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Away from Nanking Road Small Stores and Neighborhood Life in Modern Shangha g HANCHAO LU A CHINAS LEADING"TREATY PORT"CITY, Shanghai has long been stereotyped as the prime bridgehead for foreign encroachment on China and as the most westernized city of the country(Tang and Shen 1989: introduction). Recent scholarship in the West still refers to Shanghai as"the other China, ""in China but not of it, "a foreign city even in its own country"(Bergere 1981; Murphey 1992: 346; Clifford 1991:9). In the first half of the twentieth century, was the influence of the West Shanghai so strong that the city was alienated from the rest of China? Was Shanghai firmly in the grip of modernization, which in China was often associated with a tendency to change toward things Western? Or, alternatively, was Shanghai ome to a strong and vibrant current of traditionalism, a traditionalism that can be equated with continuity or persistence of things indigenously Chinese? The answers these questions can be very diverse, depending in large measure on the dimensions one chooses to examine. Most of our assumptions and judgments on this issue have been drawn from broad and sweeping political or economic perspectives with little attention paid to the everyday lives of ordinary people. How the common people continued to live their everyday lives is, I believe, most relevant to the question of the impact of modernity (or of the West)upon urban China This article invites the reader to look into ordinary neighborhood stores on the narrow alley where most Shanghainese lived. Nanking Road, the commercial center of the city, and its adjacent riverside(known as the Bund)with its business and municipal edifices have long been regarded as symbols of the city in much the ame way that the Manhattan skyline symbolizes New York, the Eiffel Tower,Paris or Big Ben, London. Nanking Road and the Bund-as the places where foreigners exercised their political and economic power and enjoyed special privileges, and as the places from which emanated modern, Western cultural influences--were particularly powerful symbols of the Western intrusion in China. However, the story of small neighborhood stores shows that Nanking Road and all it symbolized remained largely irrelevant to the daily lives of the common people of Shanghai Our stroll through the alleyways of Shanghai reveals the remoteness of Western Hanchao Lu teaches history at Georgia Institute of Technology In pinyin, Nanjing Road. Since"" was the original romanized street, I use Nanking Road rather than Nanjing Road in this article The Journal of Asian Studies 54, no. 1(February 1995): 93-123 o 1995 by the Association for Asian Studies, Inc

Away from Nanking Road: Small Stores and Neighborhood Life in Modern Shanghai HANCHAO LU ASc~1ivA.SLEADING "TREATY PORT CITY, Shanghai has long been stereotyped as the prime bridgehead for foreign encroachment on China and as the most westernized city of the country (Tang and Shen 1989: introduction). Recent scholarship in the West still refers to Shanghai as "the other China," ."in China but not of it," "a foreign city even in its own country" (Berghe 1981; Murphey 1992:346; Clifford 1991:9). In the first half of the twentieth century, was the influence of the West in Shanghai so strong that the city was alienated from the rest of China? Was Shanghai firmly in the grip of modernization, which in China was often associated with a tendency to change toward things Western? Or, alternatively, was Shanghai home to a strong and vibrant current of traditionalism, a traditionalism that can be equated with continuity or persistence of things indigenously Chinese? The answers to these questions can be very diverse, depending in large measure on the dimensions one chooses to examine. Most of our assumptions and judgments on this issue have been drawn from broad and sweeping political or economic perspectives with little attention paid to the everyday lives of ordinary people. How the common people continued to live their everyday lives is, I believe, most relevant to the question of the impact of modernity (or of the West) upon urban China. This article invites the reader to look into ordinary neighborhood stores on the narrow alleyways where most Shanghainese lived. Nanking Road,' the commercial center of the city, and its adjacent riverside (known as the Bund) with its business and municipal edifices have long been regarded as symbols of the city in much the same way that the Manhattan skyline symbolizes New York, the Eiffel Tower, Paris, or Big Ben, London. Nanking Road and the Bund-as the places where foreigners exercised their political and economic power and enjoyed special privileges, and as the places from which emanated modern, Western cultural influences-were particularly powerful symbols of the Western intrusion in China. However, the story of small neighborhood stores shows that Nanking Road and all it symbolized remained largely irrelevant to the daily lives of the common people of Shanghai. Our stroll through the alleyways of Shanghai reveals the remoteness of Western Hanchao Lu teaches history at Georgia Institute of Technology. '1n pinyin, Nanjing Road. Since "Nanking" was the original romanized name for the street, I use Nanking Road rather than Nanjing Road in this article. TheJournal of Asian Studies 54, no. 1 (February 1995):93- 123. O 1995 by the Association for Asian Studies, Inc

