² For the re-evaluation of the role of the Nationalist Party in state building, see Kirby, William C. (ed.), Realms of Freedom in Modern China (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004)Google Scholar; Bodenhorn, Terry (ed.), Defining Modernity: Guomindang Rhetorics of a New China (Ann Arbor, MI: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 2002)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Strauss, Julia C., Strong Institutions in Weak Polities: State Building in Republican China, 1927–1940 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1998)Google Scholar.

³ Ruth Rogaski in her study on treaty port Tianjin has underpinned the relationship between the improvement of health and hygienic conditions and the idea of modernity. She showed that by 1920s and 1930s this idea was pervasive and socially transversal. Rogaski, Ruth, Hygienic Modernity: Meanings of Health and Disease in Treaty-Port China (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2004)Google Scholar.

⁴ Eastman, Lloyd E., The Abortive Revolution: China under Nationalist Rule (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dirlik, Arif, ‘The Ideological Foundations of the New Life Movement: A Study in Counter-Revolution’, The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 34, no. 4 (1975), pp. 945–980CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Stephen. C. Averill, ‘The New Life in Action: The Nationalist Government in South Jiangxi, 1934–37’, The China Quarterly, no. 88 (December 1981), pp. 594—628; Wei, William, Counterrevolution in China: The Nationalists in Jiangxi during the Soviet Period (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1985)Google Scholar.

⁵ Benson, Carlton, ‘Consumers Are Also Soldiers: Subversive Songs from Nanjing Road during the New Life Movement’, in Cochran, Sherman (ed.), Inventing Nanjing Road: Commercial Culture in Shanghai, 1900–1945 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell East Asian Studies, 1999), pp. 90–132Google Scholar; Hsiao-pen, Yen, ‘Body Politics, Modernity and National Salvation: The Modern Girl and the New Life Movement’, Asian Studies Review, vol. 29, no. 2 (June 2005), pp. 165–186Google Scholar; Oldstone-Moore, Jennifer, The New Life Movement of Nationalist China: Confucianism, State Authority and Moral Formation (University of Chicago, unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, 2000), p. 4Google Scholar.

⁶ I have adopted Song Meiling's translation as in the ‘Outline of the New Life Movement’, by General Chiang Kai-shek, in Young, C. W. H. (pseudonym of Ch'en Han-ming), New Life for Kiangsi (Shanghai: The China Publishing Company, 1935), pp. 175–176Google Scholar.

⁷ ‘Jiang Jieshi: Xinyun zhounian jinian gao quanguo tongbaoshu [Chiang Kai-shek's Announcement to All Compatriots in the First Anniversary of the New Life Movement]’, 19 February 1935, in guan, Zhongguo di'er lishi dang'an (ed.), Zhonghua minguo shi dang'an ziliao huibian [Collected Documents on China's Republican History, hereafter ZMSDZH], ser. 5, pt 1, Politics (5 vols.), (Nanjing, China: Jiangsu guji chubanshe, 1994), vol. 5, pp. 774–775Google Scholar.

⁸ Reynolds, Douglas R., China 1898–1912: The Xinzheng Revolution and Japan, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993), p. 62CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁹ Quoted in Ibid., pp. 62–63.

¹⁰ Eastman, Lloyd E., The Abortive Revolution: China under Nationalist Rule (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974), pp. 66–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹¹ The Society for Vigorous Practice (Lixingshe) was established in 1932 and was dissolved in 1938; the Regeneration Society (Fuxingshe) was the lower echelons of the elite group of Lixingshe and had more than 100,000 members, whereas the Society to Establish the Will (Lizhishe) was established in 1929 and had as its membership pool the alumni association of the Whampoa Military Academy. Xu Youwei and Philip Billingsley, ‘Behind the Scenes of the Xi'an Incident: The Case of the Lixingshe’, The China Quarterly, no. 154 (June 1998), pp. 284–287, and p. 295 fn 37; Frederic Wakeman, Jr, ‘A Revisionist View of the Nanjing Decade: Confucian Fascism’, The China Quarterly, no. 150 (June 1997), pp. 397, 402–403.

¹² Chang, Maria Hsia, The Chinese Blue Shirt Society: Fascism and Developmental Nationalism (Berkeley, CA: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 1985), pp. 28–29, 51–57Google Scholar.

