Tianjin Cosmopolis - by Pierre Singaravaelou

About the Book

Pierre Singaravélou tells the story of Tianjin's emergence as a transnational metropolis, arguing that the city's experience challenges conventional narratives of the origins of globalization.

Book Synopsis

At the turn of the twentieth century, the city of Tianjin was the diplomatic capital of the Middle Kingdom, where foreign consuls met Chinese dignitaries, and a hub of commerce and culture. Yet in the eyes of foreigners, the city remained provincial. After the tumult of the Boxer Rebellion, however, Tianjin transformed, when a little-known international political project turned it for a time into one of the most cosmopolitan places in the world.

Pierre Singaravélou tells the story of Tianjin's emergence as a transnational metropolis, arguing that the city's experience challenges conventional narratives of the origins of globalization. He focuses on the aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion, when a number of imperial powers established an international military government that sought to modernize the city and its environs. Under its reign, people from all over the West and Asia flocked to Tianjin, in a whirlwind of commercial and cultural exchange. This provisional government embarked on ambitious public works and public health projects, attempting to transform not only the city's infrastructure but also its residents' behavior--all while the imperial powers seized large foreign concessions. Singaravélou traces the many tensions of the global city: between accommodation and resistance for Tianjin's residents, between colonization and internationalization within the provisional government, and between cooperation and competition among the imperial powers. Bringing together global and local perspectives, Tianjin Cosmopolis offers a new vantage point on the imperial globalization of the early twentieth century.

Review Quotes

A multistranded, multivocal microhistory of a global city at the heart of a world war, Tianjin Cosmopolis offers exceptionally luminous insight into China's experiences of imperialism and modernity.--Julia Lovell, author of Maoism: A Global History

Singaravélou uncovers the hidden story of one of the first attempts at multinational governance. Tracing the complex interactions among the Western occupiers and between these and the local population of Tianjin, this book blurs the lines between foreign and Chinese, traditional and modern, providing a fascinating alternative to conventional histories of globalization.--Thoralf Klein, Loughborough University, United Kingdom

The 1900 war in China brutally thrust Tianjin into a globalized world. Singaravélou uses this history to examine the connection between urbanization and modernization. Through the creation of its international government, Tianjin became the center of an administrative, social, and cultural experiment in terms of city planning, public health policy, and river management. This book is a significant contribution to Chinese urban history.--François Gipouloux, National Centre for Scientific Research, Paris

This book offers a remarkable revision of the conventional history of nineteenth-century China as entirely a victim of globalization, giving it instead an active role in shaping how the world came to China. Sometimes we need an informed outsider like Pierre Singaravélou to upend our assumptions and introduce a new perspective, which is what this book does.--Timothy Brook, author of Great State: China and the World

About the Author

Pierre Singaravélou is professor of history at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University and a former British Academy Global Professor at King's College London.

Stephen W. Sawyer is the Ballantine-Leavitt Professor of History and director of the Center for Critical Democracy Studies at the American University of Paris.