The Workers of Tianjin, 1900-1949

This is the story of the workers of Tianjin (Tientsin) and how, in the first half of the twentieth century, they helped shape Tianjin's identity as the major industrial center of North China. Of interest not merely to students of the period covered but to those students of Communist China who wish to understand the antecedents of China's current urban society and trace the roots of powerful continuities. It offers a wealth of detail on material life, forms of entertainment, local festivals, and individual rites of passage and makes effective use of studies of the local economy done by contemporaries and in the People's Republic. The Workers of Tianjin is a major contribution to both Chinese labor history and urban history.