Abstract: In the 1930s and 1940s Tianjin was a chaotic place.In the 1930s the city was a sought-after prize of competing militarists and a place where the growing Sino-Japanese conflict was played out on the one hand as the spillover of war in Manchuria and North China disrupted trade and sent waves of refugees seeking shelter, and on the other hand in urban terrorism that created insecurity in day-to-day life.Subsequently, the Japanese occupation from 1937 to 1945 and the ensuing civil war between the Nationalists and Communists place Tianjin in the middle of some of the most violent struggles of the twentieth century.

Amidst this chaos, Song Feiqing tried to create an industrial Eden at his company, the Dongya Corporation.Here, in his vision, life was hygienic, orderly, and civilized, protected from the “contamination” of society.At the same time, Song intended Dongya to serve as a model for the transformation of society as a whole: an example of the creation of orderly physical and mental space in the midst of danger and division.