Life In Shanghai Research Articles

The popularization of bicycles and modern Shanghai

Taking the popularization of bicycles in modern Shanghai as an example, this article discussed the interrelationship between the development of instruments and the users by analyzing the expansion of city space, formation of the city time rhythm, changes in consumption mode of different social classes, and the competition of various transportation tools, etc. The influences on the transformation of social life in Shanghai and other cities of China were also revealed.

HIV risks among two types of male migrants in Shanghai, China: money boys vs. general male migrants

To examine HIV/AIDS-related knowledge, attitudes and behaviours among 'money boys' and general male migrants in Shanghai, China. A quantitative cross-sectional design with self-administered paper-and-pencil instruments was used. A total of 239 money boys were enrolled using community popular opinion leader and respondent-driven sampling methods, and 100 general male migrants were enrolled through venue-based sampling. Compared to general male migrants, money boys were significantly younger, better educated, more likely to be single, earned a higher income, suffered greater stress, and were less satisfied with life in Shanghai. Both groups had substantial misconceptions about HIV/AIDS, although general male migrants were less well informed. Furthermore, both groups reported low rates of condom use, regardless of who their sexual partners were. Money boys were more likely to use alcohol, had more sexual partners and more casual sex partners, and were more likely to engage in other sexual risks. Moreover, they were likely to be the victims of sexual violence at the hands of their clients. More than half of the money boys had been tested for HIV and 3% self-reported to be HIV-positive, whereas only 1% of the general male migrants had ever been tested and all self-reported to be HIV-negative. Infection with other sexually transmitted diseases was also reported by money boys. This study suggests an urgent need to implement HIV/AIDS prevention and intervention programs targeting male migrants, especially money boys and their clients. Some recommendations for conducting interventions among the male migrant population in China are suggested.

China as Viewed by Two Early Bengali Travellers

The writings of Indian travellers in Republican China have attracted limited attention. This article examines the travel accounts of two Bengali travellers who visited China in the early twentieth century. Indumadhav Mullick may have been the earliest Bengali to write an eyewitness account of China for Bengali readers in India. Mullick's account is noteworthy for its vivid record of the maritime route from the eastern coast of India to China and his descriptions of the southern Chinese port, Xiamen. Benoy Kumar Sarkar, on the other hand, provides detailed observations about the political situation in China and the vibrant intellectual life in Shanghai. Together these two works are important for understanding the interactions between India and China during the colonial period. They are also vital for examining the cultural links between Kolkata and China during the early twentieth century.

Yidai caizi Qian Zhongshu (review)

Reviewed by: Yidai caizi Qian Zhongshu Pei Huang (bio) Tang Yan 湯晏. Yidai caizi Qian Zhongshu 一代才子錢鍾書 (Qian Zhongshu: A Great Literary Genius in His Day). Shanghai: Shanghai People's Press, 2005. 397 pp. Paperback RMB Yuan 26.00, ISBN 7–208–05669–2. No student of Chinese studies can deny the versatility of Qian Zhongshu (1910– 1998) as a scholar, writer, and literary critic. His writings and commentaries cover classics, poetry, history, painting, and philosophy. Born into a family with a long literary tradition, he received a solid training in Chinese classics. From middle school, he had studied Western languages: Greek, Latin, German, and French, as well as English. With this linguistic training, he was able to cite freely from Western works, medieval and modern, and juxtaposed such citations with Chinese passages, to which he then compared them. In this way, as Ronald Egan points out, Qian struck a connection between Chinese and Western cultures.1 The case can be made with his On the Art of Poetry (Tanyi lu 談藝錄) and, in particular, Limited Views: Essays on Ideas and Letters (Guazhui bian 管錐篇). Consequently, his writings are always characterized by breadth and depth that many others cannot attain. He was a well-rounded literary man fitting the Renaissance ideal and known in the circles of Chinese studies. There are numerous articles and books on Qian's life and scholarship. Tang's book is by far the best biography of Qian.2 It consists of sixteen chapters, each chronicling a stage of Qian's life. The first three chapters concern his family background and boyhood. The fourth chapter examines his college life (1929–1933) at National Qinghua University. There he studied foreign languages and literature under noted professors and devoured books from the university's rich collection. The next chapter covers his teaching career at Guanghua University in Shanghai. It also treats Yang Jiang, a beautiful and talented lady who married Qian in 1935. She later became an accomplished writer and translator. Qian's education abroad is the focal point of chapters 6 and 7. With a Sino British Boxer Indemnity Scholarship, he boarded a ship for England with Yang Jiang, who studied there at her own expense. He studied at Oxford University (1935–1937) and obtained his bachelor of letters degree. He also became the proud father of a baby girl, their only child. After Oxford they enrolled at the University of Paris. In addition to studying, they made many friends with fellow Chinese students. In 1938 they returned to China and thus ended their student life abroad. The subsequent four chapters (8–11) detail his life in wartime China until 1949. Qian accepted an offer from National Southwest Associated University and became a respected teacher. At his father's insistence, however, he taught there for only one year and joined the faculty of National Normal College, a rather obscure institution, in western Hunan province. It was at this college that he began to [End Page 562] write his On the Art of Poetry and formed the plot for his novel Fortress Besieged (Wei-cheng 圍城). After two years in Hunan, he left for Shanghai, a place with which he was familiar. Under Japanese control, especially after the Pearl Harbor attack, life in Shanghai was very difficult. He taught at colleges while his wife once even worked in an elementary school. The raptures about Japan's surrender proved ephemeral, for China immediately fell into a civil war. Like other Chinese, they continued suffering. Chapter 12 covers the period of 1949–1978. With the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Qians went to Peking. At first he taught at National Qinghua University, but beginning in 1952, he worked in the Institute of Chinese Literature, a division of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. His Annotated Anthology of Song Poetry (Songshi xuanzhu 宋詩選注) came out in 1958. Despite their aversion to politics, the Qians were helplessly swept into the vortex of the Cultural Revolution. They were accused, humiliated, and finally sent to the May 7 Cadre School for reeducation for about three years (1969–1972). There they underwent Sisyphean political sessions and performed senseless assignments. Mrs. Qian's Ganxiao liuji 幹校六記 (A cadre school...

