Jie Li’s new book Shanghai Homes: Palimpsests of Private Life (Columbia University Press, 2015) explores the history and culture of Shanghai alleyway homes by focusing on two physical spaces, both built in the early twentieth century by Japanese and British companies, and both located in the industrial Yangshupu district in the eastern part of what was the International Settlement in Shanghai. An old house, here, is a palimpsest: Li excavates the archaeology of Shanghai’s alleyway homes as a way to get at a history of privacy and private life. You can listen to us talk about it for the New Books in East Asian Studies Podcast here.