Conclusion: Culture, Modernity and the Sources of National Identity

The exigencies of wartime relief efforts depleted the resources of native-place associations, which were also constrained by the Japanese occupation of Shanghai and the outflow of population from the city, reversing earlier immigration trends. The economic crises of the civil war period further limited the possible activities of native-place organizations. Although these associations survived past 1949 to be investigated by the new Communist government in 1951, the investigators faced greatly diminished associations.¹ Maoist policies of fixing rural and urban populations prevented the influx of new immigrants to the city. Nonetheless, the old huiguan — shells of their former selves —