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This sounds like a cool job: go out and search for a Shanghai's soul. That's what this reporter from the Sydney Morning Herald was sent to do. However, in the course of this he makes some observations that we found debatable, or in other cases, flat-out wrong. Here's one part of it:
There have been some incidents of young Westerners being set upon by gangs of young Chinese ultra-nationalists in the past year or two, and there is a serious danger to your wallet but, by and large, Shanghai is a safe and wholesome city these days.Call me cynical, or maybe an ingenue who naively walks past the gateways to the underworld, but the new cosmopolitan nightlife of Shanghai is a contrived theme park: we are in Shanghai, so let's play at 1930s decadence.
And for all the fabulous towers, art venues and infrastructure being built by Shanghai's government, there's an increasingly obvious emptiness about this city of 17 million people.
As the no-such-thing-as-a-free-lunch economist Milton Friedman said, on being shown Pudong in 1998: "Monuments to a dead pharaoh." It was a reference to Deng Xiaoping, the late communist leader who launched the "get rich" craze.
Shanghai is simply failing to fulfil its ambitions. The financial sector, which was supposed to be filling all these marvellous towers with bankers and brokers for all of East Asia, has atrophied.
We have to politely disagree with some of his statements here. First off, could you get a blowjob outside a seedy bar to an eardrum bursting techno-soundtrack back in 1930? Of course not. That's not copying decadence. You can't copy the decadence of another era or another culture. We here in Shanghai strive to create a unique stye of decadence that is in keeping with the times we live in. As for the "obvious emptiness" -- well, isn't that better than being hypocritical and disingenuous about our "emptiness?" We long ago learned to embrace our inner emptiness, and we're not going to pretend to be what we're not, not for the reporter Mr. McDonald, not for nobody.
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There is nothing original to say about Shanghai or China now.
This fellow came to Shanghai and his best comment was "Pudong is not well-populated". I hope his employers are thrilled.
Great post Peijin.
Umm, I reckon that you could at least encounter 1 of the 2 items listed here back in the 1930s.
I read the referenced article. To me it just screamed 'I couldn't really give 2 fen' about this city. What do you expect from a guy based in Beijing!
I'm not going to take his article or others like it too seriously. A place is always what you decide to (and can) make of it.
Wasn't 'the original Shanghai' famous for being morally and culturally empty?
Irrelevant reporting by an irrelevant journalist, from an irrelevant country.
Since its foundation, Australia has contributed very little that is original, in either commerce, culture or any kind of worthy pursuit of human intellect. Which puts the country and its people in the enviable position of having no ambition to fail.
"There have been some incidents of young Westerners being set upon by gangs of young Chinese ultra-nationalists in the past year or two, and there is a serious danger to your wallet but, by and large, Shanghai is a safe and wholesome city these days."
Can't rein in his silly paranoid even when he metes out reluctant positive assessment. What a second-rate petty little twat of a mind!
You could, of course, get a blow job outside a bar in Shanghai in the 1930s. Ralph Shaw in fact describes several he received in his memoir 'Sin City'. You should also be aware that blow jobs predate techo music and we used to get (and some gave) them prior to acid house and the rise of superstar DJs
1. sorry, i thought that blowjobs were a late 20th c. invention, my mistake.
2. being born in 1977, i prefer remaining blithely unaware of (musical) history that predates my birth.
3. people don't always write using a voice that is themselves.
4. if you have to explain the joke then it's not funny anymore.
Thank you dadalama for trashing Australia in response to a single Australian reporter's article.
I assume you have studied every aspect of Australia's commerce, culture, 'pursuits of human intellect' and Australian citizen's psychology from it's foundation up to the present. You must have, as I'm sure you aren't naive enough to write such a massively broad, ludicrous and prejudicial statement otherwise.
But, but.. I thought writing "massively broad, ludicrous and prejudicial statements" is what the internet is for?
Not entirely Micah. The internet was invented for distributing your own "massively broad, ludicrous and prejudicial statements" AND THEN inflicting them ad nauseum on others.
I will continue with this proud tradition and write something completely out-of-character for yours truly.
Flame-on!
dadalama obviously has a small penis for he hates australians, he's wordy, and likes to pretend he's a father of a llama. It is self-evident from the long-winded whining he must be a pasty-white POME b@stard llama too.
I think all of you can appreciate that in the vein of "massively broad, ludicrous and prejudicial statements", that the above statement is in-line with this internet ethos.
Hats off to you Timmy B, you write beautifully. Succinct, informative and pure poetry to listen to. Unfortunately I have to disagree that it is massively broad; it's only about dadalama. It's not ludicrous ether; dadalama sent me a photo of his penis, and it really is small.
I know at this point you're probably feeling pretty bad, having already failed in two of three catagories, but cheer up! You hit prejudicial on the head, congratulations!
Ferg, Micah, sorry. I forgot. The internet was also invented so people could send pictures of their penis to each other.
Such a fascinating, Swiss-Army tool of technology is our beloved internet.
Aw schucks!