¹³ Academia Historica (GSG), Taibei, Archives of the Nationalist Government, GSG 508, ‘Huang Renlin cheng dianhua jiaoyu gaikuang. . . [Huang Renlin Presents a Memorandum on the Status of Audio-Visual Education Programme. . .]’, 20 January 1942, pp. 1722–1723. For materials kept at GSG I adopt the new collocation introduced after documents have been digitised.

¹⁴ Jizong, Xiao (ed.), ‘Xin shenghuo yundong shiliao [Historical Materials on the New Life Movement]’, in Geming wenxian (Documents of the Revolution), (Taibei, China: Zhongyang wenwu gongying she, 1975), vol. 68, p. 208Google Scholar; on the link between the Lizhishe, the YMCA and the NLM, see Thomson, James C. Jr, While China Faced West: American Reformers in Nationalist China, 1928–1937, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969), pp. 154–155Google Scholar.

¹⁵ Cai Zhichuan, ‘Nanchang Zhonghua jidujiao qingnian hui [The Young Men's Christian Association in Nanchang]’, Jiangxi wenshi ziliao (Jiangxi historical materials), no. 26 (1987), pp. 26–27; Deng Shukun, ‘Song Meiling – Jidujiao – Xin shenghuo yundong [Song Meiling, Christian Religion and the New Life Movement]’, Wenshi ziliao xuan ji (Selections of Historical Materials), no. 93 (1984), p. 73.

¹⁶ Caixia, Sun, Xin jiu zhengxue xi (The Old and New ‘Political Studies’ faction), (Beijing: Huaxia wenhua chuban, 1997), p. 209Google Scholar.

¹⁷ On the Nanchang Headquarters, see Hans. J. van de Ven, ‘New States of War: Communist and Nationalist Warfare and State Building 1928–1934’, in van de Ven, Hans J. (ed.), Warfare in Chinese History, (Leiden, Boston, Köln: Brill, 2000), pp. 350–372Google Scholar. See also Guomindang Historical Commission, Taibei (hereafter DSH), Te 6/14, Guomin zhengfu junshi weiyuanhui weiyuanzhang Nanchang xingying di er ting (ed.), Guomin zhengfu junshi weiyuanhui weiyuanzhang Nanchang xingying chuli jiaofei shengfen zhengzhi gongzuo baogao (Report on the Political Work by the Chairman of the Military Affairs Committee of the National Government at Nanchang Headquarters in the Bandit-Suppression Provinces), (Nanchang, November 1934).

¹⁸ Duara, Prasenjit, Culture, Power, and the State: Rural North China 1900–1942 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1988)Google Scholar.

¹⁹ Sun Caixia (1997), pp. 209–210. Yang believed in the necessity of changing mindset and erasing bad costumes and endorsed a vision of ‘fair and clean officials’ who would contribute to China's modernisation and strengthening. Van de Ven (2000), p. 354. On the link between the eradication of corruption among civil servants and the NLM, see Patricia Thornton, Disciplining the State: Political Corruption, State-Making and Local Resistance in Modern China (Unpublished Ph.D thesis, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 1997), pp. 134–135.

²⁰ They were the re-introduction of the baojia system and the division of the province into 13 administrative areas, in which commissioners were responsible for co-ordinating the work of the county magistrates and reporting to the provincial level. William Wei (1985), pp. 50–59; see also van de Ven (2000), pp. 350–364.

²¹ Sun Caixia (1997), pp. 218, 238–241. For Yang Yongtai's speeches, see Xuanxi, Yang, ‘Yang Yongtai xiansheng yanlun ji [Collected Speeches by Mr Yang Yongtai]’, in Yunlong, Shen (ed.), Jindai Zhongguo shiliao congkan (Collection of Historical Materials on Modern China), vol. 98, (Taibei, China: Wenhai chubanshe, 1973)Google Scholar.

²² Songlin, Li, Zhongguo Guomindang shi da cidian (Great Dictionary on the History of the Guomindang), (Hefei, Anhui, China: Anhui renmin chubanshe, 1993), pp. 557, 542Google Scholar.

