ABSTRACT
Public space and public life are important factors and indications that reflect the urban transformation of China. This chapter discusses Chinese cities from the perspectives of public space, public life and popular culture by focusing on public space in the late Qing and Republican periods, everyday life and popular culture in Modern China, some important terms such as commoners, reformers and local politics, the different approaches to studying post-1949 urban culture, the public and urban culture under socialism and continuity and discontinuity at the 1949 division. The existing scholarship has opened a new direction of studying modern Chinese cities.
