The Cultural Imaginary of “Middle Society” in Early Republican Shanghai

This article explores the cultural imaginary of “middle society” in China through popular writings of the early twentieth century. It pays particular attention to popular print media in early Republican Shanghai, which played a central role in constructing a middle-class cultural identity by offering new sources for imagination and for the configuration of urban modernity. I suggest that the popular imagination of the Chinese middle class can be traced back to the discourse of “middle society,” “utopian stories,” and “industrial fiction” in the 1910s and 1920s. This imaginary of middle society was defined and supported by a broad range of cultural expressions in popular media. It revealed both the social anxiety and tensions brought about by the socioeconomic transformations in early twentieth-century China and the middle-class “cultural dreams” of Chinese society and modern life.

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The German Bourgeoisie: Essays on the Social History of the German Middle Class from the Late Eighteenth to the Early Twentieth Century

The Business History Review ◽

10.2307/3117396 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 67 (3) ◽

pp. 519

Author(s):

Toni Pierenkemper ◽

David Blackbourn ◽

Richard J. Evans

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Middle Class ◽

Social History ◽

Early Twentieth Century ◽

The Social ◽

Late Eighteenth ◽

History Of

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Alice Bálint and Her Diaries: ‘… This little fixation seems to remain …’

Psychoanalysis and History ◽

10.3366/pah.2019.0280 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 23-52 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Anna Borgos

Keyword(s):

Professional Development ◽

Twentieth Century ◽

Middle Class ◽

Object Relations ◽

Jewish Woman ◽

Valuable Insight ◽

Early Twentieth Century ◽

The Social ◽

Insight Into

This article reconstructs Alice Bálint's personal and professional development, dilemmas and attachments, relying on her recently revealed diaries kept between 1917 and 1929. They are an especially interesting document in many respects, touching upon politics, love, womanhood and profession. The year 1923 consists of her entries during her analysis with Ferenczi, dissecting the tensions in her most significant ‘object relations’ – her analyst, her husband and her mother. These notes demonstrate how her conflicts with sexuality, motherhood and profession relate to her attitude to the analysis and Ferenczi himself. The more general ‘yield’ of the diaries is to provide a valuable insight into the social and political circumstances of early twentieth-century Hungary and its opportunities and limitations for a (middle-class, Jewish) woman with diverse talents and intellectual ambitions.

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The German Bourgeoisie: Essays on the Social History of the German Middle Class from the Late Eighteenth to the Early Twentieth Century. Edited by David Blackbourn and Richard J. Evans (New York: Routledge, 1991. xix plus 348 pp. $74.50)

Journal of Social History ◽

10.1353/jsh/27.1.172 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 27 (1) ◽

pp. 172-175

Author(s):

R. Wetzell

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Twentieth Century ◽

Middle Class ◽

Social History ◽

Early Twentieth Century ◽

The Social ◽

Late Eighteenth ◽

History Of

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The German Bourgeoisie: Essays on the Social History of the German Middle Class from the Late Eighteenth to the Early Twentieth Century, edited by David Blackbourn and Richard J. EvansThe German Bourgeoisie: Essays on the Social History of the German Middle Class from the Late Eighteenth to the Early Twentieth Century, edited by David Blackbourn and Richard J. Evans. New York, Routledge, 1991. xix, 337 pp. $74.50 U.S.

Canadian Journal of History ◽

10.3138/cjh.27.2.385 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 27 (2) ◽

pp. 385-387

Author(s):

James Retallack

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Twentieth Century ◽

Middle Class ◽

Social History ◽

Early Twentieth Century ◽

The Social ◽

Late Eighteenth ◽

History Of

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Cowboys and Constructions: Nationalist Representations of Pastoral Life in Post-Portalian Chile

Journal of Latin American Studies ◽

10.1017/s0022216x97004896 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 30 (1) ◽

pp. 35-61 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

PATRICK BARR MELEJ

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Middle Class ◽

Demographic Change ◽

Political Ideology ◽

Cultural Nationalism ◽

Social Question ◽

Early Twentieth Century ◽

The Social ◽

Cultural Construct ◽

Political Economic

This article examines political ideology, cultural nationalism and the contesting of identity in early twentieth-century Chile. It does so by tracing the emergence of a unique cultural construct – the huaso cowboy – in the literary sphere and by exploring a ‘rural idealist’ discourse employed by middle-class, reformist intellectuals who hoped for the mitigation of the ‘social question’ and the displacement of traditional oligarchs from cultural and political centrality. It also seeks to explain how the fiction genre known as criollismo challenged elitist conceptions of ‘nation’ and ‘culture’ in the context of dramatic socio-political, economic and demographic change.

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