[
    {
        "id": 208449,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1978",
        "page_number": 173,
        "title": "RAS-1978",
        "content_text": "VILLAGE GOVERNMENT IN CHINA, 1933\n\n157\n\nof approximately 2437 inhabitants. It differs from typical rural villages in at least three respects: it is very young, having a history of only about fifty years; it is rather a grain market town with many stores than an agricultural community; and it is really a suburb of Peiping, lying just north of the former capital, and its whole economic, political and social life is highly colored by this fact.\n\nAt present there exist in the town two sets of political organizations: the old type established by the people themselves, and a more recent type set up by provincial or Kuomintang authorities. The two sets of organizations function simultaneously, and each seems to be weakened by the presence of the other. Of the first type is the village self-government of the traditional kind, a Chamber of Commerce composed of the leading merchants, and an Association of Farmers for the Protection of Crops.\n\nIn 1915 a district self-government movement was started. The term is not exactly accurate, however, since all the officers were appointed from among the various heads of villages by the county government or by the governor of the capital district of Peking direct. This organization worked with the cooperation of the traditional village governments, and seems both to have supplemented and coordinated them.\n\nIn 1919 the provincial authorities decided to remodel the system of self-government after the Shansi plan. According to this system, which is almost identical with the plan adopted later by the Central Government, five and twenty-five families were to be gathered into groups each with a chief. One hundred families or more were to constitute a village with a village head. Above the village there was to be a district office under a leader who would serve as a link between the self-government of the villages and the officials of the county government. This district head was also to serve as chief of the local police.\n\nThis theoretic plan was not so democratically carried out. In Ching Ho the selection of the village head was not made by popular vote in a mass meeting, as was supposed to have been done. Only the leaders of the village were present, no vote was taken, and the office was assumed by the associate of the former village head. Nor was the district head elected, his office being taken temporarily\n\n1 Ibid: chapters seven and eight, p. 96-121. The following description is taken from this section of the book.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 208450,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1978",
        "page_number": 174,
        "title": "RAS-1978",
        "content_text": "158 \n\nC. MARTIN WILBUR \n\nby the police head, who was a government officer under direct control of the county police office. Thus very little self-government is apparent in this new system. \n\nAnother phase of activity where external pressure was brought to bear upon the traditional forms of organization in Ching Ho was in the establishment of a local branch of the Kuomintang party. In 1928 the county party organization appointed three men to organize a local party in the district. But because enough members could not be found to form a proper district party the organization was given the rank of branch association. In the meantime the directors attempted to form two organizations in competition with already established semi-political bodies. \n\nThe first of these was to be a Merchants' Union to displace the influential Chamber of Commerce composed of the leading shopkeepers of Ching Ho. The attempt to form a competitive Merchants' Union was not very successful. Although, the Chamber of Commerce suffered a setback, it followed a policy of passive resistance and its leaders are only waiting for a favorable opportunity to revive their own organization. \n\nThe second body which the local Kuomintang party tried to crowd out was the Farmers' Association for the Protection of Crops. This organization has a history of several hundred years in China, and in Ching Ho it was quite powerful. Its main purpose is to protect green crops in spring and autumn, but it enters into other activities for the benefit of the farmers. The local Kuomintang attempted to organize a Farmers' Union on the pattern of the successful organizations in South China. Although the party authorities worked quite hard to form such a union in the district, they were only successful in smaller villages, and could not get a foothold in Ching Ho itself, where the association was too powerful to be destroyed. \n\nAt the time the survey was made the fortunes of the party were under a cloud due to internal dissensions. All the party members had left town including the organizer and his associates. The organizations they had established continued to function in an uncertain way. \n\nIf Ching Ho were a typical rural village one might be able to infer what the results will be when the National Government",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593",
        "rank": 0
    }
]