Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-5g6vh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T16:49:55.771Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Tempest over Teapots: The Vilification of Teahouse Culture in Early Republican China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2010

Qin Shao
Get access

Extract

The Chinese Teahouse was one of a few traditional institutions of sociability whose wider social and cultural appeal overshadowed its primary business. Historically, it was closely woven into the fabric of Chinese life. In many communities the teahouse served as a center of information, a locus of leisure and social gatherings, an occasional office and marketplace for many practitioners, and an arena where various social forces competed for status and influence. Urbanization in the late Qing dynasty further contributed to the growth of teahouses, especially in the Yangzi River region (Suzuki 1982; Yan 1997, 17). However, while teahouses continued to flourish in the early Republic, teahouse culture became a target—a constant target in some areas— of social critics. Why this tempest over teapots?

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 57 , Issue 4 , November 1998 , pp. 1009 - 1041
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Other Works Cited

Motonosuke, Amano. 1979 Chuugoku nouson sbakai no chiikiteki tenkai (Rural Development in China). Tokyo: Ryuukei Shosha.Google Scholar
Bakken, Timothy. 1994. “Cultivating Civilization: The Age of the English Coffee House.” Social Education 58 (6): 1–4.Google Scholar
Barry, Naomi. 1994. “Carte Blanche-If You Could Dine Anywhere.” Gourmet 54 (December): 212–13, 248-51.Google Scholar
Berenson, Edward. 1995. “A Permanent Revolution —The Historiography of 1789.” Modern China 21 (1): 77–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bergère, Marie-claire. 1997. “Civil Society and Urban Change in Republican China.” China Quarterly (150): 309–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bigsby, C. W. E. 1996. “The Politics of Popular Culture.” In Approaches to Popular Culture, edited by Bigsby, C. W. E.. Green, Bowling, Oh.: Bowling Green University Popular Press.Google Scholar
Burke, Peter. 1995. “The Invention of Leisure in Early Modern Europe.” Past and Present (146): 136–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chang, K. C., ed. 1997. Food in Chinese Culture: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Chang, Wejen. 1994. “Legal Education in Ch'ing China.” In Education and Society In Late Imperial China (1600-1900), edited by Elman, Benjamin A. and Woodside, Alexander. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Bingsheng, Chen. 1991. “Nantong de cha ‘li'” (Tea ‘Ritual’ in Nantong). NTJG, no. 5.Google Scholar
Bixing, Chen. 1992. “Jiu Haimenxianya susong heimu jiemi” (The Dark Secret of Lawsuit in the Old Haimen County). NTJG, no. 2.Google Scholar
Chu, Samuel C. 1965. Reformer in Modern China-Chang Chien, 1883–1926. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Conlon, Frank F. 1995. “Dining out in Bombay.” In Consuming Modernity: Public Culture in a South Asia Community, edited by Breckenridge, Carol A.. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Conner, Alison W. 1994. “Lawyers and the Legal Profession During the Republican Period.” In Civil Law in Qing and Republican China, edited by Bernhardt, Kathryn and Huang, Philip C. C.. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Li, Dai, and Guohua, Zhang. 1997. “Shigang Yuanlong nanbei zaihuodian de xingshuai” (The Rise and Fall of the Yuanlong Nanbei Grocery Store in Shigang). NTXWZL, no. 1.Google Scholar
Dobranski, Stephen B. 1994. “Where Men of Different Judgements Crowd: Milton and the Culture of the Coffee Houses.” The Seventeenth Century 9: 35–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, John C. 1992. Tea in China: the History of China's National Drink. New York: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Faison, Seth. 1997. “Browsers' Bookshop, but There is No Espresso.” The New York Times, 17 March, A4.Google Scholar
