During the winter holidays this year, as an English major, I was fortunate enough to come into contact with the insurance industry and in just a few days I went from having a superficial and one-sided awareness of insurance to having a preliminary general understanding. The use of the word ‘insurance’ can be traced back to the 16th and 17th centuries and evolved from the word ‘ensurance’, meaning security against loss or death in exchange for payment. Combined with the origins of the term, insurance, from my perspective, is a guarantee of social production and economic development, a product of human beings' focus on their own values and their pursuit of actual material and wealth. At that time, capitalism was beginning to develop and people were not restricted to religious and theological rules and regulations. The results of the Age of Exploration led people to look to seafaring for wealth, but the relatively poor technology and unpredictable climate did not guarantee the safety of voyages, and the concept of insurance was developed in order to avoid huge loss; After the Great Fire of London in the mid-seventeenth century, which caused serious damage to the property of many inhabitants, the concept of insurance began to take hold; The development of the industrial revolution and then the expansion of capitalism abroad, mass production, import and export trade and warfare made insurance become increasingly important and the insurance industry became increasingly more mature.

On Thursday morning, I went to China Health Connect to see some of the most representative policies in our country's collection and to get a glimpse of the history of the insurance industry in China. Since the opening of the port, foreign merchants came to China and insurance was introduced. Combining with the staff's explanations and the history we have learnt, we can see that insurance policies in China started out as protection for foreigners who came to China to do business and for the wealthy; ordinary people could not yet afford the relatively expensive insurance premiums, so insurance policies from the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China were generally written in English. Most of them were beautifully designed, covering sections such as the main policy content and endorsement. Each policy was accompanied by a concise textual description at the bottom, for example, one of the earliest policies I have seen is a transport insurance policy from the Yang-tsze Insurance Association Limited in 1898, which dealt mainly with water and fire, accident and transport insurance. The two insurance policies that impressed me during the visit were a fire insurance policy of Taiping Insurance Co. in 1938 and a simple life insurance policy in 1943. Taiping Insurance Company was founded in 1929 by the Golden City Bank. It was the predecessor of the present-day China Taiping Insurance Group Co. The founder, Mr. Zhou Zuomin, was a very influential national financier and an important figure in the development of the insurance industry in China. The 1943 simple life insurance policy was as simple and small as the name suggests, and although it was not as detailed as the previous foreign policies, its function seems to me to reflect the development of the insurance industry and the promotion of its popularity. The simple life insurance policy was inexpensive, making it affordable for more people, and the payment mechanism was reasonable and humanistic, as it was not a one-off payment, but a monthly or time-specific payment, and there were also features such as no medical examinations and home visits. I was able to appreciate the importance of insurance and its necessity during my conversations with the staff. For example, the staff mentioned that one of their clients invests up to $20,000 a year in health insurance, which may seem unnecessary to us, but in the long run, due to the client's age and the pandemic, he will be able to use the money invested to receive the best treatment and he could even travel abroad to be treated in developed countries freely if he falls ill. Therefore, the decision would be beneficial to him. Another example is the earthquake in Turkey just a few days ago, where a large number of houses collapsed causing serious damage, and then insurance can be very useful for a part of the damage to persons and property.

I have benefited a lot from the week-long ‘insurance trip’. From the origins to the development and spread of insurance culture, from the perspective of a liberal arts student, insurance is not only a reliable guarantee and pillar for the development of the financial industry and social production, but also, to some extent, a booster for the mutual exchange and absorption of different cultures, and that is why China's insurance industry has been able to flourish in just two centuries.

浅谈对保险文化的认识

今年寒假，作为一名英语专业的学生，我有幸接触到保险行业，短短几天内从之前对保险浅显片面的认知到了有了初步大致的了解。“保险”一词的使用最早可以追溯到十六、十七世纪，演变自单词“ensurance”，意思是以损失或死亡的担保来换取付款。结合这一词的起源，保险，在我看来，是社会生产和经济发展的保障，是人类注重自身价值、追求实际物质和财富的产物。在那个时期，资本主义已经开始萌芽发展，人们不在被束缚在宗教神学的条条框框中。新航路开辟的成果使得人们将赚钱的目光投射于航海活动，但相对落后的技术和变幻莫测的大海和气候并不能保证远航的安全，为了避免“人财两空”，就产生了保险这一概念；十七世纪中叶的伦敦大火造成许多居民的财产损失严重，此后保险的概念便开始深入人心；之后工业革命的开展再到资本主义向外扩张，大量的生产、进出口贸易以及战争越来越能保险的重要性，保险行业的发展也越来越成熟。

就在周四上午，我前往到上海商保通健康科技有限公司，参观了我国珍藏的部分极具代表性的保单，领略了中国保险业的发展历史。自开埠以来，外国商民们纷至沓来，保险也随之引进中国。结合工作人员的讲解以及所学的历史知识，我们可知保险在中国最开始是为来中国做生意的外国人和富人提供保障，普通百姓还负担不起相对昂贵的保险费，因此清朝至民国的保险单一般都用英语撰写。它们大多设计精美，涵盖主保内容、批单等部分；每份保单下方都配有精简的文字叙述，例如我所见最早的一份保单是1898年扬子保险公司的运输险保单，主要经营水火险、意外险、运输险等。在参观过程中，令我印象较深的两份保单分别是1938年太平保险公司的火险保单和1943年的简易人寿保险单。太平保险公司有金城银行创办于1929年，是现如今中国太平保险集团有限责任公司的前身，创始人周作民先生是我国非常具有影响力的民族金融家，是推动我国保险业发展的重要人物。1943年的简易人寿保险单的样式正如其名，简易小巧，虽然没有之前外文保单那样精美详细，但其作用功能在我看来体现了保险业发展和推动保险业普及的一面。简易人寿保险价格低廉，能够使得更多人买得起保险，且缴费机制比较合理且人性化，并不是一次性支付，按月或是特定时间交一部分即可，此外还有免验身体、上门收费等特点。在和工作人员的交流中，我更加能够体会到保险的重要性及必要性。例如工作人员提及到他们的一个客户每年都会投入高达两万的费用于医疗保险，在我们看来这可能是“多此一举”的，但从长期来看由于这名客户年龄较大，再加之这几年新冠疫情的肆虐，如果患上疾病，他就能拿投入的钱去接受非常好的治疗，甚至可以出国去发达国家看病，这样的决策对他来说是百利无害的。再比如前两天的土耳其地震，大量房屋倒塌造成严重的损失，那么这时候保险对于人身、财产等一部分的损害就会起到很大的作用。

为期一周的“保险之旅”使我受益颇多，从保险文化的起源到发展传播，从一名文科生的视角来看，保险不仅是金融业发展和社会生产的可靠保障与支柱，某种程度上来说，更是不同文化相互交流、吸收的助推器，这也就是中国保险业在短短两百年中能够蓬勃发展的原因。