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During
the Tang dynasty, Shanghai was only a small fishing village. It wasn’t until
the Ming dynasty that it achieved some importance as a center for silk and
cotton weaving. A girl named Wang Daopo was married off into a family where she
was treated badly and regularly beaten. She ran away to the south to escape her
husband and was taken in by villagers who taught her the art of weaving. She not
only became a master of the art, but invented several improvements to the loom.
In middle age she missed her home and wished to return. The villagers gave her a
loom to take back with her and when she reached Shanghai she taught others and
developed a large industry.
One
of the more important aspects of the story was the love the villagers had for
Wang Daopo. Arts and skills were jealously guarded even in those days to
minimize competition. By the time of the Qing dynasty, Shanghai expanded on the
basis of it’s silk and cotton industry and had developed into a small port of
about 50,000 people.
The oldest part of the city surrounds Yu Yuan--Fish
Garden. While Yu Yuan itself dates to 1557, some of the surrounding
buildings are older. Although the buildings are traditional, the feel is of an
indoor shopping mall where you can buy the latest goods in specialty stores or
visit department stores. In the center there is a teahouse, which is accessed by
a complex of angled bridges. The old belief was that evil spirits could only
cross water in a straight line.
Shanghai was first founded in the 11th
century as a small fishing village near the mouth of the Yangtse River.
In the 18th century, Shanghai grew and became important as the
center of a cotton-growing area. In
1842 it began its rise to become the greatest city of China.
Most
of Shanghai was built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
There is little traditional Chinese architecture. China always has something
more. The architecture in this area of the country is distinctly different.
There is much more detail and a greater use of three-dimensional figure. Three
golden Buddhas reign in the main temple of Jade Temple. The climb to the second
floor gives you the best view of the courtyard.
Shanghai of the
Foreigners
After
the end of Opium War, Britain forced the Chinese to open up number of towns
along the coast to foreign trade-the so-called Treaty Ports.
Premier amongst them was Shanghai. These
were divided into the International Settlement, run basically by the British,
and the French Concession, and for many decades, they were ruled entirely by the
foreigners who even enjoyed “extra-territoriality”—freedom from
prosecution under Chinese law.
In
the 1840’s when the Europeans gained trading concessions in Shanghai by
ransacking their way up to Beijing, the city was already a thriving port. The
Europeans quickly carved the land among the concessions and established European
ghettos. In Canton, during the early days of trade with China (1500-1600’s)
the Europeans had been forbidden to leave a small area and were not
permitted to bring in their families. They had to sail to Macao to see them.
They could only deal with a small group of Chinese who had the exclusive license
to trade. They were not permitted to study the language. In Shanghai, the
Europeans reversed the restrictions and built parks and country clubs, which
excluded the Chinese. In the early days, this exclusiveness was probably based
in part on protection and security. The Taiping rebellion was in its last days
and the Chinese may have been just a little disturbed by the barbaric actions,
which led to the treaty granting the concessions.
Chinese
Communist Party was established and it held its first National Congress in
secret in a house in the French Concession in 1921.
In 1927, the Nationalists led by Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek and the
Communists co-operated to take the city and placed the Chinese parts of it under
Nationalist control. The old
pre-communist Shanghai was flanked by the wealth of the upper crust, and the
poverty of the lower classes. Many
of the foreign rich Shanghai citizens lived like royalty leading to grand
mansions. Thus giving rise to rich
architectural heritage of Shanghai.
Later,
in the 1920’s through the ‘40’s the separation was based on wealth, power,
and being European. Life was very cheap in this decade and prostitution was a
major industry. There were gangland
bosses who made millions out of opium, gambling, prostitution and extortion.
They protected themselves by establishing close ties with the Nationalist
leaders and the police chief of the French Concession.
There was a small but significant Chinese bourgeoisie and below, there
were poor, the ordinary people.
In 1937, the Japanese occupied Shanghai, and
when Japan was defeated in 1945, the western powers handed Shanghai over to the
Nationalist Chinese government. The foreign domination of Shanghai was over.
Towards the end of the civil war, in May 1949, the People’s Liberation
Army marched into Shanghai. The
victory of the communist party in 1949 transformed the city.
Opium dens were closed and prostitutes were given medical treatment and
taught new trades. The worst of the
slums were slowly cleared away.
Shanghai
might disappoint if you don’t know what to expect. Most of the central city
was built in the first third of this century. They built modern buildings to
replace the factories of the earlier concessions along the shoreline in the area
called the Bund. The European colony remained aloof from the culture surrounding
it. They built their own city with all the familiarity of home. There were
country clubs, hotels, bars, major banking houses, and stores were modeled on
the western architecture of the day. Today, the hotels, banks, and office
buildings, which line the Bund house Chinese banks and businesses and serve the
financial and trade needs of one of the busiest ports in Asia.
The Bird Market
Just around the corner arid down the street and through
the park and then down an alley you find the Bird Market. Its yet another world.
Birds are the most favored pets in China. In Hong Kong and Beijing, the parks
are filled in the early morning with the songs of the birds as their retired
owners take them for the air and to talk with other bird-lovers. In Beijing,
there is a large gathering of bird owners at 5:00 a.m. each Sunday in Tiantan.
Birds are valued for their ability to sing rather than for the color and beauty
of their plumage. The sound of hundreds of birds chirping they’re greeting to
dawn before the city wakes takes you straight into the country and
mountainsides.
The
market also offered tropical fish, bonsai trees, ceramic pots, and the cutest
Pekinese puppies that ever tore your heart out.
The birdcages and accessories in the market are as varied and beautiful
as the birds. You can have a cage made to order or choose one from the hundreds
on display.
Shanghai of the
Future
Shanghai
was designated as one of the special economic zones and since the 1980’s has
resumed its rapid development. The local government has the same privileges and
representation as a province in the central government.
Away
from the shore, in the main shopping area, the streets are lined with major
stores. Businesses were gradually
nationalized after the foreigners left. Shanghai
was much affected by the leftist Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), but with the
return to power of Deng Xiaoping in 1978, and the open-door policy that he
championed, Shanghai began the Long March back to being an international finance
and business center. The pace of
development and reform in the city speeded up dramatically in 1991.
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