# Negotiating Shanghai Mercy Hospital: Philanthropy, Business and Control of Madness in Republican China

## TL;DR

This paper explores the complex negotiations and eventual failure of establishing a psychiatric hospital in Republican Shanghai due to conflicting interests between philanthropy and governance.

## Contribution

The paper provides new insights into the intersection of philanthropy, business, and governance in early 20th-century Shanghai.

## Key findings

- The collaboration between Lu Bohong and the municipal councils was hindered by disputes over funding and control.
- The SMC and FMA viewed the hospital as an economic tool rather than a philanthropic endeavor.
- The hospital's dysfunction led to the councils eventually taking over the responsibility.

## Abstract

This study examines the initiation and administration of Mercy Hospital in Republican Shanghai. It explains the protracted negotiations that underpinned the collaboration between the Chinese founder Lu Bohong, the Shanghai Municipal Council (SMC) of the International Settlement and the Municipal Administration (FMA) of the French Concession. Despite mutual needs for a psychiatric hospital, the collaboration was undermined by disputes over funding shares and administrative direction. While Lu expected a symbolic modern philanthropy, the SMC and FMA saw it as an economic tool to relieve the responsibility of regulating refugees and the increasing mental patients. They repeatedly forced Lu to make concessions with financial instruments, but ended up non-cooperation, leading the patrons to compromise to keep their problem solver. However, after Lu’s murder and the subsequent dysfunction of the Chinese municipal government, the SMC and FMA could not help but take on this task to protect their settlements from the threat.