| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.3

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 303 words from this article are provided below; about 574 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the American Historical Association, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time. AHA members can go to the AHA individual membership section to locate their member numbers.
If you are not a member of the American Historical Association, you can:: • Join the AHA and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the American Historical Review.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the American Historical Review (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the American Historical Review.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 109.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Asia

Di Wang. Street Culture in Chengdu: Public Space, Urban Commoners, and Local Politics, 1870–1930. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 2003. Pp. xiv, 355. $65.00.
In spite of decades of studies of socioeconomic history and, more recently, cultural history, our knowledge of the daily life of the common people in the history of most cultures and nations remains approximate, to say the least. The Chinese have an extraordinarily rich mine of historical writing stretching back at least three millennia, yet China is no exception to the "rule" that we know far less about the lives of the ordinary than of the extraordinary. Di Wang's painstaking study of street culture in Chengdu, one of China's major interior cities, is therefore a welcome and indeed an admirable endeavor to narrow this gap.	1
The main body of the book is divided into three parts of two chapters each. The first part portrays street scenes and street life in Chengdu before the imposition of the urban reforms of the early twentieth century. The streets of Chengdu that the author conjures up for us were literally extensions of the household and everyday space, particularly for those whose homes were cramped. Here we see the street as a marketplace where peddlers made their living and residents bought their daily necessities. We see the street as a work site where craftsmen repaired household items and housewives toiled over their work in the doorway. The street was also a stage where itinerant entertainers beguiled pedestrians with their lively shows, as well as an altar where anyone so inclined engaged in religious and folk worship. In addition, teahouses "assumed almost all of the roles of the street" (p. 93) and, moreover, served as a place where business was conducted, laborers were hired, and disputes were mediated.	. . .

There are about 574 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.