STORES AND NEIGHBORHOODS IN MODERN SHANGHAI 95 Kitcher (Tingzijian) Back Living room Back bedroom Front Living room Front Bedroom Sidewalk oor Second Floor Figure 3. The floorplan of a front-row lilong house was a U-shaped, two- or three-story brick building with two wings connecting to the central part of the house and a small courtyard in front between the wings Obviously, this design was derived from traditional Chinese houses, especially the ourtyard house or quadrangle house(Blaser 1979: 5-14; Knapp 1990: 11-13). TE innovation here is that the lilong house was never built as an individual structure but always in a cluster: a few units of lilong houses were built to form a row, and a few rows comprised a compound(figure 2). Within the compound, paved alleyways between the rows provided access, light, and ventilation. It is said that the row design was derived from the terrace-house of Europe(Wang Shaozhou 1989: 75 Chen and Zhang 1988: 162; Gao 1990: 223-24; Zhang Jishun 1993) The lilong design outlasted the early influx of refugees and with various modifications continued to be built to house Shanghais growing population. Wings were removed from the U-shaped design and what had been originally the central part of the house was built as a single unit( Gao 1990: 225-26; Jia 1982: 286-87 From the 1920s on, some newly built lilong started to feature such modern amenities as sanitary fixtures(bathrooms with a bathtub and flush toilet) and a gas supply for cooking and hot water. These houses were called"new-type alleyway hous (xinshi lilong) to distinguish them from the old lilong, which usually did not have modern sanitation or gas. The latter were commonly called shikumen(lit., a wooden door within a stone framework), a name derived from the design of the front door of the houses(Wang Shaozhou 1989: 77; Wang and Chen 1987: 6; Chen and Zhang 1988: 160-65). The small stores we will discuss were most popular in the old-type long neighborhoods, although they were also found in the new-type lilong neighborhood:

96 ANCHAO LU A lilong compound, as shown in figure 2, always has a front row(or, in some cases, a few front rows) facing the street. Those living in units inside the compound had to pass through the front yard to enter their living room. However, the front row units had no yard, and the living rooms of these units could be entered directly from the sidewalk (figure 3). These living rooms were often used for business purposes rather than for housing; most often, they were used as small stores or shops Establishing a store in a lilong neighborhood usually followed a pattern: a man (store owners were usually male)managed to save or borrow enough money a front unit in a lilong compound; he would then move his family into the floor and turn the living room into a small store. As Shanghais population cor mainly of immigrants from other parts of the country, this living arrangement was obviously efficient: it simultaneously solved the problems of residence and employment (Informants I-2, I-5, I-7) The rent for a lilong house varied by neighborhood and by the quality of the house itself. Although the front units had the advantage of being suitable for use as a store or shop, rent for such houses was not necessarily higher than that for units inside the compound. In some cases, the rents for front-row houses were slightly higher than for those inside, varying from 10 to 20 percent(1-5, I-11). The reason for the small disparity in rent was that front-row houses were less comfortable to live in. Street-facing units had no yard, suffered from noise and dust from the stree and were easy targets for thieves and burglars. In a way, the owners of these stores tolerated a less comfortable life in order to earn a livelihood. Yet, being without a living room was not considered a big deprivation in Shanghai. To this day, to use the"living room"as a living room is considered a luxury(I-10, 1-12) These were small stores in every sense: a normal living room in a lilong house is a rectangular room of about 20 to 30 square meters of floor space, although a few adjacent"living rooms"were sometimes put together(i. e, the walls between the rooms were dismantled), resulting in a fairly large store(I-5). The stores were of course, open to anyone who walked in but, since they were located in residential areas, the majority of the customers were local