Relief, Return, and Reform: Resettling displaced Chinese in civil war China, 1945-1949

This project examines the resettlement of various groups of Chinese displaced persons (DP) in post-WWII China. Since the Manchurian Incident of 1931, the rise of the Japanese empire displaced millions of people across Asia. After Japan’s surrender in 1945, the resumption of the Chinese Civil War between the Nationalists and the Communists complicated the task of managing refugees on local, national, and international levels. This project, first, investigates the Nationalist government’s resettlement policies towards internally and externally displaced Chinese and their experience in UNRRA/CNRRA-run DP camps. It, second, seeks to explore the Chinese Communist Party’s resettlement policies and patterns that were developed before the founding of the PRC in 1949 and influenced Communist China’s resettlement projects of the later decades. In sum, this project offers an Asian perspective for understanding post-war resettlement as a global project and experience.

Yiayi Tao, PhD