The transformation in Chinese social theory in the twentieth century placed the rural-urban divide at the centre of individual identity. In 1500, such distinctions were insignificant and it was the emergence of political reforms in the early 1920s and 1930s which separated cities and towns as agents of social change and encouraged a perception of rural backwardness. This interdisciplinary collection traces the development and distinctions between urban and rural life and the effect on the Chinese sense of identity from the sixteenth century to the present day. It provides a daunting example of the influence that political ideology may exert on an individual's sense of place.

Interdisciplinary collection focusing on changing perceptions of town and country in China

List of Maps and Illustrations Acknowledgements Notes on the Contributors Introduction Marvelling at the Wonders of the Metropolis: Perceptions of Seventeenth-Century Chinese Cities in the Novel xingshi yinyuan zhuan ; D.Berg Town and Country Representation as Seen in Temple Fairs; Z.Shiyu What Weber Did Not Know: Towns and Economic Development in Ming and Qing China; D.Faure Village Identity in Rural North China: A Sense of Place in the Diary of Liu Dapeng; H.Harrison Factories in the Countryside: The Industrial Workforce and Social Division in Nantong County, 1895-1937; E.Köll Urban Superiority, Modernity, and Local Identity: A Think Piece on the Case of Shanghai; H.Lu Civil Society in Late Qing Suzhou; M.Min Representing the City: Shanghai and its Maps; C.V.Yeh Perceptions of City and Country in Republican Fiction; T.T.Liu Redefining the Market Town Through Festivals in South China; H.F.Siu Index