residents. In fact, a great many of the customers lived in the same block in which the stores were locate Among the most common stores in these neighborhoods were those that sold grain, coal, cotton fabrics and goods, groceries, hot water, condiments, snacks fruit, wine, meat and vegetables, and other products. Other shops offered such ervices as tailoring, barbering, repair of household items, and currency exchange and there also were laundries, tea houses, and public bathhouses. In short, in Shanghais lilong neighborhoods, the merchandise and services most closely related to daily life could be purchased within a block of one's home(I-3, I-4, I-12) For example, the neighborhood stores along a section of Hart Road(today Changde Road) between the intersections of Bubbling Well Road(today's Nanjing Road West)and Avenue Foch( today's Yan'an Road Central)(see Table 1; Shi Songjiu 1989: 353-92)included everything from a dentist to a blacksmith to a wineshop In this typical lilong neighborhood, with several lanes, each leading to an entrance to a compound, residents could do virtually all their shopping for daily necessities within a few steps of their homes without crossing the street to the other side of e block(1-3, 1-9, I-5) Ao The types of stores listed in table 2 were not too different from those on Hart ad, but they were located in a very different type of town: Waigang, Jiangsu Informants are cited by code; see the List of Informants in table 4

A lilong compound, as shown in figure 2, always has a front row (or, in some cases, a few front rows) facing the street. Those living in units inside the compound had to pass through the front yard to enter their living room. However, the frontrow units had no yard, and the living rooms of these units could be entered directly from the sidewalk (figure 3). These living rooms were often used for business purposes rather than for housing; most often, they were used as small stores or shops. Establishing a store in a lilong neighborhood usually followed a pattern: a man (store owners were usually male) managed to save or borrow enough money to rent a front unit in a lilong compound; he would then move his family into the second floor and turn the living room into a small store. As Shanghai's population consisted mainly of immigrants from other parts of the country, this living arrangement was obviously efficient: it simultaneously solved the problems of residence and employment (Informants 1-2, 1-5, 1-7).~ The rent for a lilong house varied by neighborhood and by the quality of the house itself. Although the front units had the advantage of being suitable for use as a store or shop, rent for such houses was not necessarily higher than that for units inside the compound. In some cases, the rents for front-row houses were slightly higher than for those inside, varying from 10 to 20 percent (1-5, I- 11). The reason for the small disparity in rent was that front-row houses were less comfortable to live in. Street-facing units had no yard, suffered from noise and dust from the street, and were easy targets for thieves and burglars. In a way, the owners of these stores tolerated a less comfortable life in order to earn a livelihood. Yet, being without a living room was not considered a big deprivation in Shanghai. To this day, to use the "living room" as a living room is considered a luxury (1-10, 1-12). These were small stores in every sense: a normal living room in a lilong house is a rectangular room of about 20 to 30 square meters of floor space, although a few adjacent "living rooms" were sometimes put together (i.e., the walls between the rooms were dismantled), resulting in a fairly large store (1-5). The stores were, of course, open to anyone who walked in but, since they were located in residential areas, the majority of the customers were local residents. In fact, a great many of the customers lived in the same block in which the stores were located. Among the most common stores in these neighborhoods were those that sold grain, coal, cotton fabrics and goods, groceries, hot water, condiments, snacks, fruit, wine, meat and vegetables, and other products. Other shops offered such services as tailoring, barbering, repair of household items, and currency exchange, and there also were laundries, tea houses, and public bathhouses. In short, in Shanghai's lilong neighborhoods, the merchandise and services most closely related to daily life could be purchased within a block of one's home (1-3, 1-4, 1-12), For example, the neighborhood stores along a section of Hart Road (today's Changde Road) between the intersections of Bubbling Well Road (today's Nanjing Road West) and Avenue Foch (today's Yan'an Road Central) (see Table 1; Shi Songjiu 1989:353-92) included everything from a dentist to a blacksmith to a wineshop. In this typical lilong neighborhood, with several lanes, each leading to an entrance to a compound, residents could do virtually all their shopping for daily necessities within a few steps of their homes without crossing the street to the other side of the block (1-3, 1-9, 1-5). The types of stores listed in table 2 were not too different from those on Hart Road, but they were located in a very different type of town: Waigang, Jiangsu '~nformants are cited by code; see the List of Informants in table 4

