Increased international scholarly interest in China over the past twenty years has helped reposition Shanghai as a consequential site, not merely in the history of modern Chinese architecture and urbanism but also in the analysis of the complex interplay between empire, capitalism, and architecture. Despite such attention, however, critical and discipline-specific English- language studies of the city’s built environment remain relatively few.1 Samuel Liang’s Mapping Modernity in Shanghai: Space, Gender and Visual Culture in the Sojourners’ City, 1853–1898 thus represents a noteworthy addition to an active and quickly expanding field.
Liang eschews the city’s most recognizable architectural landmarks as well as the traditional periodization of its history as an international treaty port (1843–1943). Rather, his argument centers on a series of “everyday” spaces frequented by the city’s Chinese population during the late nineteenth century, including courtesan houses, alleyway or li dwellings, the street, as well as restaurants, theaters, and...
University of California Press