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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 4 page paper which examines why Shanghai represents an important cultural turning point during the period of the late Qing dynasty and early Chinese Republic. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: TG15_TGqingrep.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
the last imperial dynasty, the Manchu, dating back to the Manchu, seemed frozen in time. It was still, essentially, a peasant civilization, with the ancient philosophies and social class
structures still in place. An unwillingness to include any elements of Western culture kept China virtually isolated from the rest of the world. While this seemed to appeal
to most Chinese citizens, an increasingly restless minority were longing for change. The turbulent social climate promised a storm on the horizon, and Shanghai was the perfect place for
the tumult to touch down. Historians now commonly view Shanghai as the crucible of Chinese morality with regard to the sweeping cultural changes that took place there during the
early twentieth century. During the Qing dynasty, Shanghai was the place that attracted tradition-loving Chinese peasants and Western foreigners alike. It represents, in essence, "a tale of two cities"
(Wen-hsin, 1997, p. 377). This became Chinas most economically important city, with predominantly British business entrepreneurs setting up shop there, and with the global exchange of goods and services,
banking and financial institutions followed. As a result, "Clear lines are drawn and the concessions are marked authentically Western and the other areas of Shanghai are marked Chinese" (Goodman,
2004). Researchers have discovered that studying Shanghai in particular "sheds light... on the... question of Chinese identity evolving against the backdrop of cultural interactions between China and the West"
(Wen-hsin, 1997, p. 377). It exists as a "wufang zachu" or a hybrid environment where different people and ideas converged and intermingled through the passage of time (Goodman, 2004).
According to Bryna Goodman (2004), a professor of Chinese history, "The sites of Shanghai modernity were (and are) recognized as such precisely because of the ways
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