Gutenberg in Shanghai

Gutenberg in Shanghai Synopsis

Relying on documents previously unavailable to both Western and Chinese researchers, this history demonstrates how Western technology and evolving traditional values resulted in the birth of a unique form of print capitalism that would have a far-reaching and irreversible influence on Chinese culture. 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." This is a vital reevaluation of Chinese modernity that refutes views that China's technological development was slowed by culture or that Chinese modernity was mere cultural continuity.