Book Review

Asia

In many ways, the considerable urban transformation that China experienced during the first half of the twentieth century set the stage for contemporary China's urban dynamism. But how was this transformation possible in a period of political disunity? How did the modernization efforts of individual Chinese cities reconcile modernity with national characteristics and local conditions with national aspirations? And how do the experiences of China relate to global trends? Issues like these are explored in this beautifully designed and well-edited volume, which seeks to serve a number of purposes. Part of a general contemporary trend to reappraise the dynamism and diversity of Republican China, its intention is to elucidate the processes of urban transformation in China 1900–1950 in relation to modernity and national identity. Second, it aims to correct the imbalance of present-day scholarship on Chinese urbanism, with its heavy domination of studies on Shanghai; the volume grew out of a conference entitled "Beyond Shanghai" held in 1996. Third, the purpose is to facilitate comparison with similar processes outside China. One might add that the volume also seeks to promote a new generation of Chinese city historians, as several contributions are based on recent dissertations or book projects. They are supported, however, by a number of well-established scholars. Ten chapters cover individual cities, while three chapters deal with general issues of the history of modern Chinese urbanism, putting the individual city histories into perspective. The complexity of the aims of the book makes for a less than elegant structure, but it should not be prematurely dismissed as yet another conference volume caught up in cross purposes. It is, in fact, a very substantial collection of papers.

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Editor Joseph W. Esherick's lucid introductory discussion of modernity and nation in China's urban transformation alerts the reader to a number of issues in Chinese urbanism. Esherick points to the differentiation of Chinese cities into a whole range of new city types, all of which are examined in this volume. The remaining chapters are divided into three main parts, the first of which focuses on "The Modernist City." In "Canton Remapped," Michael Tsin describes the emergence of city planning in Canton in the early 1920s. Despite the brevity of the chapter, it is theoretically ambitious, seeking to demonstrate the dual logic of the modernist project—emancipation and discipline—in the visions and programs of its first city planners. Ruth Rogaski's "Hygienic Modernity in Tianjin" traces the evolution of modern hygienic regimes in the treaty port of Tianjin, with a particular interest in the negotiation of medical knowledge at the local level. "Hygienic modernity" is Rogaski's translation of the modern Chinese concept of weisheng, and the author offers a sensitive reading of the process in which weisheng gradually assumed this new meaning in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In "Urban Identity and Urban Networks in Cosmopolitan Cities: Banks and Bankers in Tianjin, 1900–1937," Brett Sheehan seeks to demonstrate the significance of supralocal urban networks. The bankers examined in the study "had an urban identity that was diffuse and unfocused on particular cities" (p. 48). The argument is well framed in a discussion of current scholarship, but the chapter is too filled with facts, some of which are repeated more than once. David D. Buck excavates the history of a Japanese-controlled city in "Railway City and National Capital: Two Faces of the Modern in Changchun." Starting in 1905, the Japanese transformed Changchun into a modern railway city. The establishment of Changchun as capital of Manchukuo in 1932, however, ushered in the "high modernism" (a concept developed by James C. Scott) of a strong centralizing state. Among the finest chapters of the book, this one covers a longer time span than some of the other contributions, satisfying the historian's yearning for "time" in a volume mainly devoted to "space." Kristin Stapleton's "Yang Sen in Chengdu: Urban Planning in the Interior" is a fascinating study of an unlikely urban reformer. During 1924 and 1925, Chengdu was controlled by the warlord Yang Sen, who used his power to promote a number of reforms in the city, particularly street widening. Why this enthusiasm for urban reform? "By 1924, advocates of city planning and development had articulated an alluring vision that made well-regulated cities the key to a powerful Chinese nation" (p. 104).

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