TY - BOOK AU - Chen,Janet Y. TI - Guilty of Indigence: The Urban Poor in China, 1900-1953 SN - 9780691161952 AV - HV4150.A3 U1 - 305.569095109041 23 PY - 2012///] CY - Princeton, NJ : PB - Princeton University Press, KW - Poverty KW - Government policy KW - China KW - History KW - 20th century KW - Urban poor KW - HISTORY / Asia / China KW - bisacsh KW - Beijing KW - Communists KW - Japanese penology KW - Nanjing Decade KW - Nationalist Party KW - Nationalist government KW - People's Republic KW - Republican-era China KW - Shanghai KW - World War II KW - agrarian revolutionaries KW - beggars KW - citizenship KW - coffin repositories KW - custodial detention KW - detention KW - government custody KW - government institutions KW - homelessness KW - incarceration KW - industrial training KW - labor KW - nonworking poor KW - poor relief KW - poorhouses KW - poverty policies KW - productive citizens KW - productivism KW - reforming elites KW - refugee crisis KW - refugees KW - relief agencies KW - relief agenda KW - scientific charity KW - security KW - shantytowns KW - social dislocation KW - social parasites KW - socialist ideology KW - sociology KW - straw huts KW - twentieth-century China KW - urban disorder KW - urban poor KW - urban poverty KW - vagrancy KW - war victims KW - work relief KW - workhouse KW - workhouses N1 - Frontmatter --; Contents --; Acknowledgments --; A Note on Conventions --; Introduction --; Chapter 1. Between Charity and Punishment --; Chapter 2. "Parasites upon Society" --; Chapter 3. "Living Ghosts" during the Nanjing Decade --; Chapter 4. Beggars or Refugees? --; Chapter 5. Keeping Company with Ghosts --; Epilogue --; Notes --; Glossary --; Bibliography --; Index; restricted access; Issued also in print N2 - 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.Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions UR - https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400839988?locatt=mode:legacy UR - https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9781400839988 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/cover/covers/9781400839988.jpg ER -