The Space Of Modernity: Seeing The Social Life Of Shanghai In The Late Qing Dynasty From Dianshizhai Pictorial

Research related to the Dianshizhai Pictorial is primarily concentrated within the areas of the history of journalism and the history of modern Chinese and western relations,with minor research focused on cultural and art historical perspectives.This thesis looks to texts and images from the Dianshizhai for further interpretation.Through visual analysis,the author also seeks to examine images found within the pages of the Dianshizhai,revealing them as a reflection of eatrly modern Shanghai society.The thesis also focuses on the pictorial's observations on special circumstances within late Qing Shanghai during its modernization process.The Dianshizhai Pictorial,one of the earliest and most significant serial publications in China,presented current events in both China and the west,introducing readers to new knowledge,inventions and innovations during the closing decades of the Qing Dynasty.These techniques fostered new language forms,and are intimately related to the development of modernity within late Qing Shanghai.This thesis explores and examines the Dianshizhai within the social context of the late 19th century Qing Dynasty,a period of great social change,in addition to the pictorial's role as a visual media in representing the birth of modernity.