A Social-historical Study of the View of a Child in Modern China--Child, Family, and Society

1999 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 09610044
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: History of thought
• Research Institution: SEIKEI UNIVERSITY
• Principal Investigator: YUYAMA Tomiko SEIKEI UNIVERSITY, FACULTY OF LAW, PROFESSOR, 法学部, 教授 (60230629)
• Project Period (FY): 1997 – 1999
• Keywords: Modern China / View of Child / Child / Family / A Social-historical Study / Refugee Children / Relief and Cultivation Work / Anti-Japanese Children's Troupe

Research Abstract

The following consideration results are based on my social-historical research on the view of a child in modern China. The main target period of the research is the years between the end of Qing dynasty and the early 1940s when the anti-Japanese war had already started.
1.A framework is devised to theorize the historical development of the view of a child during the said period. The view of a child in modern China is composed of a combination of three elements : "child of a family" as the view of a child in families and paternal clans, "child of a race" as a constituent of racial society, and "child of the country" as a constituent of the nation. Historically, since the end of the Qing dynasty, the "child of a race" had been built upon the basis of the "child of a family" (either affirmatively or negatively), and then they were finally integrated into the "child of the country" by the Communist Party government.
2.Here is my opinion about the meaning of the view of a child in the history of ideas and its influence on them during the said periodIn the development of the view of a child from "the hero of the future" to "the present little hero", children's social power to break through the present difficulties had been recognized, and the view of a child as the subject in making history was produced. (Rediscovery of a child in modern China). The view of a child as "a hero of the future" deprives children of the qualification as the present constituent of society, "the present little hero" recognize children of the qualification as the present constituent of society, and both brings the result that children should be educated to fit in the human model which the adults, who are the present subject, want too. These two views of a child induced the difference in juvenile maneuvers of the National Party and the Communist Party, and systematization of children and exertion of their fighting power also played an important role in the civil war after the end of the anti-Japanese war, and in the construction of a country.
3.By the consideration of the view of a child during the concerned period, this paper gives a better understanding of the situation of family, child, and society during the resistance period.