Shanghaied into modernity
Saturday, 21. July 2007, 22:18:13
Antoaneta Bezlova
Asia Times
Jul 3, 2007
SHANGHAI - When one of China's top leaders in charge of the country's architectural landscape recently berated Chinese cities for their breathless rush towards modernity, none deserved the reprimand more than Shanghai.
This most forward-looking city in China is in a quandary. Driven by its overpowering desire to modernize, Shanghai wants to forge a new identity, but is reminded at every step that its uniqueness is entirely defined by its historical legacy. So it has chosen brazenly to assert its new image by steadily obliterating its past - and its character.
Before the communist takeover in 1949, Shanghai was one of Asia's most international cities, home to wealthy merchants, rich compradors, great taipans, White Russian emigrants and Jewish refugees from Nazism.
In 1926, English writer Aldous Huxley summed up Shanghai's charm as: "Life itself ... dense, rank, richly clotted life ... nothing more intensely living can be imagined."
During Shanghai's belle epoque - in the early years of the 20th century, the city rose above every other to become China's brightest star - an economic miracle and a cultural trendsetter. It was a place where the East and West entwined to create a modern economy and a vibrant culture.
Read more...
Asia Times
Jul 3, 2007
SHANGHAI - When one of China's top leaders in charge of the country's architectural landscape recently berated Chinese cities for their breathless rush towards modernity, none deserved the reprimand more than Shanghai.
This most forward-looking city in China is in a quandary. Driven by its overpowering desire to modernize, Shanghai wants to forge a new identity, but is reminded at every step that its uniqueness is entirely defined by its historical legacy. So it has chosen brazenly to assert its new image by steadily obliterating its past - and its character.
Before the communist takeover in 1949, Shanghai was one of Asia's most international cities, home to wealthy merchants, rich compradors, great taipans, White Russian emigrants and Jewish refugees from Nazism.
In 1926, English writer Aldous Huxley summed up Shanghai's charm as: "Life itself ... dense, rank, richly clotted life ... nothing more intensely living can be imagined."
During Shanghai's belle epoque - in the early years of the 20th century, the city rose above every other to become China's brightest star - an economic miracle and a cultural trendsetter. It was a place where the East and West entwined to create a modern economy and a vibrant culture.
Read more...
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