A History Of Bicycle In Modern China(1868-1949)

As one of the exotic commodities from the west, bicycle has changed the lifestyle of people in modern China since1868. Nowadays China, as everyone knows, is "the kingdom of bicycles". China is the largest country to export, produce and use bicycles in the world. However, at the same time, few people pay attention to the cycle history of China:we know nearly nothing about Chinese cycle history, cycling habits or other aspects of the bicycle in China. This doctoral thesis focuses on bicycle's introduction and popularization in China from the first written account to the founding of the People's Republic of China in1949, and divides into seven chapters as follow:The first Chapter:"What is it: bicycle technology and Chinese response". Taking the history of bicycle technology in western countries as the background, the article describes with emphasis How Chinese perceived the bicycle, as a technically new and culturally foreign means of transportation, and explains why some people believe China is the first country to invent the bicycle. How to translate the bicycle in Chinese words? At the end of this Chapter, the paper illustrates the process of cultural appropriation in the changing translated name of the bicycle.Chapter2is "Cycles from overseas:study on bicycle import in modern China". National bicycle industry was extremely weak for a long time; most of the bicycles riding in modern China were imported from other countries. Based on the first-hand historical data: the Holdings of the Shanghai Municipal Archives and China's old customs house historical data (1859-1948), This Chapter tries to demonstrate the long-term changing of bicycle import in modern China. Moreover, the paper takes Japan as a study case, analyses the relation between rise of Japan's bicycle industry and hardship of national bicycle industry.Trade associations were widely established as new industrial and commercial organizations in modern China, particularly during the Republican era. They were characterized by enormous spatial, temporal and industrial differences, and generalizing, one-sided studies are very unlikely to lead to a truthful, precise historical understanding of these associations. Case-studies that are more fully multidimensional are urgently needed to supplement our understanding. The national bicycle industry was representative of emerging industries in modern China. Chapter3:"Help each other: research on bicycle trade organizations" focuses on bicycle industry-related trade associations in modern Shanghai. Files housed in the Shanghai Municipal Archives are analyzed to offer a concrete dissection of an individual case-study that will illuminate broader questions in trade association historical research.Cycles were imported to China as early as in1868and were particularly associated with wide ranges of modern Chinese people, from emperors, aristocracy and the wealthiest businessmen down to ordinarily people. A famous story about bicycle and China is that Pu Yi, the last emperor of Qing Dynasty, cut off the doorsill of the Forbidden City which had been there for more than hundreds of years, just for the convenience of riding a bike. In this Chapter4:"On your bicycle:a history of the Cyclists'daily life", through studying bicycles as a cultural symbol, this paper will be concerned with the changes in aesthetic taste, life habits and consumer orientation of the urban residents in modern China. It aims to reveal the complexity of the urban life and meanings of bicycles to different Chinese people, so as to analyze how "the kingdom of bicycles" was constructed.Most of the past research focused on the response of the Chinese receivers and consumers to exotic commodities; however, few researches went deeper to explain How to make social change on a large scale by exotic commodities. There were more and more Chinese people who worked with bicycles. They included bicycle salesmen, makers, repairmen, lessor and other businessmen and even thieves. Along with business development, several social groups formed. Chapter5:"Make a living:a study on those social groups who worked with bicycles in modern China" will be concerned with many different bicycle stores in city streets of modern China, and focus on the living conditions of those Social Groups who worked with bicycles in modern China society.Chapter6:"Control the Wheels:Public power and bicycles". This already became the consensus of academia, from the late Qing to the Republican era, the state got more and more power, permeated and controlled social affairs, but how? How did the public power entre into people's everyday life? Former research lacked case-study. At the beginning, cyclers was totally free, then China local government promulgated traffic rules, taxed license dues and dealt with security problems. Bicycle's management in modern China was a proper case to illustrate this historical vicissitude.The seventh chapter is called "Various applications:alternative uses of bicycle in modern China". Besides as a new vehicle to ride instead of walk, bicycle also can apply to military mobility, round the world adventure, race, and other fields. In this chapter, the research object is no longer ordinary cyclers, but focuses on the cycle adventurers and cycling athletes in modern China.