Abstract: This book critically examines six aspects of the popular culture of early and mid-Republican (1912-38) Canton: common perceptions of the city, popular attitudes towards the West, Cantonese opera, opium smoking, gambling, and prostitution. Misunderstandings and biased assumptions about these social phenomena as portrayed in much contemporary as well as present-day official or ‘socially conscientious’ literature are redressed. Contemporary folk materials reveal that the common people were much more pro-Western than xenophobic in attitude; the alleged social and political ‘calamities’ of gambling, opium consumption, and prostitution were more rhetorical than real; the socio-cultural status of the city has surpassed that of the countryside; and the commercialization and Westernization of Cantonese opera was much less straightforward or complete than its critics argued.

Keywords: Republican Canton, popular attitudes, opium smoking, gambling, prostitution, Cantonese opera