Kai, Fan. 1994. Nantongxian tuzhi (Illustrated Gazetteer of Nantong County). Nantong: Nantong City Library.Google Scholar
Shuzhi, Fan. 1990. Ming-Qing Jiangnan shizhen tanwei (Study of Market Towns in Jiangnan during the Ming and Qing Dynasties). Shanghai: Fudan University Press.Google Scholar
Shiduo, Fang, and Jiefan, Zhu, eds. 1996. Beiping conghua (Things Beiping). Taibei: Tianyi chubanshe.Google Scholar
Zhiban, Fang. 1990. “Nantong guyiye de xingshuai” (The Rise and Fall of Cloth Pawn Shops in Nantong). NTJG, nos. 2 and 3.Google Scholar
Forster, Robert, and Ranum, Orest, eds. 1979. Food and Drink in History: Selections from the Annales Economies, Societes, Civilizations. Vol. 5. Translated by Forster, Elborg and Ranum, Patricia M.. Baltimore Md. and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Freeman, Michael. 1977. “Sung.” In Food in Chinese Culture: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives, edited by Chang, K. C.. Haven, New, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Gardella, Robert. 1994. Harvesting Mountains—Fujian and the China Tea Trade, 1757–1997. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garnham, Nicholas. 1993. “The Media and the Public Sphere.” In Habermasand the Public Sphere, edited by Calhoun, Craig. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Gernet, Jacques. 1988. Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250– 1276. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Jingcheng, Guan. 1983 “Nantong baokan shiliao” (Historical Materials on Nantong Newspapers). NTSWZL, no. 2.Google Scholar
Weisan, Guan. 1993. “Youwen bilu de Tonghai xinbao” (The Tonghai xinbao That Reported News as It Happened). NTJG, no. 4.Google Scholar
Haine, W. Scott. 1996. The World of the Paris Café—Sociability among the French Working Class, 1789-1914. Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
weiyuanhui, Hanyu dacidian bianji (ed.). 1993. Hanyu Dacidian (Great Chinese Hong Kong: Sanlian shudian (Overseas Edition).Google Scholar
Hattox, Ralph S. 1985. Coffee and Coffeehouses–The Origins of a Social Beverage in the Medieval Near East. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Maizi, He. 1994. Wu Zakan (Five Series of Random Talks). Chengdu: Chengdu chubanshe.Google Scholar
Baosong, Hong, and Li, Dai. 1993. “Shigang Zhonghechun Chazhuang”(Zhonghechun Tea Shop in Shigang). NTXWZL, no. 10.Google Scholar
Howard, Jennifer. 1993. “Budapest Coffeehouse Culture Revisited: Café New York, 1992.“East European Quarterly 27 (2): 223–30.Google Scholar
Xlufu, Jl. 1989 “Nantong chengli de chaguan” (Teahouses in Nantong city). Nantong ribao (Nantong Daily). 8 February.Google Scholar
Judge, Joan. 1996. Print and Politics: ‘Shibao’ and the Cuture of Reform in Late Qing China. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Inoue, Koubai. 1920. Shina Fouzoku (Chinese Customs). Shanghai: Nihondonshoten.Google Scholar
She, Lao. 1980. Teahouse. Translated by Howard-Gibbon, John. Beijing: Foreign Language Press.Google Scholar
Leclant, Jean. 1979 “Coffee and Cafés in Paris, 1644–1693” In Food and Drink in History: Selections from the Annales Economies, Societes, Civilizations, edited by Forster, Robert and Ranum, Orest. Vol. 5. Translated by Forster, Elborg and Ranum, Patricia M.. Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Lee, Leo Ou-Fan. 1987. “Literary Trends I: The Quest for Modernity, 1895-1927.” In The Cambridge History of China: Republican China 1912–1949, edited by Fairbank, John K.. Vol. 12, part 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lee, Leo Ou-Fan, and Nathan, Andrew J.. 1985. “The Beginnings of Mass Culture: Journalism and Fiction in the Late Ch'ing and Beyond.” In Popular Culture in Late Imperial China, edited by Johnson, David, Nathan, Andrew J., and Rawski, Evelyn S.. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Lee, Tahirih V. 1995. “Coping with Shanghai: Means to Survival and Success in the Early Twentieth Century-A Symposium.” The Journal of Asian Studies 54 (1): 13–18.Google Scholar
