Street Criers

Hanchao Lu is Professor of History at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

• Contents @toc4:Illustrations and Tablesiii Prefaceiii @toc2:Introduction1 1. On the Rivers and Lakes000 2. Sympathy Versus Antipathy000 3. Legend Has It000 4. Coping with Mendicants000 5. Ruling the Street000 6. The Wisdom of Mendicancy000 7. Men's Limbs and Women's Mouths000 8. Chairman Mao Picked on a Beggar000 Conclusion000 @toc4:Character List000 Appendix: The Sound of Mendicity000 Notes000 Bibliography000 Index000 @fmct:Illustrations and Tables @fmh1:Map @fmli:1. China at the Turn of the Twentieth Century000 @fmh1:Figures @fmli:1. Beggar of the Longhua Pagoda000 2. Beggar figurines000 3. Worshipping a patron saint000 4. Emperor Zhu000 5. Han Xin000 6. Wu Zixu000 7. The Eight Immortals000 8. Beggar foster father000 9. A beggar's "waist plaquette"000 10. Children at a Beijing soup kitchen000 11. A beggar headman000 12. A night watchman000 13. Beggars on government duty000 14. The God of Fortune000 15. New Year's spectacle000 16. A funeral procession000 17. Sidewalk petitioner000 18. Snake charming000 19. Mother and child000 20. Competing with a dog for food000 21. Lai Dongjin in Mao's hometown000 @fmh1:Tables @fmli:1.1Vagrants in the 1931 Yangzi River Flood000 1.2Shanghai Beggars' Previous Occupations and Incomes 000

"This is an important read to anyone interested in topics associated with Chinese urban studies, Chinese labor, or Chinese underclasses." - The Chinese Historical Review "Lu's study will serve as a useful point of departure for further research into the world of the Chinese underclass. It also has much of interest for other aspects of Chinese society." - Journal of Asian Studies "...an elegantly written book easily accessible to a broad range of readers..." - The China Journal "Faced with a lack of reliable data, Lu has chosen to employ as broad and variegated a host of sources as possible... all intermingle[d] to illustrate a history both colorful and entertaining. The amount of material uncovered is quite astonishing and easily proves Hanchao Lu's most salient point: beggars may have been socially marginal, but they did play an important role in the cultural imagination of late-imperial and Republican China... Lu presents the reader with a view of social life that is often overlooked, and his book plays an important role in reminding us of some of the costs of China's search for modernity." - China Review International "This is a well-researched, clearly presented, and carefully analyzed book, and a wonderful narrative history of beggars in modern China... In addition to a profound analysis of beggar issues, Lu gives us colorful stories of beggars struggling for their survival. This book offers us greater knowledge of lower-class people and their social environments, and should be recommended to scholars of China, students who are interested in China, and general readers." - International Journal of Asian Studies