近代以來的百多年間，中國城鄉照明技術迅速從燈燭時代邁入煤油燈時代，繼而又跨入電氣時代。如果以煤油燈在晚清溫州的傳入、推廣與普及為微觀例證，可以清楚地看出近代中國照明技術的革命不斷加速的歷史進程，也可以從中管窺近代中國城市與鄉村在接受西方工業文明與生活方式洗禮時的多重消息。

Lighting technology revolution，to a certain extent，is a microcosm of human civilization progress.Since the modern times，Chinese lighting technology has experienced several revolutions from the vegetable oil lamps，candles，burning bamboo，to the kerosene lamp，and then again from the kerosene lamp to electric lamp.This lighting technology revolution，as a direct result of western advanced science and technology impact，contains multiple messages of western industrial civilization and life style impact on modern China.In this paper，only kerosene lamp in Wenzhou City of the late Qing Dynasty is cited as an example，to illustrate the changes of the modern lighting and its multiple effects on traditional Chinese urban and rural society，especially the dramatic changes in the deep structure of social time of modern China.