Even before the Japanese first ventured abroad in the modern era, they came to understand that Shanghai was the closest and easiest way to learn about the wider world. They sent a series of missions abroad, most to Europe and several to Shanghai specifically. Virtually all of the European voyages called at Shanghai coming and going. Liu Jianhui shows what the Japanese saw in Shanghai and how they interacted with the Chinese.
Liu then describes what he calls an informational network in East Asia whereby the latest scientific and political development from the West were written up in...
Even before the Japanese first ventured abroad in the modern era, they came to understand that Shanghai was the closest and easiest way to learn ab...