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by: Leo Ou-fan Lee  List Price: $31.00 Amazon.com's Price: $27.90 You Save: $3.10 (10%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 306.0951132 EAN: 9780674805514 ISBN: 0674805518 Label: Harvard University Press Manufacturer: Harvard University Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 436 Publication Date: September 01, 1999 Publisher: Harvard University Press Studio: Harvard University Press Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Product Description: In the midst of China's wild rush to modernize, a surprising note of reality arises: Shanghai, it seems, was once modern indeed, a pulsing center of commerce and art in the heart of the twentieth century. This book immerses us in the golden age of Shanghai urban culture, a modernity at once intrinsically Chinese and profoundly anomalous, blending new and indigenous ideas with those flooding into this "treaty port" from the Western world. A preeminent specialist in Chinese studies, Leo Ou-fan Lee gives us a rare wide-angle view of Shanghai culture in the making. He shows us the architecture and urban spaces in which the new commercial culture flourished, then guides us through the publishing and filmmaking industries that nurtured a whole generation of artists and established a bold new style in urban life known as modeng. In the work of six writers of the time, particularly Shi Zhecun, Mu Shiying, and Eileen Chang, Lee discloses the reflection of Shanghai's urban landscape--foreign and familiar, oppressive and seductive, traditional and innovative. This work acquires a broader historical and cosmopolitan context with a look at the cultural links between Shanghai and Hong Kong, a virtual genealogy of Chinese modernity from the 1930s to the present day. Average Rating:
 Rating: - Chinese writers analyzed for English readersI read a library copy of this book and thought it important enough to want to own, so I ordered a copy. The author's premise is commentary about Shanghai based/oriented writers of the 1930-45 period who wrote in Chinese, and he presents an interesting analysis of the works of some of the writers of this time. I was not familiar with the works of many of them, but found myself caught up in the writers' works and thinking, their lives, etc. As a resource, this book is invaluable as the author gives ... Read More Rating:  - Don't miss this bookWhether your rate to "shanghai modern" is high or low, this book is welcomed in some area. It's not because of the information it gives, but because of the way of investigating the culture of "old shanghai" in modern China. You may think this kind of seeing culture and literature doesn't have profound meaning. But this kind of study is at the begining. Moreover, his analysis is not up-to-date thing. (please consult the introduction) You should struggle to collect the right (and many) data if you want ... Read More Rating:  - Good as a "source-book", but intellectually disappointingThis book is precious in providing information, anecdotes, facts, but unfortunately lacks in intellectual depth or critical insight. It is obvious that the author loves his subject--the urban culture in 1930s-40s Shanghai, but when it comes to critical analysis of the rich data it offers, the author's quotations of other people's works often seem more interesting and more penetrating than his own viewpoints, which are painfully limited to a few catchphrases such as modernism, "modernity in the Chinese ... Read More Rating: - An excellent introduction to Shanghai's cultural legacyShanghai is best known for its negative legacies, "whore of the orient" and all that. But while those foreigners were drinking themselves silly all hours of the day, the city's Chinese residents were building up a world of art and letters that China had not since been able to rival. Authors with a revolutionary bent are better known these days in China. The Chinese Communist Party posthumously revived Lu Xun as a standard bearer, and many other social critics such as Mao Dun, Bing Xin, and Ba ... Read More 
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