²³ By July 1934, Yang Yongtai's position seemed to be further strengthened and Deng Wenyi seemed to be marginalised in the running of the NLM. Rumour had it that Deng was fired from his position within the Nanchang headquarters over the matter of allegedly having filed a misleading report to Chiang Kai-shek – on the issue of a local official (Xu Peigen) who had being involved in accidently setting fire to and destroying 10 Italian planes at the Nanchang Airport in June 1934 to cover up a case of embezzlement. Sun Caixia (1997), pp. 218–219, 225–226.

²⁴ Xin shenghuo yundong cujin zonghui (ed.), Minguo ershisan nian Xin shenghuo yundong zong baogao (General Report on the New Life Movement, 1934), (Xin shenghuo yundong cujin zonghui chuban, 1935), p. 112; hereafter XSYB-1934.

²⁵ XSYB-1934, pp. 112–113.

²⁶ Ibid., pp. 140, 143, 144.

²⁷ Ibid. Figures gathered from table 4, pp. 43–51.

²⁸ Xin shenghuo yundong cujin zonghui (ed.), Minguo ershisi nian quanguo Xin shenghuo yundong (The New Life Movement throughout the Country, 1935), (Xin shenghuo yundong cujin zonghui chuban, 1936), p. 753; hereafter XSYB-1935.

²⁹ This club already existed under a different name. ‘Jingcheng julebu gaiming wei Xin shenghuo julebu [The Earnest Sincerity Club has changed its name to New Life Club]’, Jiangxi Minguo Ribao (The Jiangxi Republican Daily), hereafter JMR, 26 February 1934.

³⁰ ‘Xin shenghuo julebu zuo qing Qi Zhenru jiangyan ti wei “Xin shenghuo wei fuxing minzu zhi jixu” [The New Life Club Yesterday Invited Qi Zhenru to Give a Talk on “The Urgent Need of the New Life for Reviving the Nation”]’, JMR, 20 March 1934; ‘Xin shenghuo julebu dunqing Ma Lingfu jiangyan [The New Life Club Cordially Invited Ma Linfu to Give a Talk]’, JMR, 23 March 1934.

³¹ Chifei fandong wenjian huibian (Collected Reactionary Documents on the Red Bandits), with a preface by Chen Cheng (np, 1935), vol. 5, Politics, pp. 1488–1490; Ellen R. Judd, ‘Revolutionary Drama and Song in the Jiangxi Soviet’, Modern China, vol. 9 (January 1983), pp. 136–138.

³² http://www.rotaryshanghai.org. See the section on history: RC Shanghai Historical Narrative and History of the Rotary Club of Shanghai – Part II, Far Eastern Rotary Review, November 1939.

³³ ‘Tongji Hukou xian Wutongling bangfei yudang [Order of Arrest for the Remaining Bandits at Wutongling in Hukou County]’, Jiangxi sheng zhengfu gongbao (Jiangxi Provincial Government Gazette), no. 2, (2 October 1934), p. 15.

³⁴ Ibid., pp. 14–15.

³⁵ According to Stephen Averill, the Brave and Righteousness Corps for Communist Suppression were no other than baojia militia units, named this way in the areas of Jiangxi recovered by the Nationalists. Averill (1981), p. 603.

³⁶ Similar occurrences took place in Manchuria after 1931, where some bandit groups used the pretext of resistance against Japan to pursue their own interests. Mitter, Rana, The Manchurian Myth: Nationalism, Resistance and Collaboration in Modern China, (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000), pp. 192–194Google Scholar.

³⁷ Ibid., pp. 29–31, 132–142.

³⁸ By the term Christian community I intend the National Christian Council of China, the YMCA and the missionaries.

³⁹ The Nanchang YMCA branch first opened in 1918. By 1925 the new building was equipped with a movie theatre, evening school and sports facilities. Cai Zhichuan (1987), pp. 26–27.

⁴⁰ Deng Shukun (1984), pp. 71–73. The author refers here to the Lichuan project which is described later.

⁴¹ Copy of ‘China Mail File No. 146’, January 8, 1935, YMCA, WS 27a, China 1935, quoted in Thomson (1969), pp. 164–165.

