ers were divided over whether these new forces represented a means of revitalizing Chinese society or merely another form of decay:
Rickshaw pulling was a prime example of the unexpected courses cut through local communities by technologically induced change. A modern device equipped with inflatable tires and ball bearings, the rickshaw achieved great popularity as a means of transportation and employment and, simultaneously, notoriety as a sign of social dislocation (Strand 20).
Great importance was placed on rickshaws and rickshaw men by writers of the time, and this was based first on the singular nature of the vehicle and second on the large numbers of rickshaws in Chinese cities. Rickshaw pulling constituted a public spectacle in Peking in the 1920s as some 60,000 men took as many as half a million fares a day in a city of slightly more than one million people. It has been estimated that one ou
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