Shanghai’s Dancing World: Cabaret Culture and Urban Politics, 1919–1954

Drawing upon a unique and untapped reservoir of sources, this study traces the origin, pinnacle, and ultimate demise of a commercial dance industry in Shanghai between the end of the First World War and the early years of the People's Republic of China. Delving deep into the world of cabarets, nightclubs, and elite ballrooms that arose in the 1920s, the book assesses how and why Chinese society incorporated and transformed this westernized world of leisure and entertainment. Focusing on the jazz-age nightlife of the city in its "golden age," the work examines issues of colonialism and modernity, jazz and African-American culture, urban space, sociability and sexuality, and latter-day Chinese national identity formation in a tumultuous era of war and revolution.