Speaking of taverns, we know that it has existed for a long time, since the beginning of human business and transportation activities, all kinds of inns, post stations, inns, and taverns came into being. In particular, the development of the seafaring trade led to the concentration of people in the port area, and the number of facilities to provide services for the floating population such as sailors gradually increased, and taverns flourished. Those who are wandering and homeless have broken away from the norms of their homes and villages, and they are happy and drinking in time. The tavern became the perfect place to let loose and indulge in catharsis.

The famous Austrian writer Zweig gave a vivid description of the tavern alley in the harbor area in "Moonlight Alley". "I like these alleys in foreign cities, and I like these full of excitement. The sordid market of love, the secret place of temptations for seafarers, who come here to spend the night after a long lonely night on a strange and dangerous sea, and in an hour turn their countless dreams of ecstasy into reality. From the small room here comes the sound of seductive music, the eye-catching posters of beautiful women in front of the cinema, and the dim light of the small square candlesticks in the doorway, which are clearly beckoning customers. Through the crack of one of the doors, the bare flesh shimmered in the jewels. Drunken people in cafes are shouting and singing, and gamblers are arguing loudly. Seafarers always smile knowingly when they meet here, and their dull gaze is suddenly brightened and full of life, for there is everything here, women and gambling, drinking and merry, adventures, dirt and greatness. these streets. Whether it's in Hamburg, Colombo or Havana, it's all the same. Just like the luxurious streets, they are exactly the same everywhere. Because the upper and lower classes of life have the same shape. These non-bourgeois streets, the last remaining marvelous corners of the world where lust is unbridled, where lust can be unleashed in a wild and unbridled manner, are again a dark agitation. The forest of love, a jungle full of impulsive little beasts, thrilling for what is revealed, seductive for what is hidden. ”

It is worth noting. Zweig used the hierarchical concepts of upper and lower, bourgeois and non-bourgeois in his description of the tavern streets. The tavern is clearly alien to the upper class or the bourgeois living space, it belongs to the living space of the non-bourgeois lower class. The historical image of the tavern has always been that of low-class and obscene, simple and vulgar, indulgent in sensuality, drunken orgies, three religions and nine streams, and hiding filth and dirt. This historical image has a long history, dating back at least to the Renaissance and extending into the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Among the works of Western literature, the earliest work that depicts the life of the lower class in the background of a tavern is the French writer Eugène? Sue's "Secrets of Paris".

The Secret of Paris was serialized in 1842 in the French newspaper La Review. Where are the secrets of Paris hidden? The secret of Paris lies in the taverns that hide the filth. Shall we follow Eugène? Sue's guide walked into a Parisian tavern to take a look: "The White Rabbit Tavern is located in the middle of the rue de la Favi. The small shop occupies the ground floor of a tall house with two hanging windows on the façade. At the mouth of the arched dark alley, a lantern is dangling, and the cracked glass is written in red pen 'for guest accommodation'. It was a large but low restaurant with black rafters on a smoky ceiling. A dilapidated chandelier glows dimly. The lime-powdered walls were cracked everywhere, some vulgar paintings were painted or some aphorisms were written in slang. Nitrate grew on the ground, and mud was everywhere; Under the chandelier, to the right of the door. It was O'Grace's counter, and a handful of hay was sprinkled under the counter to serve as a carpet. -- A layer of lead was nailed to the countertop. On them were some large wine glasses with iron hoops and solder indicating different quantities; A wooden board was nailed to the wall with several glass bottles on it. The shape is a full-length portrait of the emperor. The bottle contains a mixture of red and green drinks, with names such as 'fitness wine', 'thyme', and so on. ""Guests in the tavern. There are men and women, here the faces are rough and reckless, there are vulgar and obscene when talking and laughing, and there are silent and melancholy, dull and demented. "This is the Parisian bistro of the early 19th century, vulgar and simple, a public space for the citizens of the lower classes.

