Essays explore people's basic search for food, water, and lighting during the late-Qing -- early republican era; contradictory attitudes toward women and the violence of foot-binding; the role of Chinese scientists in promoting a shift to modern, nationalistic discourses; the growing popularity of savings banks among urban Chinese in the early twentieth century; the transnational and national identities of returned overseas Chinese in Xiamen, Fujian Province; and middle-class "Shanghai travelers" who imagined themselves as cosmopolitan consumers.
Looking at the post-Mao reform era of the late twentieth century, contributors explore the theme of "revaluation" - that is, the way China's move into global capitalism is commoditizing goods and services that previously were not for sale, from domestic labor to recycling and water resources, in an increasingly consumer-oriented society.
Madeleine Yue Dong is associate professor of international studies at the University of Washington. Joshua Goldstein is assistant professor of modern Chinese history at the University of Southern California. Other contributors include Alana Boland, James Cook, Wang Hui, Rebecca Karl, Hanchao Lu, Brett Sheehan, and Hairong Yan.