Chinese Capitalists in Japan's New Order

by Coble, Parks M.

• ISBN13: 9780520232686
• ISBN10: 0520232682
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

In this probing and original study, Parks M. Coble examines the devastating impact of Japan's invasion and occupation of the lower Yangzi on China's emerging modern business community. Arguing that the war gravely weakened Chinese capitalists, Coble demonstrates that in occupied areas the activities of businessmen were closer to collaboration than to heroic resistance. He shows how the war left an important imprint on the structure and culture of Chinese business enterprise by encouraging those traits that had allowed it to survive in uncertain and dangerous times. Although historical memory emphasizes the entrepreneurs who followed the Nationalists armies to the interior, most Chinese businessmen remained in the lower Yangzi area. If they wished to retain any ownership of their enterprises, they were forced to collaborate with the Japanese and the Wang Jingwei regime in Nanjing. Characteristics of business in the decades prior to the war, including a preference for family firms and reluctance to become public corporations, distrust of government, opaqueness of business practices, and reliance of personal connections(guanxi)were critical to the survival of enterprises during the war and were reinforced by the war experience. Through consideration of the broader implications of the many responses to this complex era,Chinese Capitalists in Japan's New Ordermakes a substantial contribution to larger discussions of the dynamics of World War II and of Chinese business culture.

Author Biography

Parks M. Coble is Professor of History at the University of Nebraska.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	1	(10)
PART ONE War
Surviving the Fall of Shanghai	11	(22)
PART TWO Conquerors and their Collaborators
Japan's New Order	33	(16)
Establishing Control: The North China and Central China Development Companies	49	(18)
Puppet Governments and Chinese Capitalists	67	(34)
PART THREE Chinese Capitalists: Survival and Collaboration
Individual Firms and the War Experience	101	(13)
The Rong Family Industrial Enterprises and the War	114	(26)
Textile and Consumer Industries in the War Era: Beyond the Rong Model	140	(27)
Chemical and Match Industrialists	167	(28)
China's Rubber Industry	195	(10)
Conclusion	205	(10)
Notes	215	(38)
Bibliography	253	(22)
Glossary	275	(10)
Index	285