With the gradual growth and development of the citizen class, especially the development and growth of the small and medium-sized bourgeois citizen class, their social status has gradually improved, and the civil society has begun to seek and create a suitable space for public activities. Although, some bourgeois nouveau riche and speculators were once frequent customers of taverns, in a sense, taverns may be witnesses to their history. However, with the accumulation of capital and the affluence of property, the bourgeoisie's desire for luxury is getting higher and higher.

The bourgeoisie needs a new social status, a new social image, a new space for public interaction, a new way of leisure and entertainment, and it needs its own social place and a stage for social activities, so as to get rid of its humble and low status. The crude, crude memories of the tavern that remain need to be slowly erased, along with the tavern title itself. At this point, the bar is a representative of a new fashion, dressed in disguise, dressed in the flashy clothes of the bourgeoisie, to welcome the arrival of new guests.

The prostitution of the bar and the obsolescence of the tavern have a certain connotation of spatial sociology or spatial politics from the perspective of public communication space. From the 17th century onwards, the development of commerce, the circulation of trade, and the rise of cities gradually formed a civil society. The urban class of citizens has a strong desire to socialize, they abandon the old rural way of life, bid farewell to the closed state of hearing the voices of chickens and dogs, and never getting along with each other. In order to establish its own social status, the citizen class must have its own public sphere and its own space for public interaction.

For a long period of time, aristocratic society monopolized the space for public interaction, the main forms of which were court banquets and salons. Court banquets and salons had strict hierarchical requirements, and people with noble titles had to enter and exit, which were small circles of gatherings and interactions, and formed a special set of etiquette, language and rules of the game. To be able to become an aristocrat, to be able to enter high society, to be able to enter the social circle of the salon. It was once the dream of many, especially of the emerging bourgeoisie. They spared no expense to buy the title of nobility. Makeover, change surname, change name. but also to endure the humiliation of the aristocracy.

Werner. In Luxury and Capitalism, Sombart writes: "Throughout the early capitalist era, the social conception was that the ultimate goal of the rich was undoubtedly to be finally accepted into the upper echelons of society, the gentry, or the aristocracy; It is important to emphasize this point. However, the aristocratic character of the noble class is manifested in the fact that a person is recognized as aristocratic not only because of his wealth, but because he requires qualities that are completely non-bourgeois. Distancing oneself from actual commercial life and cultivating family traditions, which were embodied in the unchanging custom of the nobility to wear heraldry, were prerequisites for acceptance by the upper classes. ”

Under the pressure of the hierarchical system of aristocratic society, the bourgeoisie has always been in a very embarrassing situation. On the one hand, they dream of becoming an aristocrat with status and status in the upper class; On the other hand, their humble origins, merchant spirit, non-authentic bloodline, and lack of etiquette made it difficult for them to integrate into the aristocracy. A capitalist can break out overnight. But after three generations, it may not be possible to cultivate a nobleman. Although, out of consideration of material wealth, the nobles had to sell their noble titles, but the discrimination and disapproval in their bones made the bourgeoisie who entered the aristocratic salon embarrassed and uncomfortable.

They need a public space that truly belongs to them, and they need to establish their own stage for activities. For the small and medium-sized bourgeoisie, this need is even more urgent and intense. They began to establish their own public communication space and build their own activity platform. Renovate the tavern and make it a salon that is more of an aristocratic salon. It's a kind of commoner-style salon. That's what a tavern is all about. In contrast to the salon, the bar is a commoner space with free access, and there are no strict hierarchical restrictions. Here, you can be vassal. Talking about it, you can also indulge in drinking and carnival; You can be warm and romantic, affectionate and emotional. It can also be vulgar and obscene, tasteless and tasteless.

In a word. The bar began to create a new public space. It's an open, pluralistic and mixed public realm. It is a middle ground with middle-class character as the middle line, absorbing both the extravagance and luxury of the aristocratic salons. The indulgence of the lower tavern remains. Perhaps, it was this middle ground that not only corresponded to the social identity of the bourgeois burghers, but also freed the bourgeoisie from the awkward and uncomfortable predicament it faced when entering the aristocratic salons.