98 HANCHAO LU Table 2. Stores in Waigang Town, Jiangsu Province, 1950 Number tea house wIneshop barbershop ck ba sesame-cake store soy-sauce store bean curd store pork store lamb store fruit store 89366374344665 grocery store cake store pharmacy( Chinese) SOURCE: Ling Wang, Yang, and Zhong 1984: 14 province. Waigang, a town of only 0. 4 square kilometers and a population of 4,000 in the early 1980s, was a traditional rural town that can trace its history back to he sixth century. In the Ming period, it started to enjoy commercial prosperity based on trade in cotton. At its peak, during the Qing period, the town had sixteen streets and alleyways (Yin 1961; Qian 1961). Waigang nevertheless remained a relatively obscure place: it is one of the numerous small and undistinguished rural owns of Jiangnan. At the center of Waigang, the single major street, about 100 meters long, was simply called"Waigang Street"(Waigang yi tiao jie). The twenty three types of stores that are listed in table 2 were all located on this street(Ling et al. 1984: 139-42). As was typical of rural towns in China, the customers of these stores were almost exclusively people of Waigang Needless to say, Hart Road, with its paving and street lamps, was more urbanized in appearance than Waigang Street. The stores on hart Road also offered more variety and better quality merchandise than was provided by stores in rural towns like Waigang, but the overall nature of the stores on Hart Road and on Waigang Street was similar. These stores were the basic level of commercial enterprise in urban China, the places ordinary people purchased their daily necessities The streets were similar in other ways also. First, from the shopkeepers'standpoint on both Hart Road and Waigang Street the"targeted"customers were the immediate local residents. By the same token, from the customers'standpoint, these stores were what commerce meant to them in their daily lives; for many, it was the only real commercial world they ever entered The sect Settlement and adjacent to district. This street was located in China's largest and most prominent foreign There is reement on the definition of"urban China. "Therefore, Waiga can also be referred to (perhaps more accurately) as part of rural China. The term town''might well convey the dual nature of these small towns in Chin

-- Table 2. Stores in Waigang Town, Jiangsu Province, 1950 Store Number Seats tea house 294 wineshop 304 restaurant 21 tables barbershop 20 snack bar sesame-cake store soy-sauce store bean curd store pork store lamb store fruit store grocery store cake store pharmacy (Chinese) SOURCE: Ling Wang, Yang, and Zhong 1984: 142 province. Waigang, a town of only 0.4 square kilometers and a population of 4,000 in the early 1980s, was a traditional rural town that can trace its history back to the sixth century. In the Ming period, it started to enjoy commercial prosperity based on trade in cotton. At its peak, during the Qing period, the town had sixteen streets and alleyways (Yin 1961; Qian 1961). Waigang nevertheless remained a relatively obscure place: it is one of the numerous small and undistinguished rural towns of Jiangnan. At the center of Waigang, the single major street, about 100 meters long, was simply called "Waigang Street" (Waigang yi tiao jie). The twentythree types of stores that are listed in table 2 were all located on this street (Ling et al. 1984: 139-42). As was typical of rural towns in China, the customers of these stores were almost exclusively people of Waigang. Needless to say, Hart Road, with its paving and street lamps, was more urbanized in appearance than Waigang Street. The stores on Hart Road also offered more variety and better quality merchandise than was provided by stores in rural towns like Waigang, but the overall nature of the stores on Hart Road and on Waigang Street was similar. These stores were the basic level of commercial enterprise in urban ~hina,~ the places ordinary people purchased their daily necessities. The streets were similar in other ways also. First, from the shopkeepers' standpoint, on both Hart Road and Waigang Street the "targeted" customers were the immediate local residents. By the same token, from the customers' standpoint, these stores were what commerce meant to them in their daily lives; for many, it was the only real commercial world they ever entered. The section of Hart Road that we are considering was located in the International Settlement and adjacent to the French Concession, the city's most luxurious residential district. This street was located in China's largest and most prominent foreign h here is no complete agreement on the definition of "urban China." Therefore, Waigang can also be referred to (perhaps more accurately) as part of rural China. The term "rural town" might well convey the dual nature of these small towns in China

