Popular Magazines and Fiction in Shanghai, 1914-1925: Modernity, the Cultural Imaginary, and the Middle Society

This book explores the rise of Shanghai-based popular magazines produced by the "Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies School" in early twentieth-century China, examining the national, gender, family, and social imaginaries constructed and negotiated through a complex network of relationships between popular writers, magazine editors, and their intended readers. It argues that these magazines articulated a shared quest for modernity, emphasizing sentiment, quotidian experience, the pursuit of the modern family and individual success, strengthening of the nation, and the reinvention of cultural tradition.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 412 pages
Publication date: 15 September 2023
Publisher: Lexington Books

This captivating book delves into the fascinating emergence of popular magazines in early twentieth-century China, originating from the "Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies School" in Shanghai. It explores the intricate web of relationships that shaped the national, gender, family, and social imaginaries constructed and negotiated through a diverse range of popular narratives. These narratives encompassed patriotic stories, war/military tales, family narratives, domestic fiction, utopian writings, and industrial-business stories, among others. The author argues that the national imagination, social ideals, and notions of ideal womanhood and the new family were intrinsically linked and integral to the search for cultural identity of the emerging Chinese "middle society." These cultural imaginaries articulated a shared quest for modernity, emphasizing sentiment, quotidian experience, the pursuit of the modern family and individual success, the strengthening of the nation, and the reinvention of cultural tradition.

As a result, popular magazines and fiction assumed a unique role in catalyzing the process of Chinese modernity, which unfolded and developed in tandem with the symbiotic interplay between the private and public, the traditional and the modern, and the real and the imaginary. Through their captivating stories and compelling narratives, these publications played a vital role in shaping the cultural landscape of China and contributing to the nation's remarkable transformation during this transformative period.

This book offers a profound exploration of the complex interplay between popular culture, social change, and the construction of cultural identity in early twentieth-century China. It sheds light on the ways in which these magazines and fiction narratives shaped the collective sensibilities, experiences, and aspirations of the Chinese "middle society" and played a crucial role in shaping the nation's modern trajectory.

Weight: 558g
Dimension: 229 x 153 x 21 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781498544801