Struggling with Famine in Warlord China: Social Networks, Achievements, and Limitations, 1920-21
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE Struggling with Famine in Warlord China: Social Networks, Achievements, and Limitations, 1920-21 DISSERTATION submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in History by Pierre Emery Fuller Dissertation Committee: Professor Kenneth Pomeranz, Chair Professor Jeffrey Wasserstrom Professor Guo Qitao 2011 UMI Number: 3460822 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent on the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI 3460822 Copyright 2011 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This edition of the work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106 - 1346 © 2011 Pierre Emery Fuller To my parents, David and Isabelle Fuller, for all the love and support, and to Faruk Tabak, a great mind and spirit taken away from us far too soon ii Table of Contents List of tables ………………………………………………………………………… vi Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………………. vii Curriculum Vitae ………...…………………………………………………………. ix Abstract of the Dissertation ………………………………………………………… x Introduction …………………………………………………………………………. 1 The paradox of 1920-21 ……………………………………………………… 3 The event as it stands today …………………………………………………... 5 1920-21 revisited ……..……………………………………………………..... 13 Measurements & rations ……………………………………………………… 25 One: The Outset: social mobilization, media, and relief in the fall of 1920 …… 28 The foreign presence …………………………………………………………. 30 Consuming the crisis …….…………………………………………………… 33 Beijing: a city mobilizes ……………………………………………………… 38 The central state ……………………………………………………………… 50 Traditional relief chronology ………………………………………………… 54 Wan County, Zhili, 1920-21 …………………………………………………. 57 Two: The Zone: county and village-level relief, 1920-21 ……………………….. 70 The rural dynamic ……………………………………………………………. 71 Late imperial Cang County, Zhili .…………………..……………………….. 76 Cang County, 1920-21 ……………………………………………………….. 92 Pingding County, Shanxi …………………………………………………….. 101 The village ……………………………………………………………………. 102 Province & county ……………………………………………………………. 109 Jingxing County, Zhili ……………………………………………………….. 114 South-central Zhili: Yuanshi, Gaoyi, Zhao & Ningjin counties ……..…......... 119 Xinhe County ………………………………………………………………… 127 Nangong County ……………………………………………………………... 131 Wei County ………………………………………………………………….. 132 Three: Beijing: poor relief and the reception of refugees, 1920-21 ……………… 139 Beijing’s poor in 1920 ……………………………………………………….. 144 Pingtiao ……………………………………………………………………… 147 Soup kitchens ………………………………………………………………… 159 Shelter, temple & street-corner handouts …………………………………….. 170 Official door-to-door relief …………………………………………………… 173 Private door-to-door relief…………….………………………………………. 176 iii Relief clothing ………………………………………………………….…….. 191 Lodging ………………………………………………………………………. 199 Workhouses …………………………………………………………………... 206 The generals ………………………………………………………………….. 211 Closing ……………………………………………………………………….. 216 Four: The Exodus: refugee reception beyond the famine zone in 1920 ………… 219 Hankou ……………………………………………………………………….. 222 Zhangjiakou (Kalgan) ………………………………………………………… 228 To the Northeast ……………………………………………………………… 230 Leaving Tianjin ………………………………………………………………. 232 Northeast by sea (Yingkou) ………………………………………………….. 233 Overland to the Northeast ……………………………………………………. 235 Mukden (Shenyang) ………………………………………………………….. 241 Mukden and the zone …….…………………….…………………………….. 244 Elsewhere in Fengtian (Liaoning) ……………………………………………. 246 Jilin City ……………………………………………………………………… 247 Changchun ………..………………………………………………………….. 248 Changchun and the zone ……………………..………………………………. 250 Rural Jilin ……………………………………………………………………. 253 Fujiadian (Harbin) …………………………………………………………… 257 Fujiadian soup kitchens …….………………………………………………… 261 Fujiadian and the zone ……………………..………………………………… 263 Heilongjiang ……..…………………………………………………………… 267 Closing ……..………………………………………………………………… 270 Five: Spring: the central state and the foreign presence in 1921 ……………….. 272 Diplomacy & finance ……..…………………………………………………... 274 The Nankai refugee camp ……..……………………………………………… 285 Back to the fields ……..………………………………………………………. 288 To the Amur ……..…………………………………………………………… 290 Under the White Cross ……..………………………………………………… 295 The missions ……..…………………………………………………………… 302 Seeing and not seeing ……..………………………………………………….. 306 Under the (American) Red Cross ……..………………………………………. 313 Americans, at home versus abroad ……..…………………………………….. 318 Closing ……..…………………………………………………………………. 325 Six: “The Chinese”: the discursive setting of the 1920-21 famine …………….. 331 The discursive climate …..……………………………………………………. 333 The echo chamber ……..