CHAPTER XII

THE CULTURE OF SHANGHAI AND MODERNIZATION

WANG MIAOYANG

            Generally speaking, the Shanghai cultural style refers to one characteristic of the process of the modernization of Shanghai. During that process, various Western Cultures clashed and com-bined with Chinese cultural traditions to form a Shanghai culture, which featured its regional culture in contrast to that of Beijing. This will not be a systematic analysis of Shanghai culture, but a philoso-phical reflection upon it and the general issue of modernization in Shanghai.

THE MODERNIZATION OF SHANGHAI

            The modernization of Shanghai began in 1843 when, for the first time, its harbor was opened to the outside world. During 1840-1842 China had lost the first Opium War and was compelled to sign the "Nanjing Treaty" which stipulated that China open five com-mercial ports, including Shanghai. The "Humen Treaty" signed in 1843 by the Chinese and British governments specified that the British could build houses in certain areas of the five commercial ports, thereby laying the foundation for the foreign concessions in Shanghai. On November 17, 1843, Shanghai was officially opened to the outside world and during the next hundred years (1843-1949) became not only the largest city in China with the highest degree of modernization, but also one of the largest cities in Asia and in the whole world.

            This is not a long history. Before 1840, Shanghai was an incon-spicuous, medium-sized city with a moderate population of hardly 200,000. Compared to Suzhou, Hangzhou and Nanjing, it was less developed in politics, culture and economy. This lack of a prior developed tradition enabled it abruptly to become the largest multi-functional economic center in China as development in commerce stimulated the development of such relevant industries as finance, transportation, etc. Both the first foreign-funded bank and the first Chinese bank began in Shanghai. During 1920-1930, the head-quarters of all the main Chinese as well as foreign banks were esta-blished in Shanghai, making it the financial center of both China and the Far East. In 1930, one-seventh of ships from and to China exited or entered through Shanghai so that tonnage accounted for one-fourth of the total in China, the largest in the country. Its four passages: the inland and outland rivers, the Changjian river and the East China Sea, made it a central port. With the inauguration of rail-ways and airlines connecting it with other parts of China, Shanghai became the most important transportation hub. In the 1930s, modern industry in Shanghai was drastically developed. Among the 12 largest cities in China, for example, the capital value of the enter-prises with over 30 employees in Shanghai accounted for 60 percent of the total, while their output value accounted for 66 percent. All this indicates that Shanghai played a crucial role in the development of the Chinese economy.

            Economic modernization promoted cultural development as well. With the opening up, Western thought became more and more popular. Influenced by its dissemination, seven of the ten famous translation agencies were located in Shanghai; 80 percent of the translations were published in Shanghai. Shanghai became the base for the best publishing houses, such as the Commercial Publishing House, etc. In addition, painting exhibits, plays, Chinese folk arts, novels and films of a unique Shanghai character emerged. By the end of the 1940s, Shanghai could be considered the most Wester-nized city in China. Due to this communication between, and combi-nation of, Chinese and Western cultures, Shanghai was influenced broadly and deeply in its material and spiritual dimensions, its be-havior and concepts, and even its language and customs.

            It should be pointed out that the special position of Shanghai in national politics and culture was not completely manifest till the Reform Movement of 1898. Before then Shanghai had become the largest base in China for disseminating Western thought, as well as the city with the largest number of modern schools, and the chief place to publicize new ideas. After the Reform Movement, some participants from other parts of China fled to concessions in Shang-hai in order to avoid arrest. The 3,000 intellectuals from all over China who thus arrived in Shanghai greatly stimulated the culture of Shanghai and further added to the attractiveness of the city. At the same time, this promoted the development and dissemination of modern democratic thought. Later, in 1915, the New Youth, a well known magazine was published, which led to the upsurge of scien-tific and democratic thought. Moreover, socialist ideas were intro-duced to China, and finally in 1921 the Chinese Communist Party was founded in Shanghai.

            The Western colonists, however mean their purposes and misdeeds, unconsciously played a positive role in stimulating social progress of Shanghai. In order to spread their own ideas and do-minate education, the Western colonists translated their culture into Chinese and brought advanced science and technology, as well as modern Western social theories.

THREE TYPES OF CULTURE IN THE MODERNIZATION                 OF SHANGHAI

            Many factors facilitated the modernization of Shanghai, among which culture undoubtedly played an important role. Broadly speaking, all resulting from human behavior can be called "culture", but in a narrow sense only what becomes part of the social values and norm of behavior can be defined as "culture". Three factors, i.e. science, commerce and politics, played a comparatively major role in the modernization of Shanghai.

