Shaping Modern Shanghai: Colonialism in China's global city by Isabella Jackson (review)

Over the past thirty years, scholars have sought to uncover the many different aspects of the history of Shanghai. Opened as a treaty port in 1842 to foreign residents, Shanghai quickly became an international business hub with an international population. One of the key institutions was the Shanghai Municipal Council (SMC), the executive body in the International Settlement, created shortly through local agreement after the treaty port's opening. The SMC was run by foreign subjects (mostly British subjects) and had municipal jurisdiction within the International Settlement. As it governed the lives of many in such a large and vibrant city, it is therefore curious that until now, there has not been any comprehensive study of it as an institution. Indeed, although scholars have highlighted different services and branches of the SMC, such as its police force and hygiene regulations, Isabella Jackson's Shaping Modern Shanghai therefore provides the first comprehensive account of the institution in English.

As Jackson shows, the SMC was somewhat unusual in its constitution and it was not under any direction or influence of a foreign government. Her book therefore explores the "unusual" and "particular" forms of colonialism that it represented, and the powers that it exercised (2, 5). Jackson refers to the SMC as embodying a "transnational colonialism." This perspective enriches the debate about how to conceptualise forms of "colonialism" in China. Foreign imperialism in China was multifaceted, and whilst scholars have used various terms such as "semi-colonialism" and "hypocolonialism," amongst others, Jackson's "transnational colonialism" persuasively captures the diverse and far-reaching ways that foreign settlers governed in the International Settlement, how the SMC's membership was a multinational constitution, and how these members reflected cross-national cooperation. In turn, this transnationalism fostered the autonomy of the foreign community within the settlement and the autonomy of the SMC to foreign government influence. Through highlighting this transnational characteristic, Jackson provides us with an important perspective. Whilst one distinguishing feature of treaty port China was its population of a different numbers of foreign nationals, few works emphasise the ways in these different national subjects worked together. In addition, as these SMC members were non-state actors, her analysis therefore provides us with an alternative perspective on foreign governance in treaty port China that did not involve government agents.

Through her five chapters, Jackson demonstrates that the SMC supplied a wide array of public services in the settlement. In Chapter One, Funding Transnational Colonialism," she examines the finances of the SMC, and its employees in Chapter Two, "Electing and Serving: The Municipal Councillors and Staff." These chapters provide the fascinating "how" and "who" to her story. She adds to the latter chapter the question of Chinese representation, an issue that became politicised later in the history of the SMC. She weaves this skilfully into the narrative of the political events in the city during the early twentieth century, and provides an example of how the SMC reacted to certain social and political issues it faced in the context of growing China nationalism. Chapter Three, "Policing and Conflict in Shanghai," continues on this theme as it focuses on the SMC's attempt to impose order in the settlement, and positions it in relation to the challenges posed by anti-imperialism and Japanese imperialism. It serves as a reminder of the limitations of the executive body's powers, and its negotiation of these challenges at a time of social and political disruption and later, war. Finally, Chapter Four examines "Public Health and Hygiene" and Chapter Five "Industry, Welfare and Social Reform" as key services and interventions in everyday life in the Settlement. Each chapter therefore demonstrates convincingly the wide influence of the Council in the settlement, some of its successes and failures in implementing various policies, and the challenges posed to its jurisdiction, and highlights the Council's transnational constitution. It is an impressive and thorough analysis, covering the most important aspects of the operation of the institution.

The sources for Jackson's work derive...