Everywhere I see greatness. Everywhere I see muscular structures piercing the sky, underground monsters zigzagging, roaring, people crowding, laughing, and drinking. Yet everywhere I see history. History rebuilt, transformed, and digested. Colonialism is embedded in the heart of this far-east metropolis. Colonialism and modernism, two terms so distant and contradictory to each other yet blended and melted together in Shanghai, pushing and pulling each other as they shaped not only the built environment, but also its urban dwellers.
Shanghai is a huge city. It’s not somewhere you could walk around and know everyone by their faces. So lots to explore. I would never get bored when wandering along the Shanghai Bond, intoxicated with the magnificence of early 20th century neoclassic colonial architecture; or climbing up the 632m Shanghai Tower and enjoying the view of the city below; or getting lost in a shopping center or an alleyway, because there’s always something new to see. I would occasionally notice a new coffee shop at the corner of a street, a new gallery in the middle of a public plaza, or even a new skyscraper under construction at the very core of CBD. Innovation is everywhere. Diversity is everywhere. Global network is everywhere. The colonists have taught Shanghai a valuable lesson.
In its glorious, ever-changing process of modernization, however, a part of colonial history is being carefully removed. Civilizations flourish alongside great rivers, and their importance could be felt in many great cities. Hudson to New York, the Thames to London, the Seine to Paris, and Huangpu to Shanghai. After the colonists entered Huangpu River and established Public Concessions on its banks, they transformed Shanghai’s built environment. One of the most universal projects at that time was the Shikumen buildings, which were at first commissioned by French landlords to accommodate refugees of war during the late 19th century. These houses were rebuilt in the 1920s and served as residential buildings for locals after the colonial regimes. At one time, they accounted for more than 70% of all residential housing in Shanghai. But only a handful of them remains today and was renovated and repurposed into commercial areas such as the Xintiandi. Others, however, were forever removed from our sight, together with their forcefully relocated residents. They became the victim of modernity. Successful as the mode of Xintiandi might be and however well preserved these buildings are to local officials and visitors, history is represented only to cater to the “clean and wealthy” image of Shanghai. Elegantly camouflaged and packaged, our historic sites were only selectively preserved, and social preservation was lost in the hustle and bustle of Shanghai.
I wish to see the authentic history preserved in Shanghai, the history that propelled and inspired a great city, a history that praises the glory of modernity but also stands its own integrity.
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