Shanghai Sojourners

Frederic Wakeman started his academic career as an expert on late Imperial China, and in recent years became a fine historian of 20th-century Shanghai. Here he and other leading scholars present cutting-edge research on modern China's economic and cultural hub. Most chapters are superb, and later became full-length books; while they cannot supplant the longer works, this collection may help readers avoid the cost of a shelf full of monographs. Many topics explored here are the stuff of Shanghai's legendary "Whore of the East" image, such as prostitution, drugs, gangsters (Brian Martin's study of the Green Gang is especially strong), labor turmoil and political intrigue. But the in-depth analysis and data shows that for most residents, the city was a place of hard work, struggle and cramped if convivial living. It was far more than the exotic playground noted by numerous visitors---though the city never lacked opportunities for indulging every kind of taste, and vice. Clearer maps would help, as would illustrations of this much-photographed city, but this is a superior edited book on a perenially fascinating place.