Shanghai Guest: Immigrant Life And Cultural Identity In Shanghai Literature In The First Half Of The 20th Century

From the perspectives of immigrant groups and urbanization,this dissertation analyzes the immigration phenomenon and relevant narratives in the Shanghai literature during the first half of the 20 th century,by focusing on the interaction and mutual influence between Southern China culture,local culture and citizen culture,as well as the development of Shanghai as a modern city.New concepts such as“Shanghai newcomers” and “urban nostalgia” are introduced to characterize immigrant writers,literary societies and immigrants' life in the Shanghai literature.It is argued that the immigrants in Shanghai not only experienced the spatial transition from the rural to the urban,but also witnessed the dramatic transformation of Shanghai from a traditional society to a modern one in the first half of the 20 th century.As an important driving force of Shanghai's modernization,the immigrant groups,including writers and intellectuals,made continuous efforts to be assimilated into the metropolitan culture while at the same time trying to keep their native culture alive.Through reconstructing their socio-cultural identity,the immigrants gradually became the new citizens of Shanghai.During this process,the urban was made a place of soul as important as the rural,and a unique urban memory of Shanghai was formed through literary imagination.