Popular culture in Shanghai 1884-1898

Abstract

During the latter half of the nineteenth century, the establishment of the foreign settlements in Shanghai led to an enclave within China in which the representatives of China's elite culture, the gentry, had no political basis from which to enforce their standards on the non-elite, or ordinary people of Shanghai. These people themselves had left the traditional environment of clan and gentry control, and were to a very large degree free of such restraints, and the foreign authorities had no interest in imposing or maintaining any particular cultural norms. The new physical and social environment of Shanghai was also conducive to the development of many new attitudes amongst the people who lived there towards the symbolic systems of rank and clothing, the concept of health and the human body, the pattern of human relations, relations between men and women and the traditional social order. The basic characteristics of twentieth century Shanghai culture developed during this period. This thesis seeks to explore the development of this new type of popular culture in Shanghai. The main source material has been the Dianshizhai Pictorial, a magazine published between 1884 and 1898, which reflects popular attitudes and culture in that period. Other material used includes the Shen Bao, a daily newspaper published in Shanghai, novels, memoirs and modem studies on the history of Shanghai in the late nineteenth century, as well as studies on various aspects of popular culture in China and elsewhere. Show more