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"'In Europe and America, debates about race and national purity reflected several concerns: above all, fear of being overrun by brown, black, and yellow peoples beyond the boarders of "civilization'".
America worried they had exhausted all land, therefore in 1905, president Roosevelt created the National Forest Service "'to manage the development of millions of acres of permanent public lands'".
"'Social hierarchies reaching back to the 16thC. ranked whites born in Spain & Portugal at the top, creole elites in the middle, & indigenous & African populations at the bottom. Thus, the higher on the social ladder, the more likely people were to be white'".
Pan movements: "'sought to link people across state boundaries'"
In his article, Metropolitan Perceptions and the Emergence of Modern
ism," Raymond Williams explains how the relationship between the modern and the urban can be reconstructed in five different steps.
-The first stage is simply a crowd of strangers, unknown and foreign to each other
-Second, an individual emerges self aware of their isolation and comes to a new consciousness as the beginning of subjectivity
-The third is the "concealment" and "impenetrability" of the city that results from the subjectivity, for instance the foggy crime filled London, of Sherlock Holmes novels that seems to cry out for the piercing intelligence of the detective
-Fourth, is the emergence of human solidarity where we see images of mobs turning into the masses or the populous
-Lastly, the modern becomes "the place where new social and economic and cultural relations, beyond both city and nation in their older senses,
were beginning to be formed" (MP44)
Shanghai is conceptually viewed as one of the most modern chinese cities. In a poem titled "The Spring Of Shanghai" written in 1931, the writer, Zhou Leshan, describes his encounter with the modern city. He explains how within the seemingly ideal modern city where everything is so advanced for convenience, the people still miss out on a very important aspect of life and that is the season of spring. Because the city has become so modernized, nature has been almost completely driven out and there is no way for the citizens to see signs of the spring season. Both Leshan and Williams take a negative view on the inherent effects of modernism.
In 1904 an article was published by a newspaper run by local revolutionaries titled "The New Shanghai" it depicted the growing city as a beacon of hope for a new china and a utopia of modernization.
" Where is this new world? It is in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River facing the
East China Sea. The ocean currents knock at the coastline along the edges of the
foothills which are flanked by Baoshan on the left and Chuansha on the right.
With the Huangpu River circling nearby and the Tai Lake further inland
forming its cushion, the region extends freely to the south toward the sea,
encompassing a massive stretch of magnificent land. Riding the currents and
protected by three islands, it occupies the center of a 15,000-ZzTong coastline of
East Asia, constituting the foremost city among the eighteen provinces of China
proper. What is this place? It is called Shanghai. What a beautiful place! What an
unthinkable fortune with such a natural environment" ( Originally published in Jingzhong ribao, June 26, 1904, "The New Shanghai" is also quoted in Xiong Yuezhi, "Haipai sanlun")
Shanghai was becoming a center for ideas and inventions in a rapidly growing China.
"'Separate spheres had confined women to domestic matters, while leaving men in charge of public life and economic undertakings'".
"'Most of the population continued to think that higher education & public activism were not suitable for women'". During the 19thC. women's suffrage movements appeared in several countries - '"male alarmist portrayed women's suffrage and women's rights as the beginning of civilization's end'".
"'In the America's and in Europe, radicals adopted numerous tactics for asserting the interests of the working class'".
Modernism: "'the sense of having broken with tradition'"
The people and government of Shanghai were seeking to recreate the old image of Shanghai. Once an impoverished city stricken with horrendous crime ranging from drugs to piracy, Shanghai had been, in a sense, reborn into a prosperous and constantly evolving city in which there was a wealth of art and ideas. In order to somewhat remove the image of old shanghai from the worlds memory, the city invited photographers and writers from both inside china and around the world to come experience the new city and then depict it in their pictures and or writings. To some extent, this was very successful. Many photos and poems began to appear of the newly enchanting city and depicted it to the world as an epicenter of progress.
key factors causing anxiety within the changing world:
As the end of the 20th century is nearing Shanghai is the prime example of a modern city, a harsh concrete jungle. Many writers and citizens of the city during this time explain the hardships of living in such an advanced city and the aspects of life that are missed in it. Within Shanghai the middle class follows a strict dress code in fear of harsh back lash from their community and the city has traded most all trees and vegetation for large buildings and businesses. One citizen stated " That there are some plane trees in the city does not mean that Shanghai is a romantic city. Everything here is tough inside, built up brick by brick. If you sniff
the air hard enough, you sense the flavor of asphalt and the salty, pluckery ocean
in the wind as it caresses your face gently. If you climb on the top of a building
and look around, you have an eyeful of the city's utter coarseness?the tightly
packed cement boxes, like bee hives or ant hills, looking rather hideous and
horrifying. Do not be nostalgic for the old dreams of the 1920s and 30s, as they
were only the lights in the front stage, rendering invisible the tightly packed bee
hives and ant hills which conceal inside themselves a vengeful determination and an impatient readiness." *(Wang Anyi, "Shanghai de n?xing" ("The Women of Shanghai"), in Renshi de chenfu
(Turbulence of Life) (Shanghai, 1996), pp. 359-60.)
"'During the 19thC., European imperialism was seen as a "civilizing mission'". In 1914, questioning of the harsh means of controlling the colonies caused societies in Africa and Asia to challenge the imperial domination.
'"The economy of North America and Europe in the 19thC. bounced between booms and busts'". There would be long term business cycles and then countercycles of stagnation. "'Large-scale steel production, railroad building, and textile manufacturing expanded'", "'while waves of bank closure, bankruptcies, and agricultural crisis ruined many small property owners, including farmers'". Some people feared that industrial corporations would signal an end to free markets and competitive capitalism.
Emigration/Immigration from Europe to the Americas and Oceania began after the Napoleonic wars, gaining momentum in 1840. The U.S was the #1 destination, while Argentina was #2. The years between 1901 and 1910 were the "'high point'" with over 6 million Europeans entering the U.S.