Signs, using either words or visuals, are emblems for traditional Chinese shops and trades.

　　Signs were made of inscribed boards, couplets, plates or posts written with the names of the shops. Either hung on the upper part of the doors, pillars or walls of shops, or fixed on the ground outside or on the counters inside shops, they were a part of the features of shops. In addition to inscribed words, some signboards were marked with designs and drawings. The choice of the form of the signboard was determined by the line Of business, scale and facade style of the shop. A juxtaposition of several forms could be used, or simply one or two forms. No rules were ever fixed concerning the use of signs.

　　As symbols of shops, and trades ,signboards and flags have their own peculiar Chinese'flavor and are part of a long-standing and well.established tradition.

　　With paintings :and photographs of scenes of business premises, workshops and fairs, this book presents nearly a hundred types of signboards prevalent in Chinese commercial districts at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The purpose of this collection is to resurrect the market setting and street scenes of bygone days. The descriptions in thebook will give readers a glimpse of the emergence and evolutlon of Chinese signboards and

the folk culture imbued in them, as well as the personages, events and business conditions in those earlier days.