Shanghai: China's Gateway to Modernity

by Marie-Claire Bergère, Janet Lloyd (Translator)

Shanghai today is a thriving, bustling metropolis. But does its avid pursuit of the modern trappings of success truly indicate that it will once again become the shining example of China's commercial and cosmopolitan culture? While history continues to unfold, eminent China scholar Marie-Claire Bergère takes readers back to when Shanghai first opened to the world in 1842 to narrate the city's tumultuous and unique course to the present. China's Gateway to Modernity is the first comprehensive history of Shanghai in any Western language. Divided into four parts, Bergère details Shanghai's beginnings as a treaty port in the mid-nineteenth century; its capitalist boom following the 1911 Revolution; the fifteen years of economic and social decline initiated by the Japanese invasion in 1937, and attempts at resistance; and the city's disgraced years under Communism. Weaving together a range of archival documents and existing histories to create a global picture of Shanghai's past and present, Bergère shows that Shanghai's success was not fated, as some contend, by an evolutionary pattern set into motion long before the arrival of westerners. Rather, her account identifies the relationship between the Chinese and foreigners in Shanghai―their interaction, cooperation, and rivalry―as the driving force behind the creation of an original culture, a specific modernity, founded upon western contributions but adapted to the national Chinese culture. Eclipsed for three decades by socialism, the wheels of the Shanghai spirit began to turn in the 1990s, when the reform movement took off anew. The city is again being referred to as a model for China's current modernization drive. Although it makes no claims to what will happen next, Bergère's Shanghai stands as a compelling and definitive profile of a city whose urban history continues to be redefined, retold, and resold.

Genres: China, History, Nonfiction, Politics

520 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Hadrian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful summary of the history of Shanghai, and its transition from treaty-port to communism and then whatever comes after that. Bergère has a gift for narrative writing, and her use of archival sources and memoirs is impressive. I wish there was more after the year 2000, but this is still a lively portrait. Shanghai may not be the only symbol of China's engagement with "modernity" these days, but it is still a jewel in the crown.

[Sinta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely comprehensive, fairly well structured, often didn’t give enough national or conceptual context - required a lot of side-AI chat to be able to understand Shanghai’s continuities and breaks with the rest of China. Overall, 4.5 stars for its category but unfortunately can’t compete in general

[L · Rating 5 out of 5]

上海自第一次鸦片战争到上世纪末150多年历史在一位法国汉学家笔下跃然纸上，她的兴衰沉浮，以及由此可见的全国全世界的风云都由曲回迂折中不失优雅精准的笔触娓娓写来；精英、小市民、流氓恶棍，中央、地方，政治、经济、思想、艺术，囊括于中