⁴² ‘Hanfa qingnianhui ji gejiaohui shenghuo fuwutuan zuzhi jianze [Letter Transmitting the Principles for the Organisation of the [New] Life Service Corps to the YMCA and Every Church]’, 1935, in XSYB-1935, pp. 248–249.

⁴³ ‘Zhonghua jidujiao qingnianhui ji jidujiao ge jiaohui Xin shenghuo fuwutuan zuzhi jianze [Principles for the Organisation of China's YMCA and Every Christian Church's New Life Service Corps]’, 1935, Ibid., pp. 263–264.

⁴⁴ ‘Fascist Methods of Salvation’, The North China Herald, 18 April 1934; Paton, William, Christianity in the Eastern Conflicts (London: Edinburgh House Press, 1937), p. 57Google Scholar.

⁴⁵ The Xi'an Incident in December 1936 would contribute to a change of attitude of the Christian community towards Chiang Kai-shek. Also by May 1937 ‘four of the movement's top executives were former YMCA secretaries’. Thomson (1969), pp. 190–191.

⁴⁶ Ibid., pp. 85–86, 173, 174; Young (1935), pp. 76, 87.

⁴⁷ Young (1935), pp. 55–56.

⁴⁸ Thomson (1969), pp. 111, 119–120.

⁴⁹ At the end of 1935 the General Association moved to Nanjing and during the war against Japan followed the central government's retreat: from Nanjing to Hankou in late 1937 and to Chongqing in 1938. It moved back to Nanjing in 1945. The movement continued as long as the Guomindang stayed in power. Xiao Jizong (1975), pp. 198–207.

⁵⁰ On Shepherd's involvement in the NLM in mid-1930s, see Thomson (1969); Ibid., pp. 175–184, 194–195; on his experience on rural reconstruction in Jiangxi, see Shepherd, George W., ‘Reconstruction in Kiangsi’, International Review of Missions, vol. 26, no.102 (April 1937), pp. 167–176CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁵¹ Baptist Missionary Archives at Regent's Park College, Oxford, Box CH/46, Miscellaneous Correspondence, Folder: China Miscellaneous 1925–1946, Letter from Nora Young to the British Missionary Society, London, dated 11 December 1934. Grateful appreciation is expressed to Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) World Mission of Didcot, United Kingdom, for permission to consult and select my own quotations from their archive material which is housed in the Angus Library at Regent's Park College, Oxford, United Kingdom.

⁵² On the changes in society introduced by the Communists, see Youliang, He, Zhongguo suwei'ai quyu shehui biandong shi (History of the Social Changes in the Chinese Soviet Areas), (Beijing: Dangdai Zhongguo shuju, 1996)Google Scholar.

⁵³ On this aspect, see Averill, Stephen C., Revolution in the Highlands: China's Jinggangshan Base Area (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), pp. 109–123Google Scholar.

⁵⁴ Wei (1985), pp. 137–138.

⁵⁵ ‘Minguo yuan nian zhi ershiliu nian jiaoyu wenhua jingfei yilanbiao’ (Comprehensive Tables on the Expenses for Education and Culture from 1912 to 1937), 1937, in ZMSDZH, ser. 5, pt 1, Education (2 vols.), vol. 1, p. 118.

⁵⁶ Jiangxi elementary schools in 1934 enrolled 390,750 students in 8,699 schools and 16,867 teachers. ‘Ershisan niandu Jiangxi sheng ge xianshi chudeng jiaoyu gaikuang tongji [Statistics on the General Conditions of Primary Education in Each County and City in Jiangxi Province for 1934), Jiangxi jiaoyu (Education in Jiangxi), no. 19 (May 1936), p. 47.

⁵⁷ ‘Minguo shijiu jian zhi ershisan nian ge shengshi jiaoyu jingfei gaikuang [Survey on the Funds for Education from 1930 to 1934 in Each Province and City]’, May 1935, in ZMSDZH, ser. 5, pt 1, Education (2 vols.), vol. 1, p. 113.

⁵⁸ The following is an example of how the textbooks adopted in the People's School described communism and its atrocities:

• The worst of all evils is Communism, which has no heart and no liver and no conscience,

  Communists kill and burn and make everyone unhappy,

  The Communists and bandits are brutal,

  The Communists and bandits are cruel,

  They recognize neither father nor mother,

  And they sell their native land.

