Zheng Guanying, Merchant Reformer of Late Qing China and his Infl ...

a role. The political public sphere was developed in the period after the Sino-Japanese War and was marked by a political press. Zheng Guanying thus served as a linkage point in the development of the Chinese “public sphere” from commercial economy to politicization.

In the late Qing treaty ports, there was a new group coming of age—an urban elite composed not of mandarins but of merchants, compradors, journalists, and political activists. Possessing knowledge of foreign languages and experience with foreign-related affairs and capital, the new elite established a collaborative relationship with the reform-minded officials among the old ruling elite and also developed interactions with literati-reformers and even foreign missionaries who were concerned with China's reform. Zheng Guanying was an exemplary member of this elite. In this urban space, his self-identity, concerns, and worldviews constantly shifted. He both worked with the officials and resented their interference in business; he was dissatisfied with the state but still bought his way into its officialdom. Many concepts widely used today, such as “nationalism,” “public,” and “public opinion,” were all used and interpreted by the reformers and urban elite in different ways in Zheng Guanying's time and space. Western ideas and Chinese reformist ideas overlapped as well as clashed because both had their own cultural roots and ideological and political agendas. Internally, the state and merchants struggled against each other for domination while they pursued economic nationalism against the West. The urban merchants showed both antagonism and dependence on the state. The urban space was largely an “in-between” space characterized by its hybridity.²⁰ Even living in an urban sphere and well known for his reformist writings, Zheng still stuck to Confucianism and Daoist mysticism. In terms of his spiritual pursuit, Zheng Guanying identified with the unchanged Way [Dao], which rendered his fundamental thoughts not much different from the ruling ideology of the state.

Chapter one of this study sketches Zheng Guanying's migration from Guangdong to Shanghai in the context of urbanization, migration, and social mobility. It focuses on Zheng Guanying's relationship to the cultural spaces of Shanghai and his native Guangdong Province, highlighting the role media, modern schools, and social connections played in