玻璃與清末民初的日常生活

Glass and Everyday Life in Late Qing and Early Republican China

中國人的日常生活中歷來沒有使用玻璃的傳統，環顧現在身邊形形色色的玻璃製品，廣泛使用玻璃的生活方式是中西交流下的產物。晚清以降，隨著西力東漸，玻璃開始進入中國廣大民眾的日常生活，導致了中國人日常生活史上的重大變革，其影響延續至今。清末民初對於玻璃這一微物在中國的歷史角色而言，是一個具有分水嶺意義的時期。自十九世紀下半葉開始，通過衛生知識的普及、文明話語的渲染，以及西方生活習尚的深入人心，外加「物」的象徵性和消費性的充分凸顯，中國各階層人士對玻璃的喜好和追逐，已經在這一時期被成功構建；由此，玻璃獲得了前所未有的普及契機，開始逐漸進入中國人日常生活的方方面面。從清末至民初，雖說離百姓日用而不知的「普通化」情形尚有距離，但是玻璃這一微物將帶給近代中國囊括生活環境、建築景觀、衛生習慣等等環節的一個整體性的「生活史轉型」，卻已呼之欲出。

The late Qing and early Republican period marked a turning point in the transformation of the everyday life of the Chinese people. From the late nineteenth century, people's aspiration to own glass rose through the spread of hygienic knowledge, the popularization of civilization discourse, and the acceptance of Western lifestyles, as well as an appreciation of the symbolic and consumerist aspects of glass. From then on, glass, though a trivial object in appearance, was increasingly disseminated into almost every aspect of the everyday life of the Chinese people. This was unprecedented, though glass had long been known in China. This article focuses on glass as an object and its influence upon the everyday life of the Chinese people in late Qing and early Republican China. Although it was not yet considered a common object, glass had begun to make a thorough transformation of the everyday life of the Chinese people, changing the lived environment, architectural landscape, health habits, and so forth.