Quoted in English translation with the Chinese text in Young (1935), pp. 52–53.

⁵⁹ ‘Jiangxi sheng shofuqu Zhongshan minzhong xuexiao shishi banfa [Methods for the Implementation of Sun Yat-sen People's Schools in the Recovered Areas of Jiangxi Province]’, in ‘Jiaoting chengni guanyu banli tezhong jiaoyu ge shixiang banfa guicheng deng jianling zhunbei an [The Provincial Education Office Submits Various Regulations, Methods and Other Orders Concerning the Undertaking of Special Education to Keep as a Record]’, Jiangxi sheng zhengfu gongbao, no. 89 (20 June 1934), pp. 41–44. On civic education and party doctrine, see Robert Culp, ‘Setting the Sheet of Loose Sand: Conceptions of Society and Citizenship in Nanjing Decade Party Doctrine and Civics Textbooks’, in Bodenhorn (2000), pp. 45–90.

⁶⁰ ‘Ershisan niandu Jiangxi sheng minzhong xuexiao gaikuang tongji [Statistics the General Condition of the People's Schools in Jiangxi Province for 1934]’, Jiangxi jiaoyu, no. 20 (June 1936), p. 91.

⁶¹ Averill (1981), p. 604, p. 604, fn 23.

⁶² ‘Jiangxi sheng baoli xiaoxue zanxing banfa [Provisional Methods for the Elementary Schools Established at the Bao Level in Jiangxi Province]’, September 1935, in ZMSDZH, ser. 5, pt 1, Education (2 vols.), vol. 1, p. 575.

⁶³ Wei (1985), pp. 138–139 and table A-7 on p. 167.

⁶⁴ Chen Heqin, ‘Jiangxi baoxue de huigu ji zhanwang [Review and Prospects of the Bao Schools in Jiangxi]’, in Ganzheng shi nian (Ten Years of Jiangxi's Administration), December 1941, ch. 33, p. 2.

⁶⁵ In 1924, Nanchang population was of 350,000 units; in 1933 it had dropped to 274, 203. weiyuanhui, Jiangxi sheng zhengfu jingji (ed.), Jiangxi jingji wenti (Jiangxi Economic Issues), (Nanchang: Jiangxi sheng zhengfu jingji weiyuanhui chuban, 1934), pp. 40–42Google Scholar.

⁶⁶ XSYB-1934, pp. 178–184.

⁶⁷ At the same time the policemen underwent training courses for understanding the meaning of the NLM. XSYB-1935, pp. 421–422. The results of the inspections are listed in Ibid., pp. 518–535.

⁶⁸ The minutes for the meetings covering the period July-December 1935 are in Ibid., pp. 178–215.

⁶⁹ Ibid., pp. 179, 184–185, 187, 190, 191, 194.

⁷⁰ GSG, Archives of President Chiang Kai-shek, 08A-02060, ‘Quanguo xialing weisheng yundong gaikuang baogao [Report on the General Situation of the Summer Hygiene Campaign Nationwide]’, 1935, p. 9.

⁷¹ weiyuanhui, Nanchang shi difang zhi bianzuan (ed.), Nanchang shi zhi (Nanchang City Gazetteer), (Nanchang: Fangzhi chubanshe, 1997), vol. 4, p. 401Google Scholar.

⁷² Ka-che, Yip, Health and National Reconstruction in Nationalist China: The Development of Modern Health Services, 1928–1937 (Ann Arbor, MI: Association for Asian Studies, 1995), p. 90Google Scholar. The ‘Report of Director-General of National Health Administration’ for 1943 confirms that by then every county had established its health centres. Quoted in Szeming, Sze, China's Health Problems (Washington, DC: China Medical Association, 3rd ed., 1944), Table I, p. 17Google Scholar.

⁷³ ‘Jiangxi quan sheng weishengchu jinü jianyan guize' (Regulations of the Health Department of Jiangxi Province for [conducting] Health Checks on Prostitutes), Jiangxi sheng zhengfu gongbao, no. 46 (24 November 1934), pp. 5–7.

⁷⁴ The Western Lens was the equivalent of the Magic Lantern in the West.