It is impossible to talk about the relationship between the bar and the salon without mentioning some of the historical connections between the bar and the café. In the history of the formation of the bar, the influence of the café played a crucial role.

In the mid-18th century, a Western scholar referred to Paris as "the café of Europe", and it is conceivable that the café flourished at that time. At that time, there was also a saying about Paris: "Paris imitates the court". The best model for imitating the court is the salon, and the best model for imitating the salon should be said to be the café, or it can be said that the café is a variant of the salon style. In contrast to the aristocratic luxury of the salon, the café could satisfy the desires of the average wealthy citizen and provide a place for the urban middle class to socialize and relax.

"From the 17th century onwards, cocoa, coffee, and tea became essential in Europe due to sugar. These drinks were popular among the upper circles, especially at the court. For example, Louis XIV tasted coffee in 1670 when he received an envoy from Sultan Mehmed IV, and coffee became known in France and introduced into court society. Related to these stimulating beverages is the emergence of mass cafes as a new type of luxury, especially in large cities, which will attract our attention later. ”

By the middle of the 17th century, coffee had become the common drink of the wealthy among the townspeople. Later, with the opening of the first café, there were more than 3,000 cafes in London by the early 18th century. In his book The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, Habermas argues: "The flourishing period of the coffee houses was in 1680-1780 - everywhere they were centres of first literary criticism and secondly of political criticism, and in the process of criticism a cultured middle class between aristocratic society and burgher class intellectuals began to take shape." -- Coffee houses were not only freely open to authoritative circles, but also to a broad middle class, even craftsmen and small merchants. ”

Almost simultaneously with the flourishing of cafes, taverns flourished during this period. In the process of this synchronous or linkage development, the café and the tavern interact with each other, and the salon atmosphere imitated by the café, the moderate excitement, the suave style, the high-minded topics, and the romantic mood gradually seep into the simple and vulgar tavern. Dress up the tavern in baroque dress and give it a trendy name: the bar. At this point, the café and the bar have joined forces to create a public space full of bourgeois fun.

In the process of examining the history of the birth of the bar, we have made a historical retrospective of the transformation of the public communication space in the West. The history of this transmutation can be roughly outlined as the court, the salon, the café, and the bar. The process of transmutation of public space reflects the transformation of the main body of public space from the aristocratic class to the citizen class, and it is worth noting that the completion of this transformation is not based on the resistance of diametrically opposed conflicts, but in the form of imitation.

This imitation of the variant is established in the second-best temptation and the satisfaction of desire, the salon is the imitation and variant of the court, the café is the imitation and variant of the salon, and the bar is the imitation and variant of the café. It is in this process of imitation and variation that the bourgeoisie, through the material power of commerce, constructs its own space for public communication and entertainment consumption in the city.

The imitation variant makes the bourgeois space establishment always maintain the necessary tension between aristocracy and plebeis. On the one hand, it is impossible to resist the temptation of the aristocratic space and imitate it; On the other hand, the commoner nature is maintained, but it is made variant. It should be said that the establishment of the bar space is very typical of these characteristics. Compared to the aristocratic court and salon, the establishment of the bar space is undoubtedly a historical progress. It dismantled the monopoly of the aristocracy and opened up a wider space for public interaction. However, it is not yet a civilian public sphere in the true sense of the word.

This can be clearly seen in the history of bar-to-tavern encroachment, and from the performance of the bar show. The decisive force behind the triumph of the bourgeois public space came from the powerful material forces of the commercial economy. People can now come and go freely in and out of bars, and although there are no hierarchical restrictions, there are still restrictions on consumption levels and spending power. In the past, the coat of arms of the nobility was a pass to and from the salon, today money has become a special badge, and currency has become a pass to and from the bar. The ideology of material consumption still monopolizes the public space of urban communication, although it is another variant. (To be continued......)