Since it became an international port in the late Qing, Shanghai was exposed to the influence of Western commercial culture. Things new and novel swarmed to Shanghai, whereas particular traditional elements were transformed and continued to spark. Tanci, or singing narrative, was one of such examples. This century-old type of oral performance enjoyed a revival in Shanghai, and its variation in the written form also developed new concerns and ways of expression. Futhermore, women, who always had the reputation to love tance, began to demonstrate untraditional ideas by means of it. Women in late Qing Shanghai played the roles of performances, audience, writers and readers of tanci at the same time, creating a different image for themselves that was to become one of the emblems of late Qing culture. This article begins with the rise of Shanghai and its connection to tanci, furthers to explore women's role in it by studying a tanci text by woman, and finally attempts to make some observations about women's sense of the decline of the dynasty. I use Siyunting, a woman's tanci text written in the Guangxu reign, as an example to explore how a woman reacted to her contemporary social and politica turmoil. From her concept of money and commerce, imagination of wars and obsession with violence, fear for the end of the dynasty, and desire to escape to the ideal land, I try to delineate the cultural and social atmosphere of late Qing Shinghai that affected its women residents. Chaos and prosperity, and war and money are all interwined to make the imaginary picture of Siyunting possible. On the other hand, the woman author attacks the general inability of the government and the corruption of the bureaucracy, and shows mixed feelings toward people's rebellions. These characteristics of her text point to her history consciousness, personal experience, and political attitude. The example of Siyunting demonstrates how late Qing women, under the influence of national crisis and foreign ideas, developed new visions of history, reality, and the world.