Shao Xunmei And Shanghai

In the history of China's modern literature, Shao Xunmei is regarded a "nobody" person. After the 1990s, some disussions have been made about him as a leading figure of decadent. Xie Zhixi thinks of him as a poet of " Decadent--Aestheticism" as Shao had some practice in " Decadent--Aestheticism " and lived in an era when the intellectuals found themselves lost in belief after the end of May 4th Movement. Li Oufan, on the other hand, interpretes Shao in the pedigree of "Modernity", regarding him as a decadent poet living in the modern city of Shanghai. But due to Li's simple transplantation of western modernity to China's reality, he hasn't been able to carry out an effective discussion about Shao. Both of the two interpretations have, failed to unveil the rich dimensions of the question for both Shao Xunmei and the "Modernity" of Shanghai.This essay is an effort to restage the complex aspects of "Modernity" of Shao Xunmei and the cosmopolitcan city of Shanghai. It found out that Shao's fundamental way of life was a series of literature experiences centered around his publication cause. Shao's better-off financial situation enabled him to set up a publication platform for himself in his early years. As a result, his literature pracitces included writing, editing, publication, social acitivities, etc.. Living in a city where its own cultural space made his literature pursuits possible, Shao spent his time in the upper class district, salons, and bookstores of the cosmopolitan city. Through the studies of the city's cultural space, we get to see a vivid picture of the politics, economy, and culture of Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s. In the end, Shao's literature experiences helped him establish himself in Shanghai, and the very cultural space of the cosmopolitan city injected a unique trait to Shao's literature experiences. In an effort to better understand the relationship between Shao Xunmei's literature experiences and the city of Shanghai and then to uncover the rich dimensions of Shao and the city, there is a need to put his specific literature experiences into the larger picture of the city's cultural space. By researching into Shao's early editing work for Shi Hou Magazine and Jin Wu Magazine, poems taking the form of Aestheticism, and his ideas on editing the Shi Dai Magazine, we found out that there is a correlation bettwen Shao Xunmei's literary thoughts and literary feelings and the modernity of cosmopolitcan city and consumerism. Some misunderstanding in the history of literature about Shi Hou Magazine, Jin Wu Magazine and Shao Xumei hismelf is thus clarified. In addition, by followinng Shao's experiences in Yang Shupu, we discovered another aspect of Shanghai and the hero, and we saw a richer and more complex Shao Xunmei and Shanghai in the light of "Colonial—Modernity"...