Introduction: The Border of Histories; PART I: Cosmic and Semiotic Centers of Knowledge; ONE: The Shifting Locations of the Translation of Science; TWO: Semiotic Modernity: The Politics of Philology and Compilation; PART II: The Carnival and the Radical; THREE: Urban Festivity as a Disruptive History; FOUR: In Search of a Habitable Globe; PART III: Interiors Projecting the Globe; FIVE: Reenvisioning the Urban Interior: Gardens and the Paradox of the Public Sphere; SIX: The Rise of an Entertainment Cosmopolitanism; Conclusion: Chinese Cosmopolitanism Repositioned; Notes; Bibliography
Summary
Shanghai and the Edges of Empires analyzes a century-long shift of urbanity from Chinas heartland to its shore. Simultaneously appropriating and resisting imposing forces, Shanghai opened itself to subversive practices, becoming a crucible of creativity and modernism. Meng Yue reveals the paradoxical interdependence between imperial and imperialist histories and the retranslation of culture that characterized the emergence of the city of Shanghai
