生於鴉片戰爭爆發的1840年，卒於中日甲午戰爭結束簽訂馬關條約的1895年，任伯年這任幾乎是二十世紀以來最歡迎的上海畫家，其一生橫跨了晚清中國面對外牽界挑戰最關鍵的半個世紀。在中國不斷摸索其國際定位的此時，泛指西方各國的西洋與特指日本的東洋，事實上已成一組相對的概念於討論中國的現代化議題。然而，就十九世紀中國藝術史的討論，或是，更特定的個案，例如、任伯年的研究，學者們往往偏重任伯年與西方因子的暨動，咸少注意此時頻頻與上海畫家交往的日本訪客與古董商，更遑論中日開放直托貿易後在上海遍地可及的日本商品與娛藥。因此，本文一方面試圖重建一個近乎日常層次地消費、流通日本物品，結交、應對日本商賈與文化人的1870年代之上海；另一方面，也試圖了解任伯年這位出身卑微的市井畫家，其於上海的立足如何受惠於與日人交往密切的舊文人傳統畫家的扶持，然而其真正的創新其實與日本通俗文化息息相關。

　　　　　This article investigates a crucial but previously unexplored facet of visual culture in Shanghai: the increasing presence of Japanese goods, prints, and entertainment in Shanghai in the 1870s. By reconstructing the daily circulation and consumption of Japanese material culture in Shanghai, this article argues that Ren Bonian, the most creative and representative painter in Shanghai at eh time, in parallel process to that seen in certain contemporary Chinese painting manuals at that time, adopted and appropriated many designs and conventions from Japanese Uniyo-e woodblock prints and lacquer wares, however, without crediting them. This is explained by the fact that the artistic exchange between China and Japan in Shanghai at his time was still dominated by a Chinese-centered mentality and painters in the literati tredition like Hu gongshou and Zhang Xiong. In contrast to this supposed mainstream, ironically, it is indeed the unrecognized surreptitious appropriation of artistic idioms from Japanese popular culture by painters like Ren Bonian that shaped what we now identify as the most inventive part of the Shanghai paintings.