China during the interwar period was both a melting pot and a powder keg. Like never before, the Middle Kingdom was exposed to the influence of the most contradictory currents. China's desperate attempts to unite Western technology with its own philosophical tradition had failed. The Austrian painter Friedrich Schiff captured the China characterized by both a spirit of change and hopelessness: He documented, without embellishment, the contrasting capitalist environment of Shanghai, the glittering epitome of moral decay, which was also a meeting point for intellectuals and a breeding ground for revolution.