Ask for an essay on street culture.

Wendy's new book Street Culture-Chengdu Public Space, Underclass Society and Local Politics, 1870- 1930 (hereinafter referred to as Street) describes the colorful street culture in Chengdu. A large number of vivid and interesting descriptions in the book are both exciting and eye-opening. For example, seemingly humble beggars dare to "snatch food from the tiger's mouth" and play tricks on heavily armed guards; A teahouse with rich tea fragrance is not only a place for tea drinkers to taste tea, relax and put on a "dragon gate array", but also a living space for vendors, craftsmen and artists to display their talents, and even a "semi-civil court" for citizens to mediate disputes. There are 1 13 precious historical pictures in the book. These visual materials let us see the bustling streets and the faces of all sentient beings: pedestrians, vendors, craftsmen, tea drinkers in teahouses, hairdressers on street corners, fortune tellers standing in street stalls-all kinds of strange things, which help us reconstruct the lost culture and history from another angle. "

First, Chengdu's colorful "street culture"

The function of modern city streets is mainly traffic. However, in some cities in the past, streets also played a more important role than traffic, which is exactly what the book Streets tells us. The book says: "The street is the most important public space in the city. They not only bear the traffic of the city, but also are the carriers of daily life and economic behavior. "

Firstly, the book introduces the activities of various characters in Chengdu in the four major spaces of business, daily life, society and celebration in the second half of the19th century.

As the most prosperous commercial city in western China, street is the most important commercial space besides shops. In addition to specialized markets, there are various daily markets, including salt market, fish market, ceramics market, cotton market, bull market, pig market, fruit market, flower market and firewood market. Different transactions occupy their own space, and there are wandering vendors carrying the burden to sell along the street. Street is not only a market, but also a craftsman's workshop. Artisans make products in the street and sell them locally. The products they make are varied.

Chengdu residents regard streets as the space of their daily life. People shop, chat and exchange information in the street; Carry out various recreational activities: cricket fighting, chicken fighting, watching street performers, etc. Some people still eat and drink in the street. Children like flying kites in the street, watching the scenery in the west (that is, looking at pictures through a small hole) and playing all kinds of games.

Teahouses, as one of the important social spaces, have a long history and tradition in Chengdu. There is a local proverb that "a city resident is half a tea drinker". Some people even think that Sichuanese can't live without teahouses. Teahouse is the epitome of Chengdu society, integrating business space and daily life space. Teahouses are a good place for people to relax. Tea drinkers can enjoy all kinds of services besides tea. Some teahouses have become reception rooms for citizens and special places to discuss business with special people. Teahouses are also "semi-civil courts", and mediating civil disputes in teahouses is called "reasoning in teahouses" or "eating tea".

Beggars are the most distinctive crowd in Chengdu. As the most vulnerable social group, some beggars organize their own "beggars' gangs" to try to protect themselves. The Beggars' Gang is a group of 30 to 50 people, with a recognized leader or "king", perhaps just like the Beggars' King in Notre Dame. There is a beggar named Luo Yongpei. He even has his own business card. Organized beggars sometimes dare to challenge local power figures. 1928, a commander-in-chief of the Sichuan army held a banquet to celebrate his 50th birthday, and many important people from Chengdu joined in. Unexpectedly, nearly 300 beggars suddenly appeared, sitting unceremoniously in front of hundreds of tables, preparing for a big feast. Although the teachers are fully armed, it is obviously inappropriate to use force against citizens who come to "celebrate their birthdays" on festive days. In order to let the beggars leave as soon as possible, the teacher's adjutant promised to give them some money and food. The beggar's "grabbing food from the tiger's mouth" shows the wisdom of the humble and the strength of the weak.

The second part of the book focuses on social improvement in the early 20th century, and the third part focuses on the Revolution of 1911 and the political turmoil in the early years of the Republic of China, all of which discuss the influence of social transformation on street culture.

Second, the unique history of this city.

Shortly after the publication of Street in the United States, it caused "rave reviews" ("postscript") in western academic circles. At present, domestic academic circles have also begun to have some repercussions. Chinese and foreign academic circles have two comments on this book. The first point is that it describes the life of the lower class and fills the gap in the study of modern urban mass culture in China. The second point is to shift the vision of urban history from coastal areas to inland areas and from developed cities to underdeveloped cities. In my opinion, these two points are interrelated.

