Beyond the Neon Lights: Everyday Shanghai in the Early Twentieth Century

by Hanchao Lu

How did ordinary people live through the extraordinary changes that have swept across modern China? How did peasants transform themselves into urbanites? How did the citizens of Shanghai cope with the epic upheavals—revolution, war, and again revolution—that shook their lives? Even after decades of scholarship devoted to modern Chinese history, our understanding of the daily lives of the common people of China remains sketchy and incomplete. In this carefully researched study, Hanchao Lu weaves rich documentary data with ethnographic surveys and interviews to reconstruct the fabric of everyday life in China's largest and most complex city in the first half of this century.

Genres: History, China, Nonfiction, Urban, Asia

473 pages, Hardcover

First published August 28, 1999

Reviews

[Miaomiao Li · Rating 5 out of 5]

“传统一直是顽强的，因为它既不根植于中国的上层建筑，也不根植于西方所传入的外来文化，而是根植于人们的日常生活中。”
讲石库门中的居民的几章尤其有意思，特别有生活气息，有点想到了自己小时候在镇上生活的场景～2022年上海疫情封校期间读完，就是很想出去来一个citywalk🥲

[Casey Liu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took Modern China with professor Lu last semester. This book was a requirement for the final exam, but I fount this book to be interesting to read, especially if you are interested in knowing how people live. If you know the author personally, you would like the book even more. While I was reading this book, I could image exactly how professor Lu would move his hand and make those jokes, and I really liked professor Lu's class. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in Chinese history.