The Analysis Of Shanghai Book Reader In 1920s And 1930s

Reading behavior not only reflects the individual pursuit, but also is affected by characteristics of the times. Reading behavior is subject to a number of individual factors, such as economic situation, reading environment, cultural tastes, but also are closely related to contemporary political thought, ideology, social trends, fashion, hobbies and other factors. At the same time, publishing and printing industry had a great development made the book reader groups expanded from the elite to the general public in the 1920 s and 1930 s, so reading became more important social influence and significance. With the reading’s history of theory, the analysis of readers can make a contribution to study Shanghai social culture in the 1920 s and 1930 s.Books provide a more systematic and profound knowledge, and therefore study of the book readers is beneficial to explore the knowledge and ideas in the 1920 s and 1930 s. American scholars Robert Darnton believed the history of reading not only included "Who read", "read what", but also included a more difficult question "Why read" and other issues. So this paper analyze consumption of books, the reading ability, reading time and reading status based on readers’ profession and education. And the paper summarizes type and content of books and readers’ awareness of reading to explain the purpose of the reader.The book readers groups in 1920 s and 1930 s were not only made of the middle class, the book’s main consumer groups, who were intellectuals and shopkeepers, junior clerk, apprenticeship and others, but also the lower class, such as workers and prostitutes. The books which readers selected were from a wide range, which not only covered psychology, Marxist theory, physics, biology and other modern disciplines, but also includes poetry, chapter novel, librettos of folk art and other traditional books, even involves shady, pornography, murder and other vulgar books.It responds urban modernization and commercialization development that readers who did reading in the 1920 s and 1930 s were the pursuit of knowledge to practice or entertainment. Learning knowledge to practice is in order to improving personal life and conducive to social, state and national.The reading purpose of middle and lower class always is entertainment, because the readers with low educational attainment level and bad economic conditions who were under stress and driven by anxiety can’t make their life better.Sometimes vulgarity instead of entertainment, the books of pornography, violence, vulgar taste and absurdity are popular.The readers with the pursuit of knowledge to practice were mostly the middle class who were with better education, good economic status and aggressive attitude. Although some readers looked forward to changing their personal lives through reading, but because of the pressure of life and personal capacity and other factors, very few people can achieve this desire, most of them still remained in the original living conditions and cultural levels. In the over-commercialization and eager pursuit of wealth and power in the social environment, readers abandoned systematic and aesthetics in order to achieve the purpose of practicing, so reading was almost material gain in the 1920 s and 1930 s in Shanghai.