Shadow Modernism

“In this extraordinary book, William Schaefer shows how major thinkers in China, England, France, Germany, and Japan all grappled with similar problems while borrowing from, or competing with, one another. What emerges is a more dynamic and a more realistic sense of a modern cultural discourse coproduced by photographers, artists, writers, and intellectuals operating within a competitive global environment yet intent on solving many of the same, shared, human problems.” - Martin J. Powers, Sally Michelson Davidson Professor of Chinese Arts and Cultures at the University of Michigan

"In his rigorous, close, and imaginative attention to the materiality of these photographic and literary texts, William Schaefer allows us to see a Shanghai we've never seen before. In other words, Shadow Modernism is charged with the shock of the new. Fiercely smart, uncompromising, and methodologically fresh, it will make a lasting impact on our understanding of modernist visual and literary culture in Shanghai." - Andrew F. Jones, author of Developmental Fairy Tales: Evolutionary Thinking and Modern Chinese Culture

[Shadow Modernism] shed[s] new light on much familiar material while unearthing work that has escaped the attention of scholars to date." - Max D. Woodworth, Cross-Currents

"The book is smart and rigorously researched, and the prose is immaculate. By sticking close to his objects of study, no matter how ambiguous, difficult, and distant, Schaefer shows us how Shanghai’s shadows strangely illuminate the cultural history of the city—and the practices of art history."  - Lisa Claypool, CAA Reviews