Introduction

The 1920's were a time for change in America. World War 1 had just ended a few years before. In the book, "The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920's", it was said that, "the war, in short, became a key metaphor for major changes transforming modern civilization: a marker that helped to explain and thus make more manageable that emergence of a modern society." With that being said, the 1920's was when American really started to become "urban", and "urbanization" took place. Some of the biggest changes involved mass culture including newspapers, magazines, advertisements, and movies. Also, automobiles were started to be used by more Americans. [1] 

Around this time, China was going through changes as well. In the book, "Nation, Governance, and Modernity in China: Canton, 1900-1927", the author wrote, "the lives of the people were shaken by the myriad material changes as well as the discursive remapping of their world". In the 1920's, the Nationalist Revolution began. That was the beginning of a "new society-and-nation." [2]

America and China had similarities in the 1920's. However, in Walter G. Whitman's letters, he talks a lot about the aspects of Chinese life/culture that were deemed unusual to American's in the 1920's.

[1]: Dumenil, Lynn. The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s. Hill and Wang, 2007.

[2]: Tsin, Michael T. W. Nation, Governance, and Modernity in China Canton, 1900-1927. S.n., 2003.