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Talk at EFEO Taipei

EFEO (Ecole Française d’Extrême-Orient) and the Institute oif Modern History are jointly hosting Christian Henriot, for a talk organized by Frank Muyard, head of the EFEO Taipei Center on 15 January 2025 on “A Tale of Three Merchants: Social worlds, Political Networks and Public Sphere in Modern Shanghai” (三個商人的故事:近代上海的社會、政治網絡與公共領域).

Summary: This project examines the parallel yet interconnected trajectories of three prominent Zhejiang-born Shanghai merchants and businessmen—Zhu Baosan 朱葆三 (1848–1926), Yu Qiaqing 虞洽卿 (1867–1945), and Wang Xiaolai 王曉籟 (1886–1967)—to explore their rise from relative social obscurity to becoming central brokers in Shanghai society.

Of the three, only Wang Xiaolai, who had passed the xiucai imperial examination and arrived in the city with some social capital, began his journey with notable advantages. Zhu and Yu, by contrast, started as shop apprentices or in low-level entrepreneurial ventures. All three went on to establish a network of companies spanning banking, trade, shipping, and industry, while building extensive connections within and beyond their original communities.

This study investigates how these figures emerged in the public sphere, how their economic activities intersected with their involvement in social and political events, and how their public engagement, in turn, fueled their business careers and propelled them toward social and political success. Drawing on a combination of sources—including monographs, newspapers, and biographical dictionaries—this research employs computational methods, particularly text analysis and network analysis, to reconstruct the social and political worlds in which these merchants operated, to analyze the critical events in which they played key roles, and to connect their individual trajectories.


OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Christian Henriot (December 23, 2024). Talk at EFEO Taipei. Elites, Networks and Power in modern China. Retrieved February 14, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/12zst


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