⁷⁵ XSYB-1935, pp. 198–207.

⁷⁶ It entailed the selling of newspapers and books and the writing of letters on someone's behalf.

⁷⁷ The campaigns are listed in ‘Xin shenghuo yundong laodong fuwutuan zuzhi dagang [Outline for the Organisation of the New Life Movement Labour Service Corps]’ 1935, in XSYB-1935, pp. 260–263.

⁷⁸ XSYB-1934, p. 430.

⁷⁹ XSYB-1935, pp. 428–464. Ningdu had been a Communist stronghold, and the presence of unburied corpses indicates that the area was not fully pacified. Ibid., p. 433.

⁸⁰ XSYB-1934, p. 452.

⁸¹ Ibid., pp. 470–472.

⁸² XSYB-1935, pp. 435, 437, 441, 451, 456.

⁸³ Facsimile of the form for inspection in rural areas in Ibid., pp. 427–428.

⁸⁴ Interestingly, the NLM Inspection Corps served as a pool for recruiting ‘reliable’ personnel (whose moral integrity was proven) and could in fact open the path to permanent jobs within the administrative system. Second Historical Archives, Nanjing, Archive 28–1550, A Brief Historical Sketch of the New Life Movement (Xin shenghuo yundong jianshigao), (ser. II, May 1937, Revised June 1938, The New Life Movement Headquarters, Hankow), p. 9.

⁸⁵ GSG, President Chiang Kai-shek's Archives, 08A-02071, Yan Baohang, ‘Xin shenghuo gaijin yijian [Suggestions for Improving the New Life Movement]’, 1936.

⁸⁶ GSG, President Chiang Kai-shek's Archives, 08A-02069, ‘Xinyun shicha tuan san yue gongzuo baogao [Report on Three Months’ Work of the New Life Movement Inspection Corps]’, 1 June 1936.

⁸⁷ I would like to thank Hans van de Ven for helping me formulate this point.

⁸⁸ ‘Nanchang shimin Xin shenghuo yundong fuwutuan gongzuo jihua [Work Plan for the Nanchang Citizens’ New Life Movement Labour Service Corps]’, in XSYB-1935, p. 281.

⁸⁹ ‘Shenghui Shengjinta xiaoxue zu ertong Xin shenghuo tuan [Jiangxi Province's Shengjinta Elementary School Organises the Children's New Life Movement Corps]’, JMR, 12 April 1934.

⁹⁰ The schools involved in the corps's scheme were 59, and we also have names and addresses of the youths who were involved. Jiangxi Provincial Archives (JPA), Nanchang, 43–12-0224-D41, Xin shenghuo yundong cujin hui Jiangxi qingnian jiaqi fuwutuan tuanwu gaikuang (An Overview of the Activities of the Jiangxi Youth Vacation Service Corps under the Association for the Promotion of the New Life Movement), 24 July 1934, pp. 4–8, 46–59.

⁹¹ ‘Jiangxi qingnian jiaqi fuwutuan [The Jiangxi Youth Vacation Service Corps]’, 1934, in XSYB-1934, pp. 242–248.

⁹² On different ways of taking bows and their meaning, see Harrison, Henrietta, The Making of the Republican Citizen: Political Ceremonies and Symbols in China, 1911–1929 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 52 (figure 5), 62 (figures a, b), 63, 77Google Scholar. A similar routine was adopted in public ceremonies such as those to honour Confucius. ‘Guomindang zhongyang zhixing weiyuanhui zhuanqing guomin zhengfu ming ling gongbu siKong banfa han [The Guomindang Executive Committee Asks the National Government to Order the Promulgation of the Methods for Confucius's Ceremony]’, June 1934, in ZMSDZH, ser. 5, pt 1, Culture (2 vols.), vol. 2, pp. 530–531.

⁹³ XSYB-1934, pp. 260, 263–265.

⁹⁴ ‘Zhi Nanchang shi ge xuexiao jihe qingnian jiaqi fuwutuan nuli tuanyuan lai hui lingjiang han [Letter Asking the Nanchang City Schools to Assemble Commendable Members of the Jiangxi Youth Vacation Service Corps to Attend an Awarding Ceremony]’ 1935, in XSYB-1935, p. 247.

