In the 1920s, revolution, war, and imperialist aggression brought
chaos to China. Many of the dramatic events associated with this
upheaval took place in or near China's cities. Bound together by
rail, telegraph, and a shared urban mentality, cities like
Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing formed an arena in which the great
issues of the day--the quest for social and civil peace, the
defense of popular and national sovereignty, and the search for a
distinctively modern Chinese society--were debated and fought over.
People were drawn into this conflicts because they knew that the
passage of armies, the marching of protesters, the pontificating of
intellectual, and the opening and closing of factories could change
their lives. David Strand offers a penetrating view of the old
walled capital of Beijing during these years by examining how the
residents coped with the changes wrought by itinerant soldiers and
politicians and by the accelerating movement of ideas, capital, and
technology. By looking at the political experiences of ordinary
citizens, including rickshaw pullers, policemen, trade unionists,
and Buddhist monks, Strand provides fascinating insights into how
deeply these forces were felt. The resulting portrait of early
twentieth-century Chinese urban society stresses the growing
political sophistication of ordinary people educated by mass
movements, group politics, and participation in a shared, urban
culture that mixed opera and demonstrations, newspaper reading and
teahouse socializing. Surprisingly, in the course of absorbing new
ways of living, working, and doing politics, much of the old
society was preserved--everything seemed to change and yet little
of value was discarded. Through tumultuous times, Beijing rose from
a base of local and popular politics to form a bridge linking a
traditional world of guilds and gentry elites with the contemporary
world of corporatism and cadres.
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