"Using as a case study the Chinese city of Zhenjiang, Xin Zhang examines three arenas from the 1830s to the 1930s-the Opium War, commerce, and technology (specifically steamship navigation)-to understand how global dynamics played out in China over the course of the century. A story of local Chinese sifting through external influences to determine what works for their society and what doesn't, a dynamic that runs right through to the present, The Global in the Local also illuminates the broader story of globalization and its impacts on ordinary people at the local level"-- Provided by publisher.

Place, history, and people --The Battle of Zhenjiang -- The invader and the invaded -- The nineteenth-century transformation -- Brokering multiple commercial networks -- The Shanghai commercial network -- Steam navigation as means of dominance -- The role of the steamboat -- Foreign technology and local society.