First Impressions of Shanghai

I arrived in Shanghai late on Friday night. I came with 4 other Haerbin students, all looking forward to getting back into a semi-western looking city. While Haerbin is very western in many ways there are some things that I’m missing about the western world: like sit-down toilets or public toilets that down smell like they’re infested with small gremlins… and some semblance of traffic control…

Well at any rate I’m in Shanghai and its pretty impressive. Masses of people, consumerism to the max… A city outrageously proud of its history and its people but at the same time obsessed with whatever is new and trendy. Shanghai’s history is marred in segregation. During the 20s and 30s the British empire constructed international zones including a British, French and American concession. Shanghai was far from a Chinese city and actually had a China town where Westerners could go for Chinese products and food. During the rise of Nazism in Europe, Jews flocked to Shanghai. There is still a small European Jewish settlement in Shanghai and numerous Jewish Synagogues. After the Mao take-over in 1949 the foreign control and influence vanished, and Shanghai was labeled as the epitome of negative Western influence that needed to be reversed. And it’s quite easy to understand this negative reaction to the west. Chinese in Shanghai were treated mostly like dogs or sub-human species. There culture and social customs were considered backwards. 50 years later a new very proud Shanghai culture has arisen and the architectural relics from the past are being reconstructed and the history is being rewritten – including the history of the international settlements . We went to an Urban planning museum yesterday and there was absolutely no mention of persecution, segregation and conflict that has marred Shanghai’s past – both during international settlements and Mao’s re-Chinification ( I made up that word). Everything is painted as ‘as it was supposed to be’, and there is immense pride in the future development of the city. It’s exciting but also a bit terrifying at the pace of development and the movement of consumerism. While it drives economies (as in the US) it also seems to promise a populace a world that is not real. Everything can be bought, including happiness, beauty and people. The world is a fairyland and all you need to do to take part in it is spend money. It will be interesting to be here for the next year and I’m hoping I will get a deeper understanding of the culture and people – for right now I think I only see the very outer layer of Shanghai social fabric.