Shanghai Tai Chi

The Art of Being Ruled in Mao's China

Hanchao Lu

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English

Cambridge University Press
11 May 2023

History; Asian history; Social & cultural history; Politics & government

Series: Cambridge Studies in the History of the People's Republic of China

Shanghai Tai Chi offers a masterful portrait of daily urban life under socialism in a rich social and political history of one of the world's most complex cities. Hanchao Lu explores the lives of people from all areas of society - from capitalists and bourgeois intellectuals to women and youth. Utilizing the metaphor of Tai Chi, he reveals how people in Shanghai experienced and adapted to a new Maoist political culture from 1949. Exploring the multifaceted complexity of everyday life and material culture in Mao's China, Lu addresses the survival of old bourgeois lifestyles under the new proletarian dictatorship, the achievements of intellectuals in an age of anti-intellectualism, the pleasure that urban youth derived from reading taboo literature, the emergence of women's liberation and the politics of greening and horticulture. This captivating, epitomizing, and vivid history transports readers to history as lived on Shanghai's streets and back alleyways.

By: Hanchao Lu
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 236mm, Width: 160mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 660g
ISBN: 9781009180986
ISBN 10: 1009180983
Series: Cambridge Studies in the History of the People's Republic of China
Pages: 354
Publication Date: 11 May 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

List of Figures; List of Maps; List of Tables; Notes on the Text; Introduction; Part I. The Condemned: 1. The upper crust; 2. The stinking number nine; Part II. The Liberated: 3. The power of Balzac; 4. Alleyway women's detachments; Part III. Under the French Parasol Trees: 5. Everyday flora; 6. In the eyes of foreign onlookers; 7. The essential does not change; Conclusion; Appendix: List of Informants; Character List; References; Index.

Hanchao Lu is Professor of History at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Director of the China Research Center in Atlanta. He is the author of three award-winning books Beyond the Neon Lights (1999) Street Criers (2005), and The Birth of a Republic (2010).