Description
Book SynopsisThe nine empirical studies in New Narratives of Urban Space in Republican Chinese Cities, organized under the general framework of urban space, examine three critical dimensions of the great urban transformation in Republican China—social, legal and governance orders. Together these narratives suggest a new perception of this historical urbanism. While modern economic development was a major drive for Chinese urban transformation, this volume highlights the dimension of the multilayered forces that shape urban space by looking into that less quantifiable, but equally important cultural realm and by exposing the ways in which these forces created new urban narratives, which became themselves shapers of urban space and of our perception of the Republican urbanity.
Trade Review"The chapters reveal trends that complicate the quest to locate Habermasian public spaces in the volatile urban formations of a politically fragmented and conflict-ridden nation." Brian Tsui, The Australian National University, New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies 15.2 (December 2013)
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Urban Space in Republican Chinese Cities as Seen Through Cultural Narratives: A Prologue Billy K.L. So and Madeleine Zelin Part 1. Social Order Chapter 2 Changing Spaces and Civilized Weddings in Republican China Antonia Finnane Chapter 3 City-building, the New Life Movement, and the "Making of the Citizen" in 1930s Nanchang Federica Ferlanti Chapter 4 Wartime Refugee Relief in Chinese Cities and Women's Political Activism, 1937-1940 Harriet Zurndorfer Part 2. Law and Order Chapter 5 Unorganized Crime: Forgers, Soldiers, and Shopkeepers in Beijing, 1927, 1928 Brett Sheehan Chapter 6 The Ordering of Crime in Republican Beijing from the 1910s to the 1930s Michael Hoi Kit Ng Chapter 7 Dangerous Cities: Judicial Authorities, Criminologists, and the Perception of Crime Zones in 1920s and 1930s China Jan Kiely Part 3. Goverance Order Chapter 8 British Concessions and Chinese Cities, 1910-1930s Robert Bickers Chapter 9 Provincializing the City: Canton and the Reshaping of Guangdong Provincial Administration, 1912-1937 John Fitzgerald Chapter 10 Xi'an, 1900-1940: From Isolated Backwater to Resistance Center Pierre-Etienne Will