The word "street culture" is the original creation of the author of this book. His paper entitled Street Culture was not used in the English-speaking world until it was published in 1998. This word embodies a new perspective, that is, observing the face and development of the city from the daily life of the lower classes. In fact, the main reason for choosing Chengdu as the research object is that Chengdu has the richest street culture, which is an important part of traditional culture. "Because Chengdu has preserved more traditional culture than cities in coastal areas, North China and Central China, ... we can observe' another China' different from Beijing, Shanghai, Hankou or Guangzhou."

It is important to write about the lower class, but how to write and from what angle is more important. In order to reproduce the disappearing street culture, the author excavated a large number of documents. But he is soberly aware that these materials basically have an official vision. Therefore, he tried to find out the difference between "culture created by the masses" and "culture imposed on the masses", and carefully analyzed the source and practical significance of each piece of information. At the same time, try to make use of some literary materials and pictures to make up for the lack of historical materials. Zhi Zhu's Ci is mentioned in many places in the book, because Zhi Zhu's Ci is an objective literary expression. The author also visited the teahouse in Chengdu on the spot, and collected the past through talking with the elderly in the teahouse. Wandering in secluded alleys, exploring the traces of years of carving and rebuilding the past life with today's remaining culture.

Street culture is created by the lower classes themselves. Abandoning the prejudice of elites and describing the street culture of Chengdu from the perspective of the lower class people not only reproduces the historical picture more vividly and comprehensively, but also has a brand-new understanding of the value of traditional culture and the relationship between modernization and traditional culture. In the past, the study of modern urban history in China overemphasized the significance of modernization, equating urban history with the history of urban modernization, so a lot of energy and enthusiasm were devoted to developed cities, but little attention was paid to underdeveloped cities like Chengdu. For example, the history of Shanghai has become a recognized "outstanding scholar" in the past 20 years. There are as many as 50 monographs on the history of Shanghai officially published in the west alone, and there are no fewer than 300 doctoral theses on the history of Shanghai (see the preface to the Translation of Shanghai History Research by Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House). On the one hand, it narrows the research scope, on the other hand, it ignores the rich content of urban culture. People pay attention to the modernization process of the city, but ignore people's daily life. Streets describe the rich street life in the city, thus making the city history full of vitality. At the same time, looking at social transformation from the perspective of the people not only fully affirms the value of traditional culture, but also notes the negative impact of modernization on people's lives.

In the past, the research on China's urban history mostly focused on urban architecture, urban system and urban development, and paid little attention to "people". It was a city history of "no one" and "no life", which can be said to have bones but no flesh. Recently, the history of the city, especially the works of western scholars, has been improved, such as describing the police, businessmen and prostitutes in Shanghai, the special ethnic groups in Shanghai and northern Jiangsu. But it mainly introduces a certain group of people separately, and does not pay full attention to the meaning of "space". Maybe it's flesh and blood, but few bones. The most prominent feature of Street is that it has bones and flesh. "Bone" is the "public space" of the city clearly pointed out in the book, while flesh and blood are the lower class people living in these spaces and their activities. It is precisely because the "limbs" are plump, sound, active and rich in content that it is a vibrant urban history.

Third, in-depth research at different levels.

Wendy, the author of Main Street, is now a&; Associate professor, Department of History, M University. His book Out of the Closed World-Social Studies in the Upper Reaches of the Yangtze River,1644-191(Zhonghua Book Company, 1st edition,1993,20012nd edition) In contrast, Street "tries to shift people's focus from the elite to the people, and from the coast to the mainland". However, the "street" has not ignored the role of the elite. The book discusses the complex process of elite from hostility to transformation of street culture, from opposition to cooperation and separation with the people.

The study of streets is a combination of macro and micro. At present, the author's research focuses on teahouses. "Observe the changes of the world through the microscopic world of the teahouse." His new book Teahouse: Small Business, Daily Culture and Public Politics in Chengdu 1900- 1950 will be published by Stanford University Press. At present, I am writing the second volume of Chengdu Teahouse Research (1950-2000). It can be seen that the author's research is deepening step by step and has entered the category of "micro-history". In his view, "micro-history" has made some progress in western historiography, but it is basically absent in the study of China history. From regional studies to the street, and then to the trilogy Teahouse, we can see the author's extraordinary academic skills.

This book also gives us an inspiration. The streets of modern cities are more and more beautiful and prosperous, but they lack street culture; People are just passers-by in the street, so the city lacks vitality. So the question is, do we need to establish a new street culture? The author of Street does not hide his attachment to traditional street culture. Can history and reality have the same needs? These are all worth thinking about.