            Of the three cultural factors, politics was the first to be ma-nifest in terms of values and norms of behavior. Ever since the country was founded, politics, as one type of culture, had played a very significant role in social life. Aristotle’s famous saying "Human beings are political animals" well reflects the guiding role of political culture in social life. Science and commerce appeared compa-ratively much later and did not become a worldwide culture until the emergence of the modern capitalist mode of production. For modern China, only political culture was native, while scientific and commer-cial culture came nearly all from abroad.

            During the 50 years since the opening of Shanghai, science and technology were mostly imported. Only in the early 20th century did the quantity of works on social science and the number of literary and artistic novels notably increase. This phenomenon reflected the shift of attention in Shanghai from the Western material culture to Western values, ethics and other aspects of spiritual culture.

            Compared with scientific culture, commercial culture experi-enced more setbacks. In feudal China an attitude closing the country to international intercourse led to the policy of the ruling class "stressing agriculture while constricting commerce". The develop--ment of commerce was limited, and merchants had a comparatively low social position. Although Zheng He, a well-known Chinese navigator, sailed to the Pacific Ocean half a century earlier than Columbus and surpassed his Western counterparts in scale, equip-ment and technology of sailing, he did not make a "great geographical discovery" or promote Chinese foreign trade. The deep-rooted atti-tude of "neglecting commerce" was closely related to the traditional concept of "emphasizing righteousness and neglecting benefits". The modernization of Shanghai, which began with commerce and promoted the economy, challenged traditional values and neglected the principle of "emphasizing righteousness and neglecting be-nefits." The development of commerce not only changed people’s values, but also trained the people to value actual benefits as well as to take concrete action. However, on the whole the commercial culture was fragile.

            In the process of the modernization of Shanghai, new contents were added to its political culture. Some Western systematic cultural content and democratic ideas introduced through the concessions in Shanghai enlightened the feudal autocracy of the late Qing Dynasty and encouraged people to convert to modern political concepts. One new element must be pointed out specifically, namely, that in the political culture of the early 20th century Marxism and socialism combined with concrete revolutionary practice to form Mao Tse-tung’s ideas. Later this was to become the guideline for the Chinese revolution and help to found the new socialist China with remarkable achievements. Dr. Joseph Lee noted that, "The reason why modern Chinese intellectuals commonly accept Communist thought is espe-cially that neo-Confucianism is closely connected with the ideas of dialectical materialism." This combination of foreign and traditional Chinese cultures may account for the vitality of culture.

            Generally speaking, the three cultural elements adapt to one another, but this does not mean that they do not have conflicts. Under certain circumstances, commercial culture may be contrary to scientific culture, and conflict with political culture. Therefore in the process of modernization, it is necessary to readjust and coordinate the relationship among the three so as to benefit both economic development and the progress of modernization.

SOME THOUGHTS ON THE SHANGHAI

            CULTURAL STYLE

            "Shanghai Style", a term widely circulated since the late Qing Dynasty, originated in the fields of painting and drama. At first, the painter who sold his or her paintings was said to belong to "the school of the sea" or "Shanghai Style". This was a derogatory term given to the new school of painting by the traditional painters, who re-garded Shanghai as a place of disorder, immaturity, superficiality and vulgarity. Then the Beijing Opera circles in Shanghai launched a renewal of traditional Beijing Opera with a reform in theatrical techniques: co-staging actors and actresses, the production of new plays, and the employment of new stage properties such as artistic stage lighting and scenery. This was the beginning of an independent "Shanghai Style" different from the traditional Beijing Style. This gained in popularity and as people began to appreciate its broader possibilities they tended to apply this term to the general culture of the area. Till now, it has no strict, scientific and commonly accepted definition. We are inclined to attach to it a richer meaning, applying it to cultural characteristics in general rather than to one concrete cultural element.

            Philosophically, the cultural characteristics of the "Shanghai style" are the following:

            1. It harmoniously incorporates things of diverse nature. It is not non-traditional for it has inherited some parts of traditional culture; yet it contains additional elements. It has mixed, combined, and even merged and unified the cultures from home and from abroad, of East and West, of tradition and non-tradition, and of high and low taste to develop a special form of culture.

            2. It has encouraged exploration and creation, while it has abandoned bondage to outmoded conventions. Lu Xun once made a penetrating analysis about the differences between the Beijing and Shanghai styles: "Beijing was the capital of the Ming and Qing Dynasties while Shanghai was the concessions of the big powers. The capital was rich with officials and the concessions were rich with businessmen. . . . In general, `Beijing Style’ was the vehicle for the officials, while `Shanghai Style’ served businessmen." (Essays in the Qiejieting, II). The vehicle for officials naturally would de-fend conventions while that of the businessmen would renew itself to meet the needs of the audiences. Consequently, the former became the embodiment of conservatism, while the latter the sign of renovation.

            3. It enjoyed massive popularity. Compared with the Beijing Style, the Shanghai Style obviously catered to more people and thus incorporated various characteristics and popular forms.