Arts Worlds: Artists, Images, and Audiences in late Nineteenth-Century Shanghai

Shanghai's rise to prominence in the second half of the 19th century was partly due to its status as a treaty port from 1842, but probably more so to having escaped unscathed by the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) that laid waste to much of the country. Neighboring cultural centers such as Suzhou, Hangzhou, Yangzhou and Nanjing (where the Taiping established their capital) were devastated, with a horrifying loss of life. Many of the survivors, including artists, fled to Shanghai, resolved to put the past behind them and were keen to take on the new opportunities that soon began to emerge.