STORES AND NEIGHBORHOODS IN MODERN SHANGHAI 99 concession inside the na most westernized city. Even the name of the street- it was named after Robert Hart, the Inspector-General of Maritime Customs seemed to confirm that this thoroughfare itself was a component part of what people often referred to as the "foreign adventurers' land"(yangchang). Waigang, on the other hand, was just one of countless traditional towns in rural China. Yet, judging by people's shopping behavior, we might say that the residents of Hart Road still lived a"Waigang"type of life. This reminds us of Martin Yang,'s description of he market towns in rural North China, with which G. William Skinner(1964: 17) concurred"wholeheartedly"through his research in Sichuan: "On the whole, although there is no clear-cut line of demarcation. each market town has a definite and recognizable area, and looks upon the people of certain villages as its primary customers in turn, it is regarded by the villagers as their town"(Yang 1945: 190). If this sort of"small town mentality"has been found in traditional rural towns in North China Sichuan, and Jiangnan, as well as in metropolitan Shanghai, then one must conclude that the persistence of this tradition is formidable Major Neighborhood Stores Our argument may be better understood by examining a few of the most common types of small neighborhood stores. The vital importance of the stores examined here can be summarized in a single Chinese proverb, which a journalist cited some sixty years ago to describe a neighborhood store, one cannot live without th Gentleman for a single day"(buke yiri wu cijun)(Sbebui ribao 1936: June 27 Rice is, of course, the staple food in south China. Although modern Shanghainese investigation shows that in 1933, when Shanghai ha pal food in their diet.One came from everywhere, rice was certainly the pri only 92, 126 people who were originally from North China and Manchuria had wheat as their staple food. In other words, rice was the staple food for of Shanghais people. It is estimated that an adult male in Shanghai annually consumed 2.74 dan(453 pounds)of rice, and an adult female 2.01 dan(332 pounds).Shanghai in the 1930s thus needed about one billion pounds(six million dan)of rice annually to feed its people(Shanghaishi shehuiju 1935: 183) Although the overall volume of the rice business was very large, individual rice stores were usually small. There were two types of rice businesses in Shanghai milang(rice companies)and midian or mibao(rice stores). The mihang were wholesale stores that had an attached retail store as part of their business. These rice companies often specialized in a particular product. For example, some stores specialized in rIc (e. g, Jiangxi) or foreig specialized in trading wheat, beans, zaliang(miscellaneous food grains), or other products. Because of their size and amount of capital these businesses were generally regarded as the leading participants in the rice business in Shanghai However, for ordinary Shanghai residents, the midian, which were exclusively etail stores, were the places to go for rice. The Shanghai Rice Guild had 1, 544 members in 1930; the population of Shanghai at that time was about 3, 100,000 (Zou Yiren 1980: 90); thus on the average a rice store served about 2, 000 residents

STORES AND NEIGHBORHOODS IN MODERN SHANGHAI 99 concession inside the nation's most westernized city. Even the name of the streetit was named after Robert Hart, the Inspector-General of Maritime Customsseemed to confirm that this thoroughfare itself was a component part of what people often referred to as the "foreign adventurers' land" (yangchang). Waigang, on the other hand, was just one of countless traditional towns in rural China. Yet, judging by people's shopping behavior, we might say that the residents of Hart Road still lived a "Waigang" type of life. This reminds us of Martin Yang's description of the market towns in rural North China, with which G. William Skinner (1964: 17) concurred "wholeheartedly" through his research in Sichuan: "On the whole, although there is no clear-cut line of demarcation, each market town has a definite and recognizable area, and looks upon the people of certain villages as its primary customers; in turn, it is regarded by the villagers as their town" (Yang 1945:190). If this sort of "small town mentality" has been found in traditional rural towns in North China, Sichuan, and Jiangnan, as well as in metropolitan Shanghai, then one must conclude that the persistence of this tradition is formidable. Major Neighborhood Stores