In a doggerel verse about his tour of Chengdu, 1 Huang Yanpei, Republican China's preeminent educator, wrote, "One idle person wanders the street, counting paving stones; two idle persons go to a teahouse to spend the whole day." 2 This verse presents a vivid picture of the determinedly leisurely style of life Chengdu people once lived. Similarly for Shu Xincheng, another famous educator who visited Chengdu in the 1930s, the strongest impression the city gave him was that of the local culture's prizing of leisure time. He expressed surprise at the huge number of teahouse-goers and their long stay there each day: "Every teahouse is crowded from sunrise to sunset; there is often no room to sit." 3 Still another Chinese visitor noted that in Chengdu, "to eat a meal takes no time at all, but to drink tea in a teahouse takes at least three to four hours." 4 Foreign travelers noticed this widespread culture of leisure as well. According to the geographer George Hubbard, many people had "little else to do on the street but wander and chat." 5 This was the landscape of early twentieth-century Chengdu's streets and public life. The hectic rhythm usually associated with big-city life was hardly in evidence.It is understandable that visitors had such reactions. The leisure culture permeated everywhere and was even actively promoted by the people of Chengdu. As a matched couplet posted by a tea and wine shop advised, "Work hard for reputation and work hard for profit, but find leisure time to drink a cup of tea; work hard for thinking and think hard for working, but seek happiness to sip a little wine."6 A song sung by gambling stall keepers on the sidewalks told a similar story: "Don't hurry and don't be busy. What busy man has a good fate?" 7 Local people joked about their hometown as a city of the "Three Plenties"-plenty of idle people, plenty of teahouses, and plenty of lavatories. 8 411 AUTHOR'S NOTE: My special thanks go to William Rowe for his generous help with this article. I would also like to express my gratitude to Elaine Parsons and Karen Fang for their comments on earlier drafts. I am also grateful to the participants of the general seminar at the Institute of Global Studies in
In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the state laid emphasis on the village society control, encouraging families at different places to set norms restraining family members in genealogical record and vesting family elders with power to decide and enforce these norms. It was in this period that the family rules achieved rapid development, having increasingly mature content and form and general support from authorities; therefore, the Ming and Qing Dynasties became a typical time for the development of ancient family rules.
Through an examination of issues arising from mahjong playing, this article explores changes in daily life and popular culture at the turn of the twenty-first century and argues that these changes reflect political, economic, social, and cultural transformations, in which conflicts between individual rights and collective interests have become increasingly prominent. This study discusses issues relating to mahjong from stories at four different levels: individual, community, the city, and the nation, which, respectively, look at conflicts among neighbors, examine the role of the Residential Committee in the neighborhood, observe the responses of the municipal government and official media to the city's image, and reveal the dilemma when the socialist state confronts mahjong issues. From the specific issues arising from mahjong, we can see how the new culture of the market economy in today's China coexists with elements from a more traditional lifestyle.
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