1. General introduction: a geo-historical approach to investigate experiences of modernity in East Asia, especially the gender perspective The emergence of the modern girl in the early 20th century has been widely recognized as a global spectacle, representative of the zeitgeist of a new millennium and shaped by multiple forces of a new age. The advent of the modern girl in East Asia is particularly meaningful, because the transformation of status and lifestyle for women also signifies a separation from traditional Confucian influences and a progression toward global capitalism that involve high political and economic tension between the East and the West. Modernization is not a linear diffusion from Europe to the rest of the world. A geo-historical perspective to investigate the East Asian Modern Girl can enrich our understanding of the inconsistences and various forms of modernity. 2. Mass media, consumption and modern girl in East Asia during the interwar period (I) – modern girl in literature At the beginning of the 20th century, media technologies such as photography, newspapers, phonographs, films, and mass-circulating magazines were quickly adopted in major cities worldwide. Introduced to East Asia in the late 1920s, radio gradually grew in popularity, and during the 1920s–30s, Shanghai became a center for public culture. Prosperous print industries, including books, newspapers, and journal publishing, as well as movies and radio broadcasting brought the city fame as the “Paris of the Orient” and the “Chinese Hollywood.” The phenomenon of the modern girl was therefore strongly influenced by mass media, which typically involve commodification of symbolic forms and extend their reach across time and space. The mass media disparately and often contradictorily depicted the modern girl. In some cases, the modern girl was characterized as intelligent and independent; in other cases, she was associated with someone succumbing to material desires and transforming herself into a sexual commodity. 3. Mass media, consumption and modern girl in East Asia during the interwar period (II) –modern girl in advertisement From the 1920s onward, newspapers and women’s magazines in East Asian expanded their circulations and increased their influence. At first, the novelty of the concept of the modern girl attracted both attention and criticism, but numerous cosmetic advertisements published in print media gradually changed public perception. Although freedom of speech was constrained and national discipline was prioritized during this long period of war, the culture of the modern girl still pervaded. Moreover, the image of the modern girl was gradually normalized by its regular exposure to readers through daily media advertisements. By depicting aesthetic features such as hairstyles, dresses, makeup, and contexts, cosmetic advertisements were able to portray images of women that responded to changes in social discourse. The designers of such advertisements incorporated Western features such as short hair and skin-tight dresses, situated the models in outdoor settings, and reframed them as modern, natural, active, and healthy women who could respond to the demands of a nation that was facing the pressures of war. 4. East Asian Modern Girl revisited The modern girl was not just “modern” at the surface. The modern girl of the early 20th century is a significant cultural phenomenon that is worthy of attention, because it led women worldwide to collectively break away from past traditions, form a new vogue of actions, and begin adopting a new lifestyle. Investigations of the East Asian modern girl present that the relationship between the West and the East does not strictly fall into the category of the invader and the invaded. New ideas, values, and stimuli were brought into the region as well; however, their consequences were often unbalanced and unexpected. A geohistorical perspective enables us to acquire knowledge concerning the similarities, differences, clashes, and collectivities of the metropolitan cities in the region and reveals the entanglement and multiplicity of modernity Schließen