Knocking Down Culture

I freelanced a few articles for Global Times, Metro Shanghai, an English-language newspaper in China. Here's the first one, with a couple more to follow...

“This city is just so… futuristic,” my sister repeated over and over while I led her around my new home. It’s a surprising realization for an American who had never crossed over to Asian soil as China is often feared to be ancient, unkempt and raw.

The latter view of China is the one that most Westerners hold: a romanticized imagination of the Middle Kingdom as the home of fallen emperors and the historical sites they’ve left behind. Not only does this give Shanghai a unique identity among the world’s large cities, but it also brings soft power to the country as a whole – the attraction of this ideal of Chinese culture is a major driver of tourism, immigration and even investment.

One of my favorite things about living in Shanghai is when I see or experience the type of familiar interactions that I know have been commonplace in China for hundreds of years. In my hometown of Los Angeles, you will not see old men playing chess in the park or groups of ladies in a choreographed dance on a street corner. However, I find that the more modern each district becomes, the less likely you are to come across these types of richly cultural activities.

And increasingly, every older area of the city is being rebuilt to resemble the cookie-cutter, modern areas of Shanghai. According to the Shanghai Statistical Bureau, more than 800,000 households were demolished to make way for skyscrapers, shopping malls, and other city modernizations over the past 10 years. I witnessed firsthand a massive gentrification project on the old Shanghai neighborhood where I live in Hongkou district.

The unfortunate effect of globalization, modernization, and beautification of this evolving city might indeed undo a large portion of this community feeling. Police pluck peddlers and loiterers off the streets in order to create a better city and a better life. But in the process of reaching the global standard of a civilized locale, I truly hope that Shanghai doesn't sacrifice the most appealing parts of its everyday culture.