Shanghai History

Author: (French) Jacques Gernet
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-05-01
Features: This book's narrative spans a half-century of history, aiming to summarize the research conducted over two decades by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and other Chinese and foreign universities in just a few hundred pages. The book seeks to emphasize the important factors that contribute to the continuity and unity in the urban evolution process. Immersed in the local life day by day, the comprehensive research focuses on various fields—economic, social, cultural, or political—making the history of Shanghai appear extremely complex. It has experienced intense and opposing historical episodes and fragments: the forced opening as a port, the Taiping Rebellion, the rapid development of capitalism, as well as revolutionary movements, Nationalist authoritarianism, Japanese occupation, and finally the transition to socialism and the Cultural Revolution. However, from a distance, observing from afar, this tumultuous history seems to be governed by a certain pattern, an all-encompassing pursuit—that is, the pursuit of modernity. The book partially explores how Shanghai became the center of modernization in China after its opening as a port, the second part focuses on the history of Shanghai's development between the two World Wars, the third part, themed "The End of an Era," primarily discusses the painful development of Shanghai during the War of Resistance, and the final part concludes with "Shanghai under Communist Leadership."