Our argument may be better understood by examining a few of the most common types of small neighborhood stores. The vital importance of the stores examined here can be summarized in a single Chinese proverb, which a journalist cited some sixty years ago to describe a neighborhood store, "one cannot live without this Gentleman for a single day" (buke yiri wzl cijz~n) (Shehui ribao 1936: June 27). Rice Stores Rice is, of course, the staple food in south China. Although modern Shanghainese came from everywhere, rice was certainly the principal food in their diet. One investigation shows that in 1933, when Shanghai had a population of 3,133,782, only 92,126 people who were originally from North China and Manchuria had wheat as their staple food. In other words, rice was the staple food for 97 percent of Shanghai's people. It is estimated that an adult male in Shanghai annually consumed 2.74 dan (45 3 pounds) of rice, and an adult female 2.0 1 dan (332 pounds). Shanghai in the 1930s thus needed about one billion pounds (six million dan) of rice annually to feed its people (Shanghaishi shehuiju 193 5: 183). Although the overall volume of the rice business was very large, individual rice stores were usually small. There were two types of rice businesses in Shanghai: mihang (rice companies) and midian or mihao (rice stores). The mihang were wholesale stores that had an attached retail store as part of their business. These rice companies often specialized in a particular product. For example, some stores specialized in rice from certain provinces (e.g., Jiangxi) or foreign countries (e.g., Thailand), others specialized in trading wheat, beans, zaliang (miscellaneous food grains), or other products. Because of their size and amount of capital these businesses were generally regarded as the leading participants in the rice business in Shanghai. However, for ordinary Shanghai residents, the midian, which were exclusively retail stores, were the places to go for rice. The Shanghai Rice Guild had 1,544 members in 1930; the population of Shanghai at that time was about 3,100,000 (Zou Yiren 1980:90); thus on the average a rice store served about 2,000 residents

100 HANCHAO LU Table 3. Size of Rice Stores in Shanghai, 1933-35 store rore Total Per 65% )% 375 1,500,000 Turnover*100,00045,0005,00023,00050,000,000 *In Chinese URCE: Sh aishi she 1935: 200; Gongshang banyuekan, 5, 19(October 1, 1933): 47- The actual number of people shopping at any single rice store must have been lower because some rice stores were not members of the guild (Gongshang 5.19: 47-48 Only 5 percent of Shanghais rice stores were classified as"large stores, "most of which were retail stores attached to mihang(table 3). The"medium stores which had only one-tenth of the capital of the large stores, accounted for 30 percent Most of the rice stores(65 percent of Shanghais rice stores)were small businesses with an average of only $200 of capital. To estimate the value of $200 in the 1930s, the average wage for an unskilled factory worker was about $20 per month, and it was not uncommon for a skilled worker in some industries(i. e, silk weaving)to earn more than $50 a month(Bureau of Social Affairs: 60). The capital of these rice stores was equal to merely a few months' wages of a factory worker Both the small capital and the limited space of the typical store limited the amount of rice the shop could keep in storage(which was in the back half of the living room" ). The normal inventory ranged from five to ten days' sales; few exceede half a months sales(Gongshang 5.19: 47). Improper storage easily caused moldiness especially in Shanghai's rainy season of May and June. The shopowner paid the cost of shipping rice from the wholesaler to his shop, a cost that varied with distance and method of transportation-boat, truck, or rickshaw. Rice from the wholesalers might not be ready for sale but in need of screening to get rid of sand, small stones and crushed rice. In spite of these difficulties, since rice was a daily necessity, people were still lured into the business, especially in the early 1930s when the population was fast-growing (Lu Wenshao 1931) Coal Stores Shanghai was one the world,s first cities to have a gas supply. In 1865 the city ad its first gasworks, and from 1882 on, gas was increasingly used for household heating. From 1926 on, gas was used in new-style lilong houses and Western-style apartments for cooking and heating(Shanghaishi gongyong 1991: 25-28, 38-39) But a gas supply was never common in the homes of most of Shanghai's people Up to 1949, only 2. 1 percent of Shanghais households had gas stoves in their kitchens(Shanghaishi tongjijui 1984: 320). For the majority of Shanghai people, a gas supply was something related to the elite and therefore associated with luxury

