; the "New National Movement" launched by the Wang puppet regime also has a great impact on urban leisure workers in promoting economical consumption, especially the anti-smoking campaign in "eliminating the three harms" and closing many tobacco houses. At the same time, Suzhou's administrative status has also begun to change, since becoming the pseudo-capital of Jiangsu Province, a large number of immigrants have promoted the transformation of the city's social structure, which has also become an important background for Suzhou's deformed prosperity.
The third chapter deals with the teahouse. The question this chapter wants to explore is: How did the so-called representative of street culture, the teahouse, change during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression? Are the multiple functions of the teahouse in the past still the same? In an era of high prices and strict government regulations, how do teahouse operators survive? How can consumers express their resistance through the public space of the teahouse? More importantly, the teahouses in Suzhou after the fall reflected the government's further control over public space. After the fall, suzhou teahouses did not suffer from depression, but business prospered more than before the war. Behind the phenomenon that Suzhou people are keen on teahouses after the fall, it actually reflects a collective social psychology, that is, to find a way out of the depression under the uncertainty of the future. For public forums in teahouses, the authorities also explicitly stated that "it is forbidden to talk about state affairs." All this shows that daily life in the cities of the occupied areas, even leisure life, is often unable to escape politics, and the power of politics is even deeper into people's daily lives.
The fourth chapter is about the restaurants in Suzhou. Suzhou restaurants reflect the best example of how the fallen leisure industry, under the various control systems of wartime, was still profitable enough to operate. After the fall of Suzhou, except for the early days of occupation by the Japanese army, the prosperity of Suzhou even surpassed that of the pre-war period. Both the growth in the number of restaurants and the pomp and circumstance of consumer patronage have surpassed those of pre-war periods. In fact, the restaurant industry also faces many problems, and its costs have increased sharply in the economy due to inflation and high prices. The Wang puppet regime's control over the restaurant industry and its guilds was also tightened, not only by setting price limits, but also by the levy of feast donations, and even by the end of the war, the tax rate had been raised. However, the restaurant industry, which knows how to operate, can still make more than half of its profits. Suzhou's restaurant industry itself underwent many changes during this time. For example, the Huizhou restaurant, which was very popular before the war, is in decline at this time. There are also many restaurants and restaurants that have set up cafes or cafes, which shows the phenomenon of combining Chinese and Western in food culture.
Hotel advertisement in Suzhou newspapers during the Fall of China
Chapter 5 explores hotels in Suzhou. Most of the hotel consumers are foreigners, so the prosperity of Suzhou's hotel industry can reflect Suzhou's special economic status in the occupied areas and the changes in its urban social structure. After the fall, Suzhou's newspapers reported that the local hotel industry was booming, even more than before the war. Although suzhou's hotel industry is extremely prosperous, it also faces many operational problems. Hoteliers are also important tax targets of the puppet government, from hotel donations to tourist donations to hotel consumption taxes, operators have to pay a price. There are also labor disputes, and trade associations and professional unions play an important role in handling such disputes. In addition to the pre-war labor disputes and the problem of harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, we also had to face the control of society by the Wang puppet regime. In terms of operation, in the face of soaring prices and inflation, the industry is fighting between raising housing prices and limiting prices. In the later period of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the image of Suzhou Hotels was not good, and it was often regarded as the source of social problems, and it was the source of "smoke", "gambling" and "prostitution". From the hotel consumers and the identity of the travelers in the hotel case, it reflects the changes in the social structure of Suzhou at that time, that is, a large number of outsiders gathered here.
The smoke house is the subject of chapter six. This chapter explores how opium smokehouses flourished in Suzhou after the fall, with the second half of 1942 as the dividing point, showing changes in the early and late periods of the fall. The popularity of the Suzhou Tobacco Pavilion is most closely related to politics among the four pavilions, and the popularity of the Suzhou Tobacco Pavilion is directly derived from the policies of the Japanese and puppet regimes. After the fall of Suzhou during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Japanese led the legalization of opium and monopolized the sale of opium. The Japanese cooperated fully with the "Restoration Government" and established three major institutions that monopolized the opium trade, namely the General Directorate of Smoking Cessation, the Hongji Zendo, and the Special Trade Association, and the opium trade was also an important source of income. At that time, the tobacco houses that were licensed by the government were called smoking cessation centers and smoking abstinence centers, which were actually opium smoke houses. Abstinence centers are more tightly controlled by the authorities and a certain percentage of official land must be purchased. At that time, the customers who smoked opium, in addition to the upper class of society, there were many civilians. Because the high price of opium made many civilian smokers desperate, we saw a large number of smoking cessation advertisements in the newspapers, and smoking cessation hospitals and various smoking cessation drugs became a new industry at that time.
Caricature of smoking cessation during the War of Resistance
The discussion in the above chapters of this book presents a special case of urban life in the occupied areas during the War of Resistance. The example of the "deformed prosperity" of the four pavilions in Suzhou is far from the dilemma of urban life after the fall of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in the past. In the concluding section, the book will delve further into four main issues:
First, why did Suzhou's leisure industry show deformed prosperity during the fall? I will try to answer this question from the perspective of the social structure and social psychological changes in wartime cities.
The second important issue concerns the evaluation of the occupied areas ruled by the puppet regime. In the past, whether it was the mainland or Taiwan, the viewpoint still regarded it as a puppet, a traitor, and an enemy collaborator, but some European and American academic circles called the relationship between the Wang puppet regime and Japan a kind of "collaboration." The author compares the puppet regime on the spectrum of "puppet/co-operation" and tries to evaluate the role of the puppet regime in the occupied areas and its role in the life of the public, but it is by no means a reversal of the case.
Third, how can the leisure workers in Suzhou survive in the face of the puppet government's rule and tax policies after the fall? How to continue to operate and make a profit? In what way do these practitioners achieve "daily resistance"?
Fourth, the Suzhou experience of this period is placed in the context of modern Chinese urban development, discussing and discussing its significance, and proposing that it represents a model of urban development.
BOOK
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"Paradise" after the disaster: urban life after the fall of the War of Resistance
Wu Ren forgave
Guangxi Normal University Publishing House, November 2021
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