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In the midst of China's wild rush to modernize, a surprising note of reality arises: Shanghai was once modern indeed, a centre of commerce and art in the heart of the 20th century. This text explores the golden age of Shanghai urban culture, a modernity which was once intrinsically Chinese and profoundly anomalous, blending new and indigenous ideas with those flooding into this "treaty port" from the Western world. Leo Ou-fan Lee discusses the architecture and urban spaces in which the new commercial culture of Shanghai has flourished, then guides the reader through the publishing and filmmaking industries that nurtured a generation of artists and established a bold style in urban life known as "modeng". In the work of six writers of the time, particularly Shi Zhecun, Mu Shiying, and Eileen Chang, Lee discloses the reflection of Shanghai's urban landscape - foreign and familiar, oppressive and seductive, traditional and innovative.