Yeh, Catherine Vance, “The Life-Style of Four Wenren in Late Qing Shanghai” (1997)

Title : “The Life-Style of Four Wenren in Late Qing Shanghai”

Author(s) : Yeh, Catherine Vance

Year : 1997

Type : Journal article

Subject : History

Keywords : culture

Journal : Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies

Volume : 57

Number : 2

Start page : 419

End page : 470

Language:Name : English

Support : Print

Abstract : Shanghai during the late Qing (1840-1911) was the only Chinese city where the change from traditional to modern lifestyles was embraced, and as such, attracted the country's intellectuals. These wenren, educated in the Confucian tradition only to find that upon coming of age it was insufficient, strived to retain and recraft their Chinese identity while maintaining a Westernized urban lifestyle. The biculturalism of Shanghai that attracted and nurtured wenren led to its being the unrivaled intellectual center of China by the 1920's. The four wenren featured are: Wang Tao (1828-97), a publisher and assistant to Western missionaries; Chen Jitong (1851-1907), a military leader and novelist; Zeng Pu (1872-1935), a political novelist and Francophile man of letters; and Jin Songcen (1874-1949), a revolutionary and classical scholar.