⁹⁵ XSYB-1934, pp. 431, 437–438.

⁹⁶ Ibid., pp. 247–251, 266.

⁹⁷ Ibid., p. 431. On the students’ propaganda teams travelling from Nanchang to the neighbouring villages, see ‘Xin shenghuo xiangcun buxing xuanchuan dui ding san shi ri chufa xuanchuan' (The New Life Walking in the Villages’ Propaganda Teams Set [the Date of] the 30th to Set Off to Spread Propaganda), JMR, 28 March 1934.

⁹⁸ XSYB-1934, pp. 437–438.

⁹⁹ Ibid., pp. 470–472.

¹⁰⁰ Ibid., pp. 268–269.

¹⁰¹ JPA 43–12-0220, ‘Nanchang shi funü fuwuyuan tuan jinxing gaikuang [A Work-in-Progress Survey of the Nanchang Women's Civil Servants Service Corps]’, Xin shenghuo yundong cujin zonghui huikan (The Journal of the General Association for the Promotion of the New Life Movement), no. 4 (20 September 1934), p. 26.

¹⁰² XSYB-1935, pp. 766–767.

¹⁰³ XSYB-1934, pp. 269–271. Yen Hsiao-pen has analysed the Nationalists’ attempt at nationalising the body, particularly the female body. According to Yen, the idea of modernity proposed by the NLM with its insistence on family and home cares and health was perceived by young urban women as traditionalist. Thus they reacted to it by navigating rather selectively the wave of regulations for disciplining the female body and used them, instead, to free their body. As Yen's analysis shows there were contradictions and limits in the Nationalist idea on the ‘modern’ female body. It is important to note, however, that whereas the pages of Linglong gave voice to urbanised women whose role and body consciousness was indeed high, we know little of the impact of the NLM on less-aware women. It is possible, in fact, that as there were different levels of consciousness and awakening in 1930s’ Chinese society, the activities described above did raise women's body consciousness and emancipated them. Yen, Hsiao-pen (June 2005), pp. 165–186.

¹⁰⁴ XSYB-1935, pp. 765–770.

¹⁰⁵ Xiao Jizong (1975), pp. 201, 208.

¹⁰⁶ ‘Outline for the organisation. . .’, in XSYB-1935, pp. 260–263.

¹⁰⁷ In the case of Nanchang citizens the corps's organisation was organised by replicating the city districts and the distribution of the Public Security Office. ‘Nanchang shimin Xin shenghuo laodong fuwutuan zuzhi jianze [Principles for the Organisation of the New Life Labour Service Corps among Nanchang citizens]’, in XSYB-1935, p. 269.

¹⁰⁸ Ibid., pp. 260–263.

¹⁰⁹ Ibid., pp. 754–755, 761.

¹¹⁰ The General Association lamented the lack of data from the local level for compiling statistics on the Corps. By the end of 1935 there were in 11 provinces 295 Corps and 69,018 members. Jiangxi was not included among them, but the Labour Service Corps set-up at county levels which depended by the local county associations were 42 for a total membership of 5,645. Ibid., pp. 238, 547–548, 754.

¹¹¹ Ibid., p. 761.

¹¹² JPA 23–1-707, ‘Zhunhan tianju gongwuyuan laodong fuwutuan tuixing jianyi jiaoyu diaocha biao yi fen qing cha zhao you' (Receive and Examine the Filled-Out Form of the Civil Servants of the Labour Service Corps for Carrying Out [the] Easy-Learning Education [Campaign]), 5 October 1935.

¹¹³ XSYB-1934, pp. 267–268.

¹¹⁴ JPA 43–12-0220, ‘Jiaodao shangdian fuwuyuan gongzuo gaishu [An Overview of the Teaching for Shops Assistants]’, Xin shenghuo yundong cujin zonghui huikan, no. 4 (20 September 1934), p. 24.

¹¹⁵ Zhang Fangling, ‘20shiji 30niandai de Nanchang shangren yu xinshenghuo yundong – yi Nanchang “shangrenjie” wei zhongxin [The Businessmen of Nanchang in the 1930s and the New Life Movement: the Case of the Merchants’ Festivals]’, Lishi dang'an (Historical Archives), no. 2 (2005), pp. 102–106.

