| Unit name | Gangsters, Colonists and Communists in Old and New Shanghai 1900-2001 |
|---|---|
| Unit code | HISTM1012 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Professor. Bickers |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites | |
| Co-requisites | |
| School/department | Department of History (Historical Studies) |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Sciences |
The unit will examine issues in the social, cultural and political history of modern Shanghai. The city was at once Chinas most important political, commercial, and cultural centre, and a true capital city for the Chinese twentieth century. Locating itself in a broader literature about colonial cities and modern Chinese urban history, the unit takes a thematic/chronological approach. It will explore the influence of the large and cosmopolitan foreign presence (and the limits to that influence), the issue of Westernisation, the development of a specific Shanghai style, the tradition of political radicalism which marks the city, and the mythologisation of the city by both Chinese and foreigners. As Shanghai has opened up again to the West the past has become important as a guide to Chinas new encounter with the world, and a new set of myths have been created, strongly rooted in the city culture of the 1930s.
