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Introduction
In 1934, Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Party (Guomindang) advocated the tool of mass mobilisation for reviving the Chinese nation. To what extent did this represent a genuine appeal and not a propagandistic artifice? And, furthermore, what role did the New Life Movement (Xin shenghuo yundong; hereafter, NLM), a state-sponsored campaign, play in Chinese society? This paper argues that the NLM had a lasting impact on Chinese society, and that it contributed to the shaping of citizenship and national identity. The case of the NLM in the Jiangxi Province demonstrates that state building, mobilisation and preparation for war were taking place in Nationalist China. Although results were limited in comparison with the utopian goals set by the Nationalists, the NLM condensed and epitomised the policies implemented by the Nationalist government, which contemporary scholars on modern China have aptly and accurately re-evaluated.2 Archival materials which are now available cannot provide conclusive evidence on the impact of the NLM at grassroots level. However, they are invaluable for tying together the Nationalists, the state-building process, and 1930s' society, on all of which this paper focuses. The paper is divided into four parts: the first part analyses how elements of anti-communism, Christianity and state Confucianism came into play in the NLM; the second part analyses how the Nationalists reinforced the idea of 'hygienic modernity'3 by projecting it on to the realms of state building and mass mobilisation; the third part discusses the changes introduced in society by the Nationalists with the creation of semi-governmental organisations; and the fourth part examines the involvement of the NLM with preparation for war.
The NLM received particular attention in Western scholarship during the 1970s and 1980s as a case of fascistisation of Chinese society and an example of counter-revolution at a time of fierce ideological and military clash between the Nationalists and the Communists.4 Most recently new scholarship has provided thematic studies which offer new insight into the unfolding and responses to the 'New Life' proposed by the Nationalists: Carlton Benson has illustrated the failure of the NLM's anti-consumerism radio messages and how these were manipulated by Shanghai's merchants; Yen-Hsiao Pei has discussed the role played by the NLM in...