Shanghai was once the main
business centre of Asia, and the stronghold of imperialists in China. This was the city to
which foreign traders came, eager to grab the wealth, not just of China, but of the entire
Orient. This was the city which actually gave its name to a word in the English
dictionary- shanghai - “to use force,
threat or trickery to put into an undesirable position”; the original meaning was
“to put aboard a ship by force” (the common method used in Europe, and
especially England, to gather crew to man ships bound for the Orient). It isn’t a
pleasant connotation, but then, Shanghai wasn’t a pleasant place, infamous for
it’s decadent imperial past, and it’s exploitative merchant class. Shanghai was
synonymous with squalid poverty, vice, racism and criminal gangs and triads.
Modern Shanghai has left much
of that past behind; skyscrapers, flyovers and smart office complexes are coming up all
over the city and it is catching up with bustling metropolises like Hong Kong. But, like
most Chinese cities, Shanghai retains memories of its past- in some of its long-forgotten
parks, its old buildings, and it’s people. A walk through the city’s lanes and
alleys is still an experience to learn from, and to remember. |
