The largest sixteen years of change in Ji'nan
has always been in a certain degree of uneven degree. Typical is the heavy coastal, light inland, major cities, small and medium cities, such as Shanghai, Beijing and other metropolises have become the focus of attention of scholars, related research is also impressive, the vast number of inland two or three line cities are few people. It was not until nearly ten or twenty years ago that after the emergence of a series of wonderful studies by roo William to Hankou, Yangzhou and Wang Di to Chengdu, this situation had changed. In the middle of the 70s of last century, the University of Wisconsin, Professor of history, put his eyes on the inland city of Ji'nan, completed the change of China's cities: the political and development of Ji'nan in Shandong from 1890 to 1949, in comparison, it is not without academic foresight.
Ji'nan, as the capital city of Shandong, is not a prominent city in China. According to the author's four and a half years of life experience in Ji'nan, Ji'nan is far behind the coastal city of Qingdao in the economic level, municipal construction and living comfort. So, why did he choose Ji'nan? He believes that Ji'nan is a typical city which has been developed by its own commercial port. In the development of China, the Chinese people have complete autonomy and Ji'nan as a model. We can see the ideas and efforts of the modern Chinese themselves for the development of the city. In addition, after the victory of the Communist revolution, the new government changed its string and transformed almost all Chinese cities, including Ji'nan, into productive cities, thus declaring the past failure of urbanization. With the help of Ji'nan, Boadway analyzed many factors that led to the failure of China's urban modernization before 1949, and there was much more emphasis on the review.
it is well known that in the history of China, most cities are only a political center, not a production center, and do not have obvious commercial functions. However, in modern times, in the west, Chinese cities have broken the old closed and isolated situation, the commercial functions have been highlighted, and the city has gradually been incorporated into the broad market system, and the process of urbanization has been started. Shanghai, Guangzhou, Ningbo and other cities because of unequal treaties are different cities, Ji'nan is the Chinese people to set up their own trade ports, which is the autonomy of the urban development that Boadway said. From Boadway's analysis of Ji'nan for more than half a century, we can see that under the leadership of Shandong elite, Ji'nan's urbanization is very fast. Ji'nan, which opened its ports, came out of its closed space and established close commercial links with other ports in China. The opening of the Jiaoji Railway replaced the Grande Canale and established Ji'nan's pivotal position in the Shandong Peninsula commodity distribution. The prosperity of business led to the prosperity of banking industry and the rise of light industries such as flour and spinning. With this, modern communications, newspapers and service industries have emerged. Great changes have taken place in Ji'nan's municipal construction, education, customs and ways of life.
however, this change is not exactly the same as that of western urbanization. In the west, urbanization is the product of economic development to a certain extent. It is a natural process to promote commercialization by industrialization and to promote the change of urban internal structure and urban function. In China, the urbanization of Ji'nan is basically exogenous, that is, port opening leads to commercialization. Business induces a certain degree of industrialization and always lacks industrial base. In an era of urgent need to accumulate capital through the development of industry, Chinese cities consciously embark on a road of a consumer city and carry out a low-end modernization. There is another point to note: exogenous urbanization has gradually formed and consolidated the two yuan system of urban and rural areas. As Fei Xiaotong said in the "Chinese gentleman", the city of China is the economic center of the vast area, rather than the opening of the trade port of political pressure. The malformed and isolated prosperity of the consumption city can not only promote the synchronous promotion of the rural economy, but also introduce the technological progress into the countryside, instead of absorbing all the wealth and the excellent human resources in the countryside, causing a comprehensive fracture of the city and the countryside. Therefore, the role of urbanization in the development of China's overall modernization at that time should be greatly reduced. Besides
, the current political and social chaos in China has also blocked the pace of urbanization in China. He made a good comb of the rule of Ji'nan in late Qing Dynasty, Beiyang and the Kuomintang government. It can be seen from it that the new deal in the late Qing Dynasty played a major role in the modernization of Ji'nan, but then the Northern Warlords' warlords' administration and the bandit in the Shandong area were cross, which led to the frequent fighting and mutiny in Ji'nan. In particular, Zhang Zongchang, the ruler of the late Northern Shandong, adopted a comprehensive anti modernization attitude, which caused great harm to Ji'nan's economic development. And then there were 53 tragedies made by the Japanese. After a brief ten years of golden age, Ji'nan has become Japan's hand. The whole process of political turmoil, poor economic environment, the lack of central authority, the rulers are incompetent, making the focus of the development of the economy, Ji'nan has become a dream bubble, for most of the Chinese cities on the way of modernization is not possible.
can be found here in a paradox. It is very effective to study the urbanization mode of Chinese exogenous type and to provide an economic and social explanation for the failure of urbanization from the economic factors such as market connection, industrial production and trade activities. However, Boadway's more space is still used in the analysis of political factors, which seems to emphasize the mislead in the development of China's consumption oriented cities, but the political unrest in China is the main reason for the failure of urbanization. It is interesting that, in the mid 70s of the book, he had become a Ji'nan in the production and industrial city advocated by the new regime. After the greater political turmoil, he insisted that even so, the past Chinese urbanization model was still a failure and the road was wrong. China needs to find its own urbanization mode that is suitable for itself. However, today, we see that the ultimate goal of urbanization is to come down to how the city can make life better. The urbanization after 1949, the excessive emphasis on the city's production function, caused the serious deterioration of the urban environment and the tedious and monotonous life of the city. The excessive development of the new round of urbanization has also led to the destruction of the old city and the loss of spirituality and uniqueness.
the last word is out of the question. Boadway's early study of Ji'nan was both an advantage and a disadvantage. Bao's research is basically carried out under the framework of grand narrative. Today, the study of urban history in China attaches great importance to the application of advanced theories, such as the introduction of public space and civil society. The research object is also more subtle. The city's workers, prostitutes, rickshaw puller, health building, gentry class and so on have Classical Monographs. However, it can not be harshed. The results of the posterity have been achieved on the shoulders of the predecessors. There is no paving for the basic works of the study of Chinese cities.