For modernization of china you want to look at at the period around the may fourth movement of the mid 19-teens. There were significant calls for modernization after the failures of the state/military in the face of the British in the mid 19th century, and while some small changes did occur near the end of the Qing, its really the may 4th period (in its most temporally expansive definition) that really effected change.

Theres a book which Im afraid ill mess up the title/author a bit but it's a bitter revolution by rana mitter. Again im possibly getting that wrong by a few letters. On mobile and unable to double check. Its a pretty good look at how different ordinary people were affected differently by this important period, and approaches it with more nuance than just "this is when things changed", which is more often how its handled.

The main theme though was that in order to free itself from western imperialism China had to learn from the west in terms of Science and Democracy, though what those meant werent always the same for everyone. Technology was a part of that, but it was more about gaining the knowledge and skills to save the nation (a fairly new concept, one might argue) and not just to import a railroad all in one go (though things like that were certainly attempted, with mixed results).

Anyway id look at that period (may 4th movement) and some of the late-qing reforms, the latter of which i dont have a good book to suggest off the top of my head but a quick search on google books will give you an idea of where to start. Just drawing a blank on specific book titles.

Good luck!

You're right that the effect was greater in Japan, where trade, industry and later urbanisation surged from the 1880s, while in China increased trade sometimes came at the expense of local industry (even if the negative impact is often overstated) with urban population remaining little changed into the new century.

I would start by considering China's parts separately - in population terms the country is a Europe or ten Japans, so it's useful to consider urban vs rural, modern vs traditional sectors, the coast vs the interior, or individual regions like the more developed lower Yangzi or initially undeveloped but later-growing Manchuria. Even narrower sectors experienced contradictory trends: while yarn imports decimated cotton spinning, weavers for a time benefited from the cheaper input.

If you can get your hands on the mammoth Cambridge history of China, the early chapters of volumes 11 and especially 12 cover the period well: there's a similar though briefer treatment in the Cambridge history of Japan, vols 5 & 6.

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