Teahouse Under Socialism

Di Wang is Distinguished Professor and Head of the Department of History, University of Macau. Among his many books are The Teahouse: Small Business, Everyday Culture, and Public Politics in Chengdu, 1900-1950 and Street Culture in Chengdu: Public Space, Urban Commoners, and Local Politics, 1870-1930.

• Introduction: Urban Political Transitions under SocialismPart I. The Decline of Public Life, 1950–1976 1. The Demise of the Chengdu Teahouse Guild and the Fall of Small Business 2. State Control and the Rise of Socialist Entertainment3. The Decline of Public Life under Mao's Rule Part II. The Return of Public Life, 1977–2000 4. The Resurgence of Teahouses in the Reform Era5. Urban Residents and Migrant Workers in Public Life 6. The Power of Mahjong Conclusion: The State, the Teahouse, and the Public Sphere

Written in plain language, this book is easily accessible to non-professionals interested in Chinese urban culture. Meticulously researched, it also offers new material and insights to scholars in modern Chinese history, urban studies, cultural anthropology, and the sociology of leisure.(Journal of Interdisciplinary History) This book is clearly indispensable reading for anyone interested in modern Chinese social history, but given its accessibility and entertaining narrative style it will appeal to a general audience with concerns about the ways in which urban public space enhances everyday social and cultural experience.(China Review International) The Teahouse Under Socialism is a captivating account of the way in which broad political changes are manifested in small urban spaces. [A] deeply-researched and trans-disciplinary study, [it] makes a valuable contribution not only to Chinese and global urban history but to our understanding of civil society and the public sphere in non-Western contexts.(awards citation from Urban History Association, co-winner of Best Book in Non-North American History, 2017-2018) Anyone who studies or is interested in PRC history or modern Chinese society should not miss the chance to read this book.(China Review) The Teahouse under Socialism is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand political and cultural change in Mao-era and post-Mao China.(History Reviews of New Books)