英文摘要 |
Recognizing people’s identity comprises an indispensable part of modern state governance. If a person’s identity cannot be recognized or traced, not only will government agencies find it difficult to govern, but private enterprises will also be unable to provide services. This article explores the history of the elaboration of identification system in wartime Shanghai to examine how the modern Chinese government boosted its capability of identifying people, making them legible and approachable, for example for tracing and scrutiny. This article analyzes the actions, documents, and identity certificate produced by census, investigation, and registration procedures, which made it possible to establish and recognize people’s identity, which supports various items of governance, such as voting, maintaining order, and rationing food. This article argues that the Sino-Japanese War became a pivotal period when a variety of apparatuses for collecting people’s information for establishing and recognizing their identity were implemented; it was not a period the identification system was disrupted. The identification system was elaborated, with the coercion of Baojia organizations and food rationing enforced by the occupation state on the basis of military power; however, at the same time it bequeathed an institutional legacy and historical nightmare. After the war, the KMT government, which returned to Shanghai, extended its wartime identification practice into the effort to integrate the ID card system nationwide. Nevertheless, this effort made the citizens of Shanghai skeptical that the goal of this effort was really social control by the KMT and not just the legalization of citizenship matters. |