Download or read book Negotiating Urban Space written by Si-yen Fei and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Urbanization was central to development in late imperial China. Yet scholars agree it triggered neither Weberian urban autonomy nor Habermasian civil society. Using Nanjing as a central case, the author shows that, prompted by this contradiction, the actions and creations of urban residents transformed the city on multiple levels.