The flourishing development of media during the Ming and Qing eras affected the building of new methods of interpersonal interactions between an individual and society as well as between the people themselves. By virtue of media like Dibao 邸报 (court liaison reports), drama or novels, interpersonal interactions could reach beyond space and object restrictions. These media could thus rapidly spread particular or individual news to the general public, making those who were absent from the scene feel as if they were “experiencing” it, and at the same time allowing them to “participate in” social affairs beyond their knowledge. In this way, mass media surpassed the individual living sphere, ultimately forming a “public sphere.” Under the influence of these media, each individual could join this “public sphere” and be connected with the imagined “general public.” That is to say, mass media created an “imagined society.” In addition to a personal limited “real world,” there was an immense “fictitious world” for everyone to take part in and experience. Accordingly, interactions between people developed into interactions between each individual and the abstract society, which could cut across space limitations, and establish an immense “public society.”

The cases of caozheng 漕政 (The government administration of the collection and transport of grain taxes by water in the former times) are present in all stages in the Qing Dynasty. The social interaction and interest dispute involve the commoners, officials, and gentries in the localities in all kinds of caozheng cases. Caozheng cases that are inspired by lofty motives and filed under the established procedure are often mingled with trumped-up charges that are pressed through illegitimate means. They are employed as conventional methods by both commoners and officials for their own interests. By virtue of an in-depth analysis of such representative cases as the lawsuit issued by Kuang Guangwen, it is plainly evident that caozheng cases happen on many occasions because the long-standing malpractices spread uncontrollably in the middle and late stages of the Qing. It is both the attitude taken by the local officials towards the management of caozheng and their rationale behind the exercise of power that always dictated how such incidents take place and come to an end and therein lies the crux of a persistent problem. The caozheng cases reflects the pervasive influence that the collection of grain taxes extends on the life of the gentries and commoners, and the far-reaching effect that the taxation exerts on the change of the social order in the localities. In essence the cases reveal, to a greater or lesser degree, the circumstances under which the national affairs of Qing are administered in society in the localities, and the tendencies that are displayed in the social order in the localities.

Around the year 1891, four theatres were established in the Guangzhou Prefecture. Three were located in the provincial city of Guangzhou, and one was in the town of Foshan. For a long time, Chinese operas were, on most occasions, performed either in private gardens or in public outdoor spaces. We may presume that the rise of these theatres as an urban phenomenon in the late nineteenth century would ultimately transform the form and style of opera performance in one way or another. However, material concerning the above-mentioned theatres is too limited for us to understand their buildings, furnishings, stage and seat arrangements, lighting and sound effects, and other related aspects. It is therefore very difficult for us to explore the possible connection between the physical elements of these theatres and the style of opera performances. Fortunately, in the mid-nineteenth century, some Cantonese merchants who were active in San Francisco hired a number of opera troupes from Guangzhou to travel to San Francisco and perform in American theatres. Some years later, they even built their own theatres in China Town especially for the performance of Chinese opera. English materials describing these overseas performances and theatres allow us to have some idea of what a Chinese theatre might be like, and to speculate how these overseas experiences may have left an impact on local opera troupes back in Guangzhou.

By focusing on the establishment of city administrative organizations, this paper attempts to explore the differences between the local autonomy of Shanghai and Tianjin with a particular emphasis on the causes, purpose, founders, philosophy, form, content and effects. As two of the earliest cities implementing local autonomy, Shanghai and Tianjin are different in many ways due to the different background of their initiators and the social forces involved. By analyzing these differences and their individual characteristics, this paper attempts to explore the ways in which urban administrative organizations were established in China.

The pneumonic plague, which spread over Northeast China during the winter of 1910 and the spring of 1911, caused a great many deaths and brought about severe social turmoil. After compulsory quarantine and other epidemic preventative measures were enforced by the Russian and Japanese colonial authorities in both north and south Manchuria, the local government of Northeast China, lacking similar quarantine and epidemic prevention procedures, was under the threat of forced intervention. It had to establish modern public health agencies in a short time following the compulsory quarantine and epidemic prevention methods of the Russian and Japanese colonial authorities, although they caused many social conflicts and confrontations. In this respect, the quarantine and epidemic prevention measures that were implemented at that time can never be simply and absolutely labeled as “progressive.” However, a “sympathetic understanding” can be upheld for the sufferings of the common people, for the various unpleasant but necessary measures taken by the Chinese government in order to safeguard sovereignty and prevent Russian and Japanese intervention, and also for the transformation of public health systems later carried out because of lessons learned from this painful experience.