A Study On Urban Life Of Shanghai In The Late Qing Dynasty

Picture Daily is the earliest pictorial journal in the history of Chinese modern press industry. It has a high level of topicality, a large quantity of information and a combination of text and graphics, which are easy to understand. It reflects many aspects of the social life of Shanghai in the late Qing Dynasty, thus it becomes an important resource to understand the changes in social life in China. The paper takes the Picture Daily as the research focus to discuss the changes in the social life of Shanghai. It divides into four parts.The first part is about the pictorial press in late Qing Dynasty and the Picture Daily. It combes the development and evolution of the pictorial press in late Qing Dynasty, gives a brief introduction of the Picture Daily, including the founding background, development process, creative team and column setting, as well as analyzes the value of research and feature of content of the Picture Daily.The second part introduces the women’s social life in Shanghai. The late Qing Dynasty witnessed the great changes in the women’s social life in Shanghai. The space of social activities for the common women started to change:they were gradually stepping to the society from the bondage of traditional families. They began to spend more time on entertainment, accepted new type of education and dressed in more fashionable and colorful clothing. All these show the attitudes presented by the women in Shanghai before the great changes.In the third part, the culture civilization of Shanghai in late Qing Dynasty was introduced, which is focusing on western food restaurant and entertainment center. As a kind of foreign food introduced into China, western-style food brings in not only a new way of eating, but also material civilization and life style of western countries as a new social space. In late Qing Dynasty, the entertainment way of Shanghai is a mixture of the old and the new. Both the traditional theater and teahouse and the western entertainment programs enjoy a high popularity among the public. Besides, the park provides more space for people.The fourth part expounds on the changes of social customs of Shanghai in late Qing Dynasty, especially the opium and the prohibition of it, which attracted much attention of Shanghai society in late Qing Dynasty. On one hand, it analyzes the influence on the individual, the family and the society for the addiction to opium. On the other hand, it describes the suppression of opium-smoking and achievements of1909International Commission of opium prohibition. All these demonstrate the social customs and the national value have changed a lot in modern China.