……………………………………………………… 337 Dust, diplomacy, and a Nobel: Anabasis ……..………………………………. 348 On a Chinese Screen ……..…………………………………………………… 354 The Problem of China ……..…………………………………………………... 361 The dissenters ……..…………………………………………………………… 364 iv Closing ……..………………………………………………………………….. 368 Conclusion: ……..…………………………………………………………………… 371 Grassroots relief ……………………………………………………………… 374 State strengthening & war ……………………………………………………. 378 Bibliography: ……..…………………………………………………………………. 388 Appendix: ……..…………………………………………………………………….. 407 v List of Tables Page Table 1: Official grain measurements & conversions, 1920-21 52 Table 2: Merchant pingtiao activity in greater Beijing, 1920-21 156 Table 3: Relief to greater Beijing households by city charities, 1920-21 181 Table 4: Relief to greater Beijing households by individuals, 1920-21 188 Table 5: Official garment distributions in greater Beijing, 1920-21 194 Table 6: Private garment distributions in greater Beijing, 1920-21 196 Table 7: Poor and refugee shelters opened in greater Beijing, 1920-21 202 Table 8: Charity workhouses opened in greater Beijing, 1920-21 208 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I could not have had a kinder, more attentive, more intellectually rigorous advisor than Kenneth Pomeranz, who waded through my work with the patience of someone with all the time in the world. Jeffrey Wasserstrom was equally a pleasure to work with over the years, generous with his thoughts and time discussing all matters of things relating to my research and the wider field. I am also grateful to Guo Qitao for his insights and language training, while Kate Merkel- Hess was always there a few steps down the graduate path, graciously bushwhacking through the thicket of grant opportunities, job postings, and hurdles ahead. I would like to thank Guan Yongqiang at Tianjin’s Nankai University, Liu Yin in Beijing, Gong Chen and Liu Honglong in Xi’an, Shi Xia in Irvine, and Brooks Jessup at Berkeley for their help and camaraderie along the way. Robert Marks and Janet Theiss gave helpful comments on earlier versions of this project, Kate Edgerton-Tarpley offered advice on research pathways early on, while Robert Bickers helped point the way to important collections in England. I also would like to thank the staff members of the Library of Congress’s Asian Reading Room, the Peking University library, the National Library of China, and the library and archives of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. At the University of California, Irvine, the History Department staff provided a friendly home base over years of teaching and globetrotting while the charming faculty at the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures created an ideal setting for honing language skills. For financial support, I am indebted foremost to the International Center for Writing and Translation at UC Irvine, especially for a five-year Glenn Schaeffer Fellowship in Creative vii Nonfiction administered with cheer by Colette LaBouff; for funding my time in China, I would like to thank the Harvard-Yenching Institute, the Department of History at Peking University, and the Fulbright Program; and, at UC Irvine, the Humanities Center, the School of Humanities, and the Office of the Graduate Dean helped bridge the financial hole of graduate school summers. For their company and conversation over the years, I would like to acknowledge Quinn (along with Sophie and Cullen) Javers for time spent in China and the Bay Area; Nicole LaBouff for the research forays to Europe; Adam Guerin, Romas Kudirki, Brock Cutler, Laura Sextro, Christina Ghanbarpour and other dear friends and colleagues too numerous to name in California; and Mark Farha, who I’ve had the good fortune to cross paths with at so many times and places over the years. Then, a shout must go out to the regulars at the old and new Oscar’s in Xi’an, and to Simon and Dave in Tokyo for the music to get me through this. Finally, I conclude this project in recognition of David and Isabelle (Gigout) Fuller, true lovers of history and biography and the most devoted of parents, and in remembrance of Faruk Tabak, a scholar of the Ottoman Empire who, during tours together of the eastern Mediterranean, sowed the seeds for my turn towards China and graduate school, conversations that have stayed with me throughout this endeavor. viii Pierre Emery Fuller University of California, Irvine Department of History Education 2011 University of California, Irvine Ph.D., Department of History Dissertation: “Struggling with Famine in Warlord China: Social Networks, Achievements, and Limitations, 1920-21” 1998 Georgetown University B.A., Departments of English and Theology Fellowships/Grants