Cities in Motion

Urban Life and Cosmopolitanism in Southeast Asia, 1920–1940

Su Lin Lewis

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781107108332
• eBook ISBN:
  9781316723159
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Asian History
• Index: History

In the 1920s and 1930s, the port-cities of Southeast Asia were staging grounds for diverse groups of ordinary citizens to experiment with modernity, as a rising Japan and American capitalism challenged the predominance of European empires after the First World War. Both migrants and locals played a pivotal role in shaping civic culture. Moving away from a nationalist reading of the period, Su Lin Lewis explores layers of cross-cultural interaction in various spheres: the urban built environment, civic associations, print media, education, popular culture and the emergence of the modern woman. While the book focuses on Penang, Rangoon and Bangkok - three cities born amidst British expansion to the region - it explores connected experiences across Asia and in Asian intellectual enclaves in Europe. Cosmopolitan sensibilities were severely tested in the era of post-colonial nationalism, but are undergoing a resurgence in Southeast Asia's civil society and creative class today.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Series page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Figures
• Maps
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Seeing through the City
• 1 Maritime Commerce, Old Rivalries, and the Birth of Three Cities
• 2 Asian Port-Cities in a Turbulent Age
• 3 Cosmopolitan Publics in Divided Societies
• 4 Newsprint, Wires, and the Reading Public
• 5 Playgrounds, Classrooms, and Politics
• 6 Gramophones, Cinema Halls, and Bobbed Hair
• Epilogue: Cosmopolitan Legacies
• Bibliography
• Index