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China 's Culture During The 20th Century

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China’s culture saw some drastic changes during the 19th and 20th centuries, from the influx of new influences from the West to the more culturally sterile regime of Mao Zedong. In the early 20th century, Shanghai was a top cultural center in the East, and its achievements, although almost lost due to decades of conflict and political struggle, were preserved and built upon in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Following the social reforms, post-Mao China was ripe for reintroduction of culture, and Taiwan’s close proximity and similar origins helped smooth the transition and pave the way for China’s return from the cultural dark ages.
With the establishment of the treaty ports, Western culture poured into Shanghai and mixed with local Chinese culture. One main expression of this cultural fusion was in jazz music, which was renowned throughout Asia. Although jazz music first popularized in clubs, the invention of the gramophone helped create the record industry and push this music into the homes of citizens outside the cities (Moskowitz 18). In the 1920s, Shanghai saw the beginning of mass-produced pop music by large music companies, mostly funded by foreign capital. Each year these companies produced 2.7 million records, and by 1932 they reached 5.4 million records a year and began exporting to other Asian countries (Moskowitz 18). Music, however, was not the only form of media to explode in popularity. In the 1930s, the publishing houses in Shanghai produced more print media in one year

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