By mapping the city's native spaces of leisure & everyday life, this book reconstructs the spatial, material, & gender modernity of 19th century Shanghai, giving the reader a window into the social life of late imperial China. This book argues that modernity first arrived in late 19th century Shanghai via a new spatial configuration.

China's rapid urbanization has restructured the great socialist cities Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou into mega cities that embrace global capitalism. This book focuses on the urban transformations of these three cities: Beijing is the nation's political and cultural capital; Shanghai is the economic and financial powerhouse; and Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong Province and the regional center of south China. All are historical cities with rich imperial, colonial, and regional heritages, and all have been drastically transformed in the last six decades.

This book examines...