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About the Book
• Winner, 2005 Book Prize in Humanities, International Convention of Asian Scholars
• Honourable Mention, 2005 Delong Book Prize, Society for the History of Authorship
 Winner of the 2003-5 International Convention of Asian Scholars (ICAS) Book Prize (humanities category)
Honourable Mention, DeLong Book Prize, Society for the History of Authorship, Readership, and Publishing (SHARP)
In the mid-1910s, what historians call the "Golden Age of Chinese Capitalism" began, accompanied by a technological transformation that included the drastic expansion of China’s "Gutenberg revolution." Gutenberg in Shanghai examines this process. It finds the origins of that revolution in the country’s printing industries of the late imperial period and analyzes their subsequent development in the Republican era.
This book, which relies on documents previously unavailable to both Western and Chinese researchers, demonstrates how Western technology and evolving traditional values resulted in the birth of a unique form of print capitalism whose influence on Chinese culture was far-reaching and irreversible. Its conclusion contests scholarly arguments that view China’s technological development as slowed by culture, or that interpret Chinese modernity as mere cultural continuity.
A vital reevaluation of Chinese modernity, Gutenberg in Shanghai will be enthusiastically received by scholars of Chinese history and by specialists in cultural studies, political science, sociology, the history of the book, and the anthropology of science and technology.
About the Author(s)
Christopher A. Reed is a member of the History Department at The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.
Table of Contents
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Gutenberg’s Descendants: Transferring Industrialized Printing Technology to China, 1807-1930
2. Janus-Faced Pioneers: The Golden Age of Shanghai’s Lithographic Printer-Publishers, 1876-1905
3. "Sooty Sons of Vulcan": Forging Shanghai’s Printing Machinery, 1897-1937
4. "The Hub of the Wheel": Commerce, Technology, and Organizational Innovation in Shanghai’s New-Style Publishing World, 1876-c. 1911
5. "The Three Legs of the Tripod": Commercial Press, Zhonghua Books, and World Books, 1912-37
Conclusion
Appendix: A Bird’s-Eye View of 1930s Shanghai’s Fuzhou Road/Wenhuajie District
Glossary of Chinese Terms, Titles, and Names
Notes
Selected Asian-Language Bibliography
Selected Western-Language Bibliography
Index
Reviews
By placing the technicalities of machinery and finance squarely in the center of his analysis, Reed offers brilliant insights into the birth of ‘print capitalism’ in Shanghai. The adoption of Western printing presses gave birth to an intellectual world that was new, yet not alien. As Reed skillfully demonstrates, by drawing on the aesthetics, social values, and mechanical skills of the late imperial period, the Chinese made modern printing thoroughly their own.
—Francesca Bray, author of Technology and Gender: Fabrics of Power in Late Imperial China
There is nothing in any language that approaches what Reed covers in this book. A more thorough exploration of printing as an element in the early modernization of Chinese politics and economy could scarcely be imagined. Essential reading for those interested in the history-of-the-book.
—Timothy Brook, author of The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China
Tracing the history of three leading publishing houses in Shanghai, Reed deftly combines technological, business, and social history. I am not aware of a similar work in any language that offers such a unique combination.
—Man Bun Kwan, author of The Salt Merchants of Tianjin: State-Making and Civil Society in Late Imperial China
… Reed’s book has to be hailed as the first of its kind for taking a multifaceted approach to the technological, economic, cultural, and geographical impact of the modern Chinese print industry. His book deserves to be ready by everyone who is interested in the burgeoning history of modern Chinese cultural production.
—David Der-wei Wang, Harvard University, Canadian Journal of History, August 2005.
His monograph is a fine example of a successful interdisciplinary study that applies approaches from the social history of technology, business history, and the history of book and print culture to the analysis of print capitalism in the context of print culture and print commerce in modern China… Gutenberg in Shanghai offers a complex, thoughtful and engaging study of China’s print capitalism which pays as much attention to the social history of technology as to the business industry of the printing and publishing enterprises emerging in modern China… one can only wish that in the constant flood of publications more books would reach this high standard of intellectual content and visual presentation.
—Elisabeth Koll, Case Western Reserve University, EH.Net, December 2005.
What follows is a multilayered story broad in scope, rich in analytical insights and lucid in prose… Reed’s work draws on a dazzling array of often difficult-to-find sources, including archival documents, published primary materials, memoirs, interviews and fiction. This book lays the foundations for the future study of Chinese publishing of this period.
—Ling A. Shiao, St. Mary’s College of California, Enterprise and Society, Spring 2006
Il n’est pas possible ici de rendre compte de la richesse de l’ouvrage de C. Reed, qui prend place dans une perspective croisant l’histoire du livre, traitee heuresement sous sa forme globale, et l’histoire de Shanghai, metropole qui connait depuis peu une nouvelle revolution economiue. Aux nombreuses questions qui’il pose, l’auteur apporte des reponses stimulates.
—Jean-Pierre Drege, EPHE, Etudes Chinoises, vol. XXIV (2005).
The importance of this book goes well beyond the fact that it is the first book in a Western language to describe the multifaceted development of “modern” printing in China. The comprehensive and convincing integration of varying approaches of the history of the book and print culture with technological, social commercial, intellectual and business history alone make this innovative book satisfying, even for those not particularly interested in China… Through both a general narrative and a series of case studies about the tree most important publishers in Shanghai, Reed masterfully links the technological aspects with social history… with cultural, education, and political history …with the new organizational, financial, and intellectual structures they entailed… And it is this breath of vision, which makes this book come highly recommended – if only European countries would be as well served.
— Martin J. Heijdra, Princeton University, SHARP News, vol. 15, nos. 2 and 3, Spring and Summer 2006.
Sample Chapter
Introduction
Related Topics
History > Other
Asian Studies
History
Other Ways To Order
In Canada, order your copy of Gutenberg in Shanghai from UTP Distribution at:
UTP Distribution
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Toronto, Ontario
M3H 5T8
Phone orders: 1(800)565-9523 or (416)667-7791
Fax orders: 1(800)221-9985 or (416)667-7832
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Ordering information for customers outside Canada
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