CHARITABLE behaviour has long been regarded as a human virtue, even during the undeveloped Middle Ages in China when it existed at a comparatively low level.

　　In times closer to the modern age, when social contradictions were intensifying, the ordinary citizen's sense of social public service could still be seen.

　　Old Shanghai had a huge populations thanks to its prosperity. However, the conditions under which families lived was totally different in the semi-colonial and semi-feudal era.

　　Although some people were poverty stricken and had to struggle for their existence, Shanghai, as the national economic centre with a developed culture and good level of education, had no lack of citizens who were not only wealthy but warm-hearted.

　　They planned the establishment of various charities which were mainly run by religious groups, "Tongxiang Hui" (Hometown Associations), "Tongye Gonghui" (Associations of the Same Trade) and various other groups organized by social personalities.

　　The services they provided involved at least 20 aspects, for instance, adopting abandoned babies or children, protecting poor pregnant women and offering medical treatment to poverty-stricken patients. As a burgeoning business, the charitable cause in Shanghai at that time took the lead in China both in its scope and the number of services provided.

　　Yet it was impossible for each charitable institution to carry out all the services needed. So each laid particular emphasis on a particular activity. The Shanghai Orphan Home, for example, was specially organized to look after orphans.

　　The charitable institutions in Shanghai were basically operated by non-government organizations. Therefore, finding funding sources was crucial to their development because the local government could only give limited financial support.

　　Actually, the charitable institutions had to be self-reliant in collecting the funds they needed and these came from individual donations and their own business income.

　　People who participated in charitable causes, whether celebrities or nobodies, were those possessing sympathy for others. They were the basic foundation on which the work of the charities was built.

　　In addition, the public sense of being good citizens as well as high moral standards, were factors in the growth of charity work in the city. Especially in the war period, when refugees were everywhere, charitable institutions supported the poor and the weak and didn't ask for anything in return. What they achieved was, to some extent, only of benefit to a small proportion of the people in need, but the social significance was undoubtedly admirable.

　　To devote oneself to a charitable cause was also seen as reaching a lofty state. It even became an important standard by which to measure the achievements of a famous person. (By Zheng Zu'an/The author is from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences)