The Honey Nectar Peach and the Idea of Shanghai in Late Imperial China

Abstract

* I thank Tobie Meyer-Fong for encouraging me to submit this material as an article to Late Imperial China. Chen Luying and Huang Weijia provided helpful assistance reading several key documents. Ethan Pollock offered valuable suggestions for tightening the focus and argument of the article. I thank Paize Keulemans for inviting me to share an early version of this paper for the panel, “The Sensory Landscape of the Nineteenth-Century Chinese City,” at the 2006 Association for Asian Studies annual convention, and Dorothy Ko for her stimulating comments on the paper. Antonia Finnane and one anonymous reviewer for Late Imperial China provided helpful suggestions for revising the initial manuscript. I am especially grateful to Dore Levy, whose assistance and insights into Chinese literature and garden culture greatly enhanced my understanding of the material and the final product, and to my story-doctor, Maya Allison. Material from this article will be featured in chapter of my book, “Culinary Nostalgia: Regional Food Culture in Shanghai,” to be published by Stanford University Press.