100 HANCHAO LU Table' 3. Size of Rice Stores in Shanghai, 1933-35 Large Medium Small store store store Average Total Percentage 5% 30% 65% 100% Capital* 10,000 1,000 200 375 1,500,000 Turnover" 100,000 45,000 5,000 23,000 50,000,000 *In Chinese silver dollars SOURCE. Shanghaishi shehuiju 1935: 200; Gonghang ban~uekan,5, 19 (October 1, 1933):47- 48. The actual number of people shopping at any single rice store must have been lower because some rice stores were not members of the guild (Gongshang 5.19:47-48, October 1, 1933). Only 5 percent of Shanghai's rice stores were classified as "large stores," most of which were retail stores attached to mihang (table 3). The "medium stores," which had only one-tenth of the capital of the large stores, accounted for 30 percent. Most of the rice stores (65 percent of Shanghai's rice stores) were small businesses with an average of only $200 of capital. To estimate the value of $200 in the 1930s, the average wage for an unskilled factory worker was about $20 per month, and it was not uncommon for a skilled worker in some industries (i.e., silk weaving) to earn more than $50 a month (Bureau of Social Affairs:60). The capital of these rice stores was equal to merely a few months' wages of a factory worker. Both the small capital and the limited space of the typical store limited the amount of rice the shop could keep in storage (which was in the back half of the "living room"). The normal inventory ranged from five to ten days' sales; few exceeded half a month's sales (Gongshang 5.19:47). Improper storage easily caused moldiness, especially in Shanghai's rainy season of May and June. The shopowner paid the cost of shipping rice from the wholesaler to his shop, a cost that varied with distance and method of transportation-boat, truck, or rickshaw. Rice from the wholesalers might not be ready for sale but in need of screening to get rid of sand, small stones, and crushed rice. In spite of these difficulties, since rice was a daily necessity, people were still lured into the business, especially in the early 1930s when the population was fast-growing (Lu Wenshao 193 1). Coal Stores Shanghai was one the world's first cities to have a gas supply. In 1865 the city had its first gasworks, and from 1882 on, gas was increasingly used for household heating. From 1926 on, gas was used in new-style lilong houses and Western-style apartments for cooking and heating (Shanghaishi gongyong 199 1:25-28, 38-39). But a gas supply was never common in the homes of most of Shanghai's people. Up to 1949, only 2.1 percent of Shanghai's households had gas stoves in their kitchens (Shanghaishi ton~ijii 1984:320). For the majority of Shanghai people, a gas supply was something related to the elite and therefore associated with luxury

STORES AND NEIGHBORHOODS IN MODERN SHANGHAI I Most households used coal to fuel their stoves. A coal stove was a square or round tube made of tinplate, about two feet high, and ten inches on each side(if it was square)or one foot in diameter(if it was round), with a cone-shaped furnace in the middle, insulation materials(such as coal cinders )stuffed between the furnace and the tinplate edges, and handles. For decades in this century, a coal stove like is was the only energy source for cooking and heating in ordinary Shanghai households, and about 98 percent of Shanghais inhabitants could not live without it. Up to 1983, about 51 percent of the households of Shanghai were still using coal stoves as their only cooking and heating facility(Shangbaishi tongji 1983: 320) It reported that in 1990, 1.04 million coal stoves were being used by the residents of Shanghai (Wang and Qiu 1990), a fact that contradicts the popular image of the modernity of Chinas leading"treaty port Because of the ubiquity of coal stoves, shops selling coal could be found on every block in lilong neighborhoods. These stores were known as"egg-shaped briquette stores"(meiqiudian) because egg-shaped briquettes were the major commodity sold But coal stores also sold charcoal, firewood chips, and other fuels such as kerosene Firewood chips were a daily necessity, for most households extinguished the coal stove every night before going to bed, and in the morning, one of the first tasks was to light the stove with waste paper and wood chips. Emily Honig (1986: 136) has mentioned that lighting the stove was the first thing women workers of Shanghai's cotton mills did in the morning. This was, in fact, a routine morning chore for every household in Shanghai that did not have a gas stove(I-3, I-4 All the shopkeepers lived on the second floor of the house in which the store was located and took care of their business all day long. Usually the male head of the family was the owner and manager of the store. He might hire one or two shop assistants who were. more often than not relatives or fellow townsmen. his wife and adult children often worked as helpers when needed. One coal store owner on Hart Road, for example, had his nephew work in his store as counter clerk(alse