Tobacco, Western Education, and the Japanese Army: Globalization in a Northern County in China, 1900-1950

Abstract

My dissertation explores the relationships between state, local elites, and foreign powers in a northern county Xuchang of Henan Province during the early twentieth century. I selected three case studies and examine each case in each of my chapters. The first chapter focuses on the arrival of the British American Tobacco Company in Xuchang and its efforts to promoting a new cash crop—the bright leaf tobacco. The boom of husbanding the bright leaf tobacco in Xuchang and its nearby counties led to a series of social transformations of Xuchang, such as the urban landscape of the Xuchang county seat being remapped, the formation of a new rich group: owners of tobacco collecting agencies. With a growing body of Xuchang residents who could afford western-style education, some cultural elites in Xuchang were able to establish and maintain private western-style middle schools and high schools from the 1930s to 1940s, which I explore in my second chapter. These cultural elites overcame various hurdles, such as banditry, warfare, and lack of adequate government funding to develop these schools. As they facilitated the spread of western style education in Xuchang, these cultural elites also reinforced their social and cultural capital. The third chapter explores why Xuchang was devastated more than other counties in Henan during the 1942 famine. As the Chinese Nationalist government prioritized military survival and marginalized the livelihoods of Henan people, the social-political power of the Xuchang elites was weakened. They were unable to reduce the government grain procurement or effectively relieve the famine, could only sue the corrupt Xuchang officials whose embezzlement exacerbated the famine fatalities.