Revealing/Reveiling Shanghai

Description

Revealing/Reveiling Shanghai provides international and interdisciplinary perspectives on representations of Shanghai, a contested location within political discourse and cultural imagination. Shanghai's complex history as a quasi-colonial city, and its contradictory identity as the birthplace of Communist China and the epitome of twenty-first-century capitalism, make it an especially fascinating subject. Contributors examine representations of Shanghai in film, art, literature, memoir, theater, and mass media from the past one hundred years. They address the ways in which texts from the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have rewritten past and present Shanghai to reflect our own wishes and anguishes, show how the city resists static interpretations, and challenge notions of authentic representation and identity. By revealing and questioning persistent stereotypes and constructed versions of East and West, the essays offer diverse views so as to create a genuine exchange with contemporary global audiences. A wide variety of texts are discussed, including the films Street Angel (1937) and The White Countess (2005), and the novels The Song of Everlasting Sorrow (1996) and Shanghai Baby (1999).
List of Illustrations

Introduction: Shanghai—Real and Imaginary
Lisa Bernstein and Chu-chueh Cheng

Part I: Old Shanghai Remembered and Imagined

1. Shanghai and the Birth of Chinese Nationalism: The May 30th Movement and the North-China Daily News
Graham J. Matthews

2. The Architectural Structure of Prewar Shanghai: Analysis of the Longtang Setting in Street Angel (1937)
Gabriel F. Y. Tsang

3. "City Lights" and the Dream of Shanghai
Mariagrazia Costantino

4. Wang Anyi's Song of Everlasting Sorrow: Memories of Shanghai as Commentary on Modern Society
Lisa Bernstein

Part II: Shanghai as Other

5. Japanese Accounts of Shanghai in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
Lianying Shan

6. Shanghai: City of Sin—City of Hope: Representations of Shanghai in Memoirs by Jewish Exiles and in Literary Texts about This Diaspora
Jennifer E. Michaels

7. J. G. Ballard's Shanghai: The Ur-Postmodern City
Grant Hamilton

8. Shanghai in The White Countess: Production and Consumption of an Oriental City through the Western Cinematic Gaze
Chu-chueh Cheng

Part III: Shanghai Reinvented for the New Millennium

9. The Shanghai Lady, 1880s–1990s: A Fictional Figure Adrift in the Maelstrom of Chinese Modernity
Andrew David Field

10. Constructed City, Constructed Self: Wei Hui's Shanghai Baby and the Unfixing of the Modern Self
Heather Patrick

11. "Only Shanghainese Can Understand": Popularity of Vernacular Performance and Shanghainese Identity
Fang Xu

Contributors
Index

Sujets

• Film
• Electronic
• China
• Asia
• Cinema
• History of film
• History of Asia
• Visual culture
• Película fotográfica

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 août 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438479262
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 11 Mo

Extrait

Revealing/Reveiling
SHANGHAI
Revealing/Reveiling
SHANGHAI
Cultural Representations from the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
Edited by
Lisa Bernstein and Chu-chueh Cheng
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2020 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bernstein, Lisa, 1964– editor. | Cheng, Chu-chueh, 1964– editor.
Title: Revealing/reveiling Shanghai : cultural representations from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries / edited by Lisa Bernstein, Chu-chueh Cheng.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020000972 (print) | LCCN 2020000973 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438479255 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438479262 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Shanghai (China)—In motion pictures. | Shanghai (China)—In literature. | Shanghai (China)—In art. | Shanghai (China)—Popular culture. | Shanghai (China)—History—20th century.
Classification: LCC NX653.S53 R48 2020 (print) | LCC NX653.S53 (ebook) | DDC 700/.45851132—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020000972
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020000973
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Contents
L IST OF I LLUSTRATIONS
I NTRODUCTION
Shanghai—Real and Imaginary
Lisa Bernstein and Chu-chueh