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Zusatztext "This book is a veritable model of a social history monograph--one that aspiring PhD students would do well to emulate. . . . It is unusual for a monograph so firmly placed within social history to be as attentive to the unenviable positions in which both weak governments and weak citizens found themselves! but in this Chen's work more than succeeds." ---Julia C. Strauss! China Journal Informationen zum Autor Janet Y. Chen is assistant professor of history and East Asian Studies at Princeton University. Klappentext "This is an important and novel book about a widespread Chinese problem: poverty. No other book profiles a social class of people! and the ideas and culture that surround them! so well and so decisively. With first-rate research and previously underutilized archival material! "Guilty of Indigence" completes our picture of urban China in a vital and dynamic fashion."--David Strand! Dickinson College "This is a wonderful book! elegantly written and carefully researched. Using well-made arguments and impressive detail! it moves fluidly between the social histories of Shanghai and Beijing! and brings to life the experiences of individuals who are generally left out of historical narratives. A significant and engaging read."--Jeffrey Wasserstrom! author of "China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know" Zusammenfassung In the early twentieth century, a time of political fragmentation and social upheaval in China, poverty became the focus of an anguished national conversation about the future of the country. Investigating the lives of the urban poor in China during this critical era, Guilty of Indigence examines the solutions implemented by a nation attempting to deal with "society's most fundamental problem." Interweaving analysis of shifting social viewpoints, the evolution of poor relief institutions, and the lived experiences of the urban poor, Janet Chen explores the development of Chinese attitudes toward urban poverty and of policies intended for its alleviation. Chen concentrates on Beijing and Shanghai, two of China's most important cities, and she considers how various interventions carried a lasting influence. The advent of the workhouse, the denigration of the nonworking poor as "social parasites," efforts to police homelessness and vagrancy--all had significant impact on the lives of people struggling to survive. Chen provides a crucially needed historical lens for understanding how beliefs about poverty intersected with shattering historical events, producing new welfare policies and institutions for the benefit of some, but to the detriment of others. Drawing on vast archival material, Guilty of Indigence deepens the historical perspective on poverty in China and reveals critical lessons about a still-pervasive social issue. ...