From the Rivers of Babylon to the Whangpoo: A Century of Sephardi Jewish Life in Shanghai (review)

From the Rivers of Babylon to the Whangpoo: A Century of Sephardi Jewish Life in Shanghai (review)

From the rivers of Babylon to the Whangpoo: a century of Sephardi Jewish life in Shanghai

This book examines the interaction between the Baghdadi Jews and their Ashkenazi coreligionists, some 6-8,000 who escaped from religious persecution in Russia, and some 20,000 refugees from Nazi persecution.

Open Doors: Vilhelm Meyer and the Establishment of General Electric in China

On one level, this is an intriguing account of expat life in Shanghai's International settlement in the early 20th century. On another level is charted the introduction and growth of new western technologies and companies in China. And the backdrop to these stories is early 20th century China itself: the hopes, fears, turmoil and grandeur of the age.

Writing for Faulkner, Writing for Herself: Estelle Oldham's Anticolonial Fiction

Before estelle oldham married William Faulkner in June 1929, she had spent nearly eight years in the Pacific and Far East as a participant-observer in two American colonial cultures. In June 1918, her first marriage to the Mississippi lawyer and entrepreneur Cornell S. Franklin brought her as a new bride to what were then called the Hawaiian Territories. But despite his excellent Southern connections, the business community in the “Paradise of the East” had little room for a bright yet arrogant young man with no capital. Thus, in December 1921, Estelle Oldham Franklin, her husband, and their four-year-old daughter sailed for the more open markets in the International Settlement of Shanghai, then China's largest treaty port. Oldham hated Shanghai; she refused to continue playing the role of Southern Belle hostess she had assumed so willingly and graciously in Honolulu, and, like her husband and many other colonials, she had become an alcoholic. Summarizing her life in Shanghai, she once told her daughter, “I don't think I took a sober breath for three years.”

Exposing the abuse of Chinese orphans.

In January, Human Rights Watch/Asia published evidence of horrific maltreatment of children in the Shanghai Children's Welfare Institute.1 The publicity led to widespread public indignation in the West and calls for pressure to be put on the Chinese government to improve conditions for such children. This exposure was the result of the efforts of a Chinese physician, Dr Zhang Shuyun, who assembled evidence from firsthand experience, and then escaped to bring the matter to world attention. Dr Zhang is currently in the United Kingdom and agreed to be interviewed to give a firsthand account of her work in the orphanage and her subsequent decision to leave China and expose the abuses she had observed. I met Dr Zhang while she was staying with friends in London. She was friendly and relaxed as she told me, through an interpreter, about her life in Shanghai and how she came to publicise the maltreatment of orphaned and disabled children. Dr Zhang was born in Shanghai in 1942 and grew up there. She studied medicine at the Beijing University School of Medical Sciences and since then her main specialty has been paediatrics, including research on aspects of hygiene. She also undertook research on people suffering from chronic lung disease, especially those working in the shipbuilding industry and exposed to asbestos. “I was anxious to go back and work again with children,” Dr Zhang told me. This ambition was realised in 1988 when she joined the Shanghai Children's Welfare Institute as a senior medical officer. This institution was originally founded by Catholic missionaries in 1912 and was maintained as a home for orphaned and abandoned children when the Communists came to power. In 1988 the government built a seven storey modern institute in the grounds of the …

Corporate Space, Communal Time: Everyday Life in Shanghai's Bank of China

Corporate Space, Communal Time: Everyday Life in Shanghai's Bank of China

Corporate Space, Communal Time: Everyday Life in Shanghai's Bank of China

Corporate Space, Communal Time: Everyday Life in Shanghai's Bank of China

Wilkinson's 'Shanghai Birds' Shanghai Birds. A Study of Bird Life in Shanghai and the Surrounding Districts E. S. Wilkinson

Wilkinson's 'Shanghai Birds' Shanghai Birds. A Study of Bird Life in Shanghai and the Surrounding Districts E. S. Wilkinson