From the Traditional Flower Fair，“Decadent Temple Houses” to Modern Expositions： Local Politics and Space Improvement of Qingyang Palace in Chengdu(1906—1937)
Fan Ying
(School of History & Culture， Sichuan University， Chengdu 610065)
Abstract：Before and after the First Sino-Japanese War (1894—1895)， the discussion of changing the city’s traditional temple fairs into modern industrial expositions was frequently reported in newspapers. In 1906， Chengdu， an inland city， took the lead in putting it into practice. Unlike other city fairs held in factories， parks， or newly built venues， the expositions in Chengdu were born out of the Flower Fair at the Taoist temple Qingyang Palace. In the late Qing Dynasty， the local governors decided to hold expositions at the original site of Qingyang Palace Flower Fairs， in hope of transforming folk customs and reforming the society while revitalizing industry and commerce. In early Republican China， the Sichuan government was controlled by warlords， and the expositions were abolished and re-established for several times， but the Follower Fair was still carried on due to the inertia of folk tradition. As a temporary space for public exhibition， Qingyang Palace not only became a field of the display and gaming of different forces， for its concentration of the city’s main capital forces and political powers， but also attracted the keen attention of public opinion and media because of the extensive participation of merchants and the public. Thus， the Qingyang Palace became the center of social relations. The process of the local government holding expositions in Qingyang Palace and implementing the spatial improvement， surged with the pulsation of modern ideological trends， the cunning of local politics， the deep planted traditional customs and the game of various social forces， engraved the difficult process of the birth， reshaping and production of modernity in an inland traditional city.
范 瑛. 从传统花会、“腐朽庙舍”到现代博览会：成都青羊宫的地方政治与空间改良(1906—1937)[J]. 华中师范大学学报（人文社会科学版）, 2022, 61(4): 130-144.
Fan Ying. From the Traditional Flower Fair，“Decadent Temple Houses” to Modern Expositions： Local Politics and Space Improvement of Qingyang Palace in Chengdu(1906—1937). journal1, 2022, 61(4): 130-144.
2022, Vol. 61 