¹¹⁶ van de Ven, Hans J., War and Nationalism in China, 1925–1945 (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003), pp. 151–155Google Scholar.

¹¹⁷ Ibid., 154–155.

¹¹⁸ ‘The New Life Club yesterday invited Qi Zhenru. . .’, JMR, 20 March 1934.

¹¹⁹ XSYB-1935, pp. 212–213.

¹²⁰ ‘Air-defence is self-defence;’ ‘The purpose of air-defence is to strive for the nation's existence;’ ‘The purpose of air-defence drills is to fulfil our wartime preparation;’ ‘The people must help the government in building air-defence;’ ‘In order to revive the Chinese nation [we] must promote national air-defence.’ JPA 37–3-21, ‘Hanfu shijie jiangyan shishi banfa. . . [Letter with Attached the Methods for Carrying Out Speeches in City Streets. . .]’, 28 September 1935.

¹²¹ JPA 37–3-21, ‘Wei. . .ben niandu di yi ci xiaozhang huiyi. . .you [On. . . This Year's First Meeting of the Headmasters’ Council. . .]’, 28 September 1935.

¹²² DSH Te 6/20.2, Zhongguo Guomindang Jiangxi sheng dangbu gongzuo gaishu (Overview of the Work of Guomindang's Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee), (Nanchang, 1938), pp. 17–20. Ten year after its foundation the Labour Service Corps's structure was still in place and drew together nationally 494,763 members. There were 383,370 members at provincial level (sheng tuan), 81,272 at city and county levels (shixian tuan) and 30,121 at railway level (lu tuan). Xiao Jizong (1975), p. 237.

¹²³ GSG 508, 20 January 1942, pp. 1722–1723.

¹²⁴ Utley, Freda, China at War (London: Faber and Faber, 1939), p. 93Google Scholar.

¹²⁵ The city of Nanchang was officially evacuated at the end of March 1939 to Taihe in the central-southern part of the province. The report on the 1938's activities of the Jiangxi NLM Association refers exclusively to the work carried out in Ji'an. Very likely the association first moved to Ji'an, where in 1938 the YMCA and the main press agencies were also evacuated, and later reached Taihe. Nanchang shi zhi (1997), vol.1, p. 50; Cheng Qiheng ‘Jiangxi xinwen shiye jianshi [Concise History of Journalism in Jiangxi]’, Jiangxi wenxian (Documents on Jiangxi), no. 92 (April 1978), p. 23.

¹²⁶ DSH 483/24, Xin shenghuo yundong cujin zonghui (ed.), ‘Ge sheng shi Xinyun hui daibiao dahui jilu minguo ershiqi niandu gedi xinyun hui gongzuo baogao [Minutes of the Delegates’ Assembly of the Associations for the New Life Movement in Every City and Province, and Report on the Associations’ Activities for 1938]’, in Xinyun congshu (Collectanea on the New Life Movement), (ser. 21, 1939), pp. 42–43.

¹²⁷ Utley (1939), p. 49.

¹²⁸ DSH 483/31, Song Meiling, ‘Zhongguo funü Kangzhan de shiming [The Chinese Women's Mission in the War of Resistance]’, pp. 1–6, in Fuzhihui wenhua shiye zu (ed.), Xinyun funü zhidao weiyuan hui san zhounian jinian tekan (Special Issue on the Third Anniversary of the New Life Movement's Women Directing Committee), (Chongqing, China, July 1941), pp. 1–3. On the commemoration of Song Meiling after her death as ‘Mother of the Nation’, see Jeremy E. Taylor, ‘Recycling Personality Cults: Observations of the Reactions to Madame Chiang Kai-shek's Death in Taiwan’, Totalitarian Movement and Political Religions, vol. 7, no. 3, (September 2006), pp. 352–354.

¹²⁹ DSH 483/31, ‘Xinyun funü gongzuo weiyuanhui ji Xin shenghuo funü gongzuo dui de jieshao [An Introduction to the New Life Movement's Women's Work Committees and New Life Women's Work Teams]’, in Xinyun funü zhidao weiyuan hui san zhounian jinian tekan, pp. 65–68.

¹³⁰ DSH 483/24, p. 44.