Xiusong, Li. 1993. “Chinese Tea Culture.” Journal of Popular Culture 27 (2): 75–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weimin, Li, and Yingliang, Chen. 1992. Zhongguo shenpan zhidu shigang (The History of Judicial System in China). Hong Kong: Jingji yu falu chubanshe.Google Scholar
Link, E. Perry Jr. 1981. Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies: Popular Fiction in Early Twentieth- Century Chinese Cities. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Changhua, Liu. n.d. Zili shuwen (An Account of My Hometown). Nantong: Nantong City Library.Google Scholar
Lu, Hanchao. 1995. “Away from Nanking Road: Small Stores and Neighborhood Life in Modern Shanghai.” The Journal of Asian Studie 54 (1): 93–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macauley, Melissa A. 1994. “Civil and Uncivil Disputes in Southeast Coastal China, 1723-1820.” In Civil Law in Qing and Republican China, edited by Bernhardt, Kathryn and Huang, Philip C. C.. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Mackinnon, Stephen R. 1997. “Toward a History of the Chinese Press in the Republican Period.” Modern China 23 (1): 3–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yuanlao, Meng. 1997 [1147]. Dongjing menghua lu (The Record of Dreamy Prosperity of the Eastern Capital). Shanghai: Gudian wenxue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Sakujirou, Nakamura. 1899 Shina manyuudan (Travel in China). Setsuonkai. Nantong gongshanglian dang'an (The Archival Record of Nantong Industrial and Business Union). 1952. Nantong: Nantong Archive.Google Scholar
xingzheng, Nantongshi ju (Nantong City Administrative Bureau). 1929 Shizheng guinie (Standards of City Management). Nantong: Hanmolin shuju.Google Scholar
Haruhiko, Nishizawa. 1985. “Yamucha no hanashi” (Talks on Drinking Tea). GS-Tanoshii chisiki. Vol. 3. Tokyo: Toujyusha.Google Scholar
Haruhiko, Nishizawa. 1988. “Gendai chuugoku no chakan-shisenshou seiito no jirei kara” (Teahouses in Contemporary China—The Case of Chengdu, Sichuan Province). Fuuzoku 26 (4). Tokyo: Nihon Fuuzokushi Gakkai.Google Scholar
Peters, John Durham. 1997. “Seeing Bifocally: Media, Place, Culture.” In Culture, Power, Place—Explorations in Critical Anthropology, edited by Gupta, Akhil and Ferguson, James. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Plumb, J. H. 1973 The Commercialisation of Leisure in Eighteenth-Century England. Reading: University of Reading Press.Google Scholar
Schafer, Edward H. 1962. The Golden Peaches of Samarkand—A Study of T'ang Exotics. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Schivelbusch, Wolfgang. 1988. Disenchanted Night: The Industrialization of Light in the Nineteenth Century. Translated by Davies, Angela. Berkeley: The University of California Press.Google Scholar
Schivelbusch, Wolfgang. 1992. Tastes of Paradise—A Social History of Spices, Stimulants, and Intoxicants. Translated by Jacobson, David. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Shao, Qin. 1994. “Making Political Culture—The Case of Nantong, 1890-1930.” Ph.D. diss., Michigan State University.Google Scholar
Shao, Qin 1996. “The Mismatch: Ouyang Yuqian and Theater Reform in Nantong, 1919–1922.” CHINOPERL, no. 19: 39–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shao, Qin. 1997 “Space, Time, and Politics in Early Twentieth-Century Nantong.” Modern China 23 (1): 99–129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jinghu, Shen. 1990. “Pingchao techang hua jingcao” (Pingchao Speciality Cherry). NTJG, no. 2.Google Scholar
Lingqiang, Shi, and Aidong, Zhu. 1987. “Junshan cha” (Jun Hill Tea). NTJG, no. 5.Google Scholar
