The story of Chinese professionals and their relationship with the Republican state is ultimately part of what is called China's modernization. One need not imply a grand theory of modernization, and one should be aware of the pitfall of measuring China with the Western experience. The question is not a theoretical question – why China failed to be like the West, or why China need not be like the West – but an empirical question – how China's development in the early twentieth century was conditioned by the China–West encounter regardless of what China would have evolved into without that encounter. In the empirical context, China's modernization refers to the kind of economic and political transformation first seen in the West but with all its complexities and ramifications rooted in the Chinese sociocultural environment.

To appreciate the nature of professionals and their role in urban society of Republican China, it is necessary to examine how the professionals emerged and became recognized as professionals in the course of modernization. Specifically, one needs to know how such professions were created, what institutional innovations were involved, and what kind of functions the professions served in Shanghai's economic, social, and cultural life. The emergence of professional groups in Shanghai had profound social implications far beyond their professional role.