This essay examines China’s urban electrification from the 1910s to the Sino-Japanese War in 1937 as a historical case study of how urban electricity became an arena of international rivalry between China and Japan. Using case studies of Suzhou, Shenyang, and Harbin, we reveal that Japan played a significant role in China’s urban electrification, providing startup money for the earliest electric light in many cities. However, Japanese investment was loaded with imperialist ambitions in China. The Chinese government and local communities interpreted urban electrification as a part of economic sovereignty. In Suzhou, the local community boycotted Japanese electricity. In Shenyang and Harbin, Japanese utilities were confronted by market competition from the Chinese community. The Sino-Japanese rivalries had different outcomes for the electrification process of Chinese cities. This essay re-evaluates Japan’s contribution to China’s urban electrification and highlights the geopolitical dimension of urban technology.
AttardBernard. “Informal empire: The origin and significance of a key term.” Modern Intellectual History20 (2022): 1219-1250.
2.
BakkeGretchen.The Grid: The Fraying Wires between Americans and Our Energy Future. New York: Bloomsbury, 2016.
3.
CarrollPeter J.Between Heaven and Modernity: Reconstructing Suzhou, 1895-1937. Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press, 2006.
4.
ChikoweroMoses. “Subalternating currents: Electrification and power politics in Bulawayo, Colonial Zimbabwe, 1894–1939.” Journal of Southern African Studies33 (2007): 287-306.
5.
CliffordMark.Let There Be Light: How Electricity Made Modern Hong Kong. New York: Columbia University Press, 2023.
6.
CohnJulie A.The Grid: Biography of an American Technology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2017.
7.
DuusPeterPeattieMark R.MyersRamon H. eds. The Japanese Informal Empire in China, 1895-1937. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014.
8.
EndresKirsten. W. “City of lights, city of pylons: Infrastructures of illumination in colonial Hanoi, 1880s–1920s.” Modern Asian Studies57, no.6 (2023): 1772-1797.
9.
EndresKirsten. W. “Plugged into the good life: Living electrically through the ages in urban Vietnam.” Positions: Asia Critique 32, no. 1 (2024): 27-47.
10.
FengDongqiang. “Jiu yi ba shi bian qian shen yang dian deng ye yan jiu [Study on Shenyang’s electric light industry before the Mukden Incident].” MA thesis, Liaoning University, 2022.
11.
GamsaMark. “Harbin in comparative perspective.” Urban History37 (2010): 136-149.
12.
GuanJinghua. “Ha er bin dian ye gong si yu bei man dian qi zhu shi hui she jing zheng shi mo [The rise and fall of Harbin Electric Industry Co.’s competition with North Manchuria Electric Co.].” Jing ji she hui shi ping lun [Economic and Social History Review] 1 (2021): 98-111, 127.
13.
Guo jia jian she wei yuan hui [National Construction Commission]. Quan guo fa dian chang diao cha biao [Survey on China’s electric power plants]. Nanjing: Guo jia jian she wei yuan hui, 1929.
14.
HausmanWilliamHertnerPeterWilkinsMiraGlobal Electrification: Multinational Enterprise and International Finance in the History of Light and Power, 1878–2007. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
15.
HirataKoji. “Mining the informal empire: Sino-Japanese relations and ironmaking in Manchuria, 1909–1931.” Business History (2024): 1-18.
16.
HuangHe.Din dai su zhou dian li gong ye shi [History of electricity industry in early modern Suzhou]. Wuhu: Anhui Normal University Press, 2019a.
17.
HuangHe. “Dui min guo qian qi su zhou shou hui dian quan yun dong zhong shang jie de kao cha[Study on merchant community in the reclamation of electricity sovereignty movement in early republican Suzhou].” Jin dai zhong guo [Modern China] 2 (2018): 251-263.
18.
HuangHe. “Min guo qian qi guo ren de ke ji guan nian : yi su zhou min zhong dui dian de ren zhi wei li [Chinese popular perception of technology: Case study of Suzhou population’s understanding of electricity].” Min guo yan jiu [Studies on Republican China] 1 (2019b): 99-110.
19.
HughesThomas P.Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880 – 1930. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983.
20.
JacksonIsabella. Shaping Modern Shanghai: Colonialism in China’s Global City. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
LagendijkVincent. Electrifying Europe: The Power of Europe in the Construction of Electricity Networks. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2008.
23.
LiebermanJennifer L.Power Lines: Electricity in American Life and Letters, 1882–1952. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 2017.
24.
Manshū dengyōshi henshūīnkai [Manchuria Electric Co. History Editorial Committee]. Manshūdengyōshi [History of Manchuria Electric Co.]. Tokyo: Manshū-dengyōkai, 1976.
25.
Mantetsu shanhai jimusho [SMR Shanghai Office]. Shanhai niokeru denkijigyō chōsho [Report on electricity industry of Shanghai]. Shanghai: Mantetsu shanhai jimusho, 1938.
26.
Mitsubishi gōshi kaisha shiryōka and Amano Kenzaburō. Shina no denkijigyō nikansuru chōsa [Survey on China’s electricity industry]. Tokyo: Mitsubishi gōshikaishashiryōka, 1925.
27.
MossTimothy. “Navigating electricity dependencies in Cold War Berlin: An instructive history of urban infrastructure security.” Urban History51(3) (2024): 616-632.
28.
NieldRobert. China’s Foreign Places: The Foreign Presence in China in the Treaty Port Era, 1840-1943. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2015.
Ōkurashō rizaikyoku [Ministry of Finance Bank Bureau]. Nisshi shinzen to nisshi keizaiteki teikei nikansuru hōsaku shisetsu gaiyō [Overview of policy about Sino-Japanese friendship and economic cooperation]. Tokyo: Ōkurashō rizaikyoku, 1918.
RemerCharles F.Foreign Investment in China. New York: Howard Fertig, 1968.
33.
SarkarSuvobrata. “The electrification of colonial Calcutta: Role of the innovators, bureaucrats and foreign business organization, 1880–1940.” Studies in History34 (2018): 48-76.
34.
SchiltzMichael.The Money Doctors from Japan: Finance, Imperialism, and the Building of the Yen Bloc, 1895–1937. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2012.
35.
TanYing Jia. Recharging China in War and Revolution, 1882-1955. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2021.
36.
Teishinshō denkikyoku [Ministry of Communication Electricity Bureau]. Denki jigyō yōran, vol. 9 [Statistics of electricity industry]. Tokyo: Teishinshō, 1917.
37.
TianMeng.Su zhou fan hua meng [Prosperous Suzhou Dream]. Shanghai: gai liang xiao shuo she, 1911.
38.
WrightTim. “Electric power production in pre-1937 China.” The China Quarterly126 (1991): 356-362.
39.
YangHuan. “Zha bei shui dian chang yan jiu [Study on Zhabei Electric & Water Supply Company].” MA thesis, Huazhong Normal University, 2021.
40.
ZhangZhong. “Ha er bin zao qi shi zheng jin dai hua yan jiu [Study on modernization of Harbin’s early municipal administration].” Doctoral thesis, Jilin University, 2011.
41.
Zhong guo dian li qi ye lian he hui [China Electricity Council]. Zhong guo dian li gong ye shi [History of Chinese electric power industry]. Beijing: Zhongguo dianli chubanshe, 2021.