Smith, Carl. 1995. Urban Disorder and the Shape of Belief: The Great Chicago Fire, the Haymarket Bomb, and the Model Town of Pullman. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Paul J. 1991. Taxing Heaven's Storehouse: Horses, Bureaucrats, and the Distribution of the Sichuan Tea Industry, 1074–1224 Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Soler, Jean. 1979 “The Semiotics of Food in the Bible.” In Food and Drink in History: Selections from the Annales Economies, Societes, Civilizations, edited by Forster, Robert and Ranum, Orest. Vol. 5. Translated by Forster, Elborg and Ranum, Patricia M.. Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Stedman-Jones, Gareth. 1971. Outcast London: A Study in the Relationship between Classes in Victorian Society. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Stedman-Jones, Gareth 1983. Languages of Class: Studies in English Working Class History, 1832–1982. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Strand, David. 1989. Rickshaw Beijing: The City People and Politics in the 1920s. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tomoo, Suzuki. 1982. “Sinmatu Sekkou no Koso Chakan nituite” (Teahouses in Jiangsu and Zhejiang [Provinces] in the Late Qing Dynasty). In Rekishiniokeru minshuu to bunka. Tokyo: Kokusho Kankoukai.Google Scholar
Mlnoru, Takeuchi. 1974. Chakan (Teahouses). Tokyo: Taishuukan shoten.Google Scholar
Weikang, Tang. 1987. “Man shu Shanghai de jiaoyisuo” (About Shanghai Stock Exchange). In Shanghai yishi (Shanghai anecdotes), edited by Weikang, Tang, Dailu, Zhu, and Li, Du. Shanghai, , Shanghai renmin chuban she.Google Scholar
Timms, Edward. 1995. “Expressionist and Georgians: Demonic City and Enchanted Village.” In Unreal City: Urban Experience in Modern European Literature and Art, edited by Timms, Edward and Kelley, David. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Wang, Dl. 1998. “The Idle and the Busy—Teahouses and Public Life in Early 20thcentury Chengdu.” Forthcoming, Journal of Urban History.Google Scholar
Shiming, Wang. 1992. “Bannian cangsang hua Qu jia” (The Qu Family's Experiences in the Past Hundred Years). NTXWZL, no. 8.Google Scholar
Naizhong, Wu. 1987. “Nantong xiaochi” (Dim Sum in Nantong). NTJG, no. 5.Google Scholar
Zhihe, Wu. 1996. Mingren yincha shenghuo wenhua (Life and Culture of Tea–drinking among the Ming People). Taibei: Mingshi yanjiu xiaozhu.Google Scholar
Che, Xia. 1993. ‘“Pinsi chi hetun’ qutan” (Interesting Talk about “Risking One's Life Eating Balloonfish”). NTJG, no. 3.Google Scholar
Zhirong, Xia. 1968 [1755]. Zhili tongzhou zhi (Gazetteer of Zhili Tong Prefecture). Taibei: Xuesheng shudian.Google Scholar
Haiping, Xu. 1982. “Xiaozhang” (Tip). In Nantongxisu zalu (On Nantong Customs). Nantong: Nantong City Library.Google Scholar
Haiping, Xu 1992. “Nantong de shuchang” (Story Halls in Nantong). NTJG, nos. 5 and 6.Google Scholar
Hongsheng, Yan. 1997. “Qingmo minchu de chaguan” (Teahouses in the Late Qing and Early Republic). Minguo chunqiu (Republican Spring and Autumn), no. 2: 17–21.Google Scholar
Xiaofeng, Yang. 1993. “Yashui jiuhua” (Talk about the Levy on the Middle Merchants in the Past). NTJG, nos. 5 and 6.Google Scholar
Shixiong, Ye. 1956. Chahua (On Tea). Shanghai: Wenhua chubanshe.Google Scholar
Qian, Yu. 1987. “ ‘Chunfeng deyilou’ ji qita” (“Chunfeng Deyi Chamber” and Other Things). In Shanghai yishi (Shanghai Anecdotes), edited by Weikang, Tang, Dailu, Zhu, and Li, Du. Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chuban she.Google Scholar
Yikong, Yu. 1982. “Jiefangqian Nantong shangye fazhan jieshi” (A Brief History of Nantong Business before 1949). NSWZL, no. 2:47.Google Scholar
Yu, Yu. 1976. Chashi chahua (Things and Talks about Tea). Taiwan: Shijie wenwu chubanshe.Google Scholar
Zaret, David. 1993 “Religion, Science, and Printing in the Public Spheres in Seventeenth – Century England.” In Habermas and the Public Sphere, edited by Calhoun, Craig. Cambridge: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Ziqiang, Zhang, and Wenchun, Yang (1992) “Pingyou changlu jiangchajing” (Talks about Tea). NTJG, no. 4.Google Scholar
Xiuling, Zhuo. 1978. Guangdong fengwu (The Culture and Things of Guangdong). Taiwan: Dongfu chubanshe.Google Scholar