On Monday 6th November Yoon Hyong-jin (Asiatic Research Institue, Korea University) is speaking on "Community Organizations in the Colonial East Asia and its legacy: Focused on 'Baojia'".

11a.m. to 12:30p.m. (Free admission)
Maison de l'Asie, First floor salon, 22 avenue du Président Wilson, 75116 Paris

Baojia(保甲) had been a traditional Chinese resident organization since the Song Dynasty. However, Baojia was rebuilt into a new system through the Japanese colonial rule of Taiwan. The Governor-General of Taiwan succeeded in stabilizing Taiwan through Baojia, which is a security organization closely connected with the police and operated as an administrative aid organization. The Baojia system of Taiwan was later applied to the Kwantung Leased Territory and Manchukuo and expanded to the northeast of China, and during the Sino-Japanese War, it was transplanted to the puppet governments of the occupied territories.  This "Taiwan model" of Baojia spread beyond the boundaries of the Japanese Empire by the introduction of the Baojia system by the Nanjing Nationalist Government in the 1930s. The Nanjing Nationalist Government initially operated Baojia to defeat the Chinese Communist Party in some areas, and later tried to make it a standard resident organization nationwide. Baojia functioned as a mobilizing system during the war. In addition, the experience of operating a standard resident organization through Baojia, which is nominally an autonomous organization, but practically an administrative auxiliary institution, left important legacies in postwar regimes.

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