This volume edited by Arundhati Virmani approaches experiences of urban aesthetics not as an established framework, defined by imposed norms or legislations, but as the result of a continuous reflexive and proactive gaze, a complex and deep engagement of the mind, body and sensibilities. It uses empirical studies ranging from China, India to Western Europe.

My contribution, "Negotiating advertising aesthetics in early twentieth-century Shanghai", explores how Shanghai’s advertising aesthetics functioned as a laboratory for inventing new ways of seeing, managing, and experiencing the city in early twentieth-century China. Using Shanghai—particularly the foreign settlements—as a case study, this research weaves together three main lines of inquiry. Unlike shop signs, which were physically attached to stores and promoted specific merchandise or trademarks, billboards had no fixed association with the products they displayed. They could advertise any brand or commodity. Some advertisers even argued that billboards provided sanitary benefits by preventing local coolies from dumping garbage in surrounding areas. Ultimately, advertising aesthetics was not merely “art for art’s sake” but also reflected class divisions and elite concerns over social order.