Introduction: The Moral Excellence of Loving the Group

This study explores social practices and rituals related to xiangyi, also called xiangqing and ziyi, Chinese expressions for the sentiment that binds people from the same native place. This sentiment, and the social institutions which expressed it, profoundly shaped the nature and development of modern Chinese urban society. The two quotations which begin this chapter suggest twin aspects of urban social organization and behavior that correspond to native-place sentiment. The account in the 1907 Shanghai gazetteer describes organization by native place as a necessary, natural, specifically Chinese and indeed “morally excellent" response to the dangers posed by urban admixture and