bookkeeper)for seventeen years(1936-53)and his eldest son as shop assistant for nine years(1938-47). In 1947 he opened another coal store a few blocks from the first one, and had his eldest son run the new store. His daughter-in-law became the counter clerk and bookkeeper of the new store (Yao and Ang 1935: 3; I-4 -5) Tobacco-Paper Stores Re, Stores popularly known as yanzhidian (lit., tobacco-paper store)were actua l\y ariety stores. The owner of one such store, Liu Xiangyu, has run a variety store since 1942, when he inherited his father's barbershop on Hart Road. He soon turned the barbershop into a yanzhidian. Like rice and coal stores, tobacco-paper stores were family-run businesses, but smaller in scale. None of them was larger than a single living room. "Usually, like Liu's(see table 1, the tobacco-paper store next to lane entrance 43), the tobacco-paper store was merely the front half of a"living room facing onto the street, and the back half of the room was used by the family for household needs. In some cases, the whole store was no more than a shop window with no space for customers to walk in; in such stores, all of the business was conducted over a counter set on the shop windowsill. Owners of these stores could not afford to have helpers other than family members, hence these stores were

STORES AND NEIGHBORHOODS IN MODERN SHANGHAI 101 Most households used coal to fuel their stoves. A coal stove was a square or round tube made of tinplate, about two feet high, and ten inches on each side (if it was square) or one foot in diameter (if it was round), with a cone-shaped furnace in the middle, insulation materials (such as coal cinders) stuffed between the furnace and the tinplate edges, and handles. For decades in this century, a coal stove like this was the only energy source for cooking and heating in ordinary Shanghai households, and about 98 percent of Shanghai's inhabitants could not live without it. Up to 1983, about 5 1 percent of the households of Shanghai were still using coal stoves as their only cooking and heating facility (Shanghaishi tonui 1983:320). It was reported that in 1990, 1.04 million coal stoves were being used by the residents of Shanghai (Wang and Qiu 1990), a fact that contradicts the popular image of the modernity of China's leading "treaty port." Because of the ubiquity of coal stoves, shops selling coal could be found on every block in lilong neighborhoods. These stores were known as "egg-shaped briquette stores" (m~iqiudian) because egg-shaped briquettes were the major commodity sold. But coal stores also sold charcoal, firewood chips, and other fuels such as kerosene. Firewood chips were a daily necessity, for most households extinguished the coal stove every night before going to bed, and in the morning, one of the first tasks was to light the stove with waste paper and wood chips. Emily Honig (1986:136) has mentioned that lighting the stove was the first thing women workers of Shanghai's cotton mills did in the morning. This was, in fact, a routine morning chore for every household in Shanghai that did not have a gas stove (1-3, 1-4). All the shopkeepers lived on the second floor of the house in which the store was located and took care of their business all day long. Usually the male head of the family was the owner and manager of the store. He might hire one or two shop assistants who were, more often than not, relatives or fellow townsmen. His wife and adult children often worked as helpers when needed. One coal store owner on Hart Road, for example, had his nephew work in his store as counter clerk (also, bookkeeper) for seventeen years (1936-53) and his eldest son as shop assistant for nine years (1938-47). In 1947 he opened another coal store a few blocks from the first one, and had his eldest son run the new store. His daughter-in-law became the counter clerk and bookkeeper of the new store (Yao and Ang 1935:3; 1-4, 1-51. Tobacco-Paper Stores Stores popularly known as yanzhidian (lit., tobacco-paper store) were actually variety stores. The owner of one such store, Liu Xiangyu, has run a variety store since 1942, when he inherited his father's barbershop on Hart Road. He soon turned the barbershop into a yanzhidian. Like rice and coal stores, tobacco-paper stores were family-run businesses, but smaller in scale. None of them was larger than a single "living room." Usually, like Liu's (see table 1, the tobacco-paper store next to lane entrance 43), the tobacco-paper store was merely the front half of a "living room" facing onto the street, and the back half of the room was used by the family for household needs. In some cases, the whole store was no more than a shop window, with no space for customers to walk in; in such stores, all of the business was conducted over a counter set on the shop windowsill. Owners of these stores could not afford to have helpers other than family members, hence these stores were