I haven't blogged much (well, at all) since getting to China, even though I was pretty enthusiastic about the idea of doing so before I left. Well, here I am to make a mends, sooner rather than later ey ;)
I'm in Shanghai now and have been for I think the past 4 days. Personally, though I do miss Beijing, I really like the city, and I'm really keen to explore it more deeply and intimately then I did in Beijing to fully get the most out of this experience and amass a more genuine, representative image of this segment of China in my head. The blindingly obvious so far about Shanghai is how commercial it. Admittedly, I have only explored a handful of areas, but so far most of these places are coated in commercial businesses thriving with hustle and bustle - the presence of Nanjing Road, the largest shopping street in the world stretching an impressive 10 miles, brimming with shops and people, perhaps testifies what a hive of commerce Shanghai is. Interestingly, Nanjing Road, I don't think, can be considered primarily a tourist attraction with a target market that transcends the Chinese, as I noticed that the vast majority of people there belonged to a Chinese ethnic group. Given how incredibly large the place, not just in terms in length but also height (seeing as most of the buildings were high rising skyscrapers) it was surprising to see that most of these businesses (I assume) generated their income and managed to thrive off of a people from both a country and economy that is considered "developing". Furthermore, the prices of some of the products I saw surpassed those you would find in the UK, and I certainly could not afford anything there. Prices in Shanghai generally are similar or greater than in the UK, which is a big difference from Beijing. Having said that, according to one website, prices of goods vary as to where on Nanjing road you are, and just today a group of us after finishing at our business placement managed to find a very cheap underground market, and I’m sure there are more places like it too.
Shanghai is littered with Western franchises. Fast food outlets such as KFC, McDonalds, Subway and even Starbucks can be frequently found and, what surprised me, on Nanjing Road, clothing outlets such at Zara maintain a presence. Having said that, perhaps my surprise is unjustified as it is true in certain areas of Beijing, I did frequently see pockets of Western clothing brands, alongside brands that dominate other fields. Advertising in this city I've noticed seems to have a very Western influence. In one shopping centre off Nanjing Road, I noticed that all the mannequins were Caucasian, with one shop going as far as to use mannequins that were all white, male, with blonde hair and blue eyes. A lot of (if not all) the music played in stores was by Western artists too, and alongside that, I noticed today on a magazine stall that most of the models had very European facial features, such as wider eyes then a typical Chinese person. Walking about, I saw quite a few people wearing t-shirts with the Union Jack on it. I'm not really sure what the hype is over Britain here - I’d have thought of anywhere China would settle on the USA to focus their attentions and fashion on – but there it is.
The day before yesterday we went on a city hunt of Shanghai with a small group of Chinese students. We went to The Bund, and one other fellow (I forget who it was) made the comment that perhaps in the future, other emerging, developing cities will resemble that which we were seeing in front of us. Take a look.
This is pretty much what much of Shanghai looks like; incredibly developed, full of skyscrapers and very modern. Given that they will be emerging into a modern, developed world, one that’s ever contracting and networking, I can imagine the landscape of future developed cities to resemble that of the above, with town planners taking into account potential exponential growth of population and business, and using cities and towns of the present to inform their decisions. I live in Manchester, an area with a generally high standard of living in global, relative terms, in a country considered developed. Despite all of that, Manchester could not at all, in terms of it’s physical make-up, rival Shanghai in terms of modernity. The shopping centre I went into on Nanjing Road could easily rival one of Manchester’s main shopping centres (it had 10 floors, the one I have in mind has 2 :/), and that was just one of many. I find it fascinating to think that areas in the world that are considered developing or underdeveloped, areas that as a result are often neglected in our minds, could in the future all but eclipse the cities that throughout my life have in my mind taken on a preponderant status within the world. Being a historian, I’ve always looked back at the past and relished at it in the mentality that I am someone living at the very fringe of the present, almost toppling into the future. Given English towns and cities are already established and our country does not have the advantage of being a blank canvass, rather than thinking that England, with its “developed” stamp and internationally recognised status, is a leading entity within the world, now I’ve come to the realisation that globally, it could in fact be toppling into the past, with other countries and areas acting in something of a black horse manner, overtaking us in several realms, and perhaps set to continue doing so. I suppose I’m an arrogant Historian, once stubborn and horrendously naive enough to believe that my country was one of many almost guaranteed to maintain its high status within the world and indefinitely remain a lighthouse on the global landscape, guiding other countries into a future we were already living. Having said that, knowledge is indeed power, and the purpose of the Global Fellowship is broadening understanding of these emerging areas, partly for the sake of maintaining the status of the UK within the world. With that in mind, perhaps all is not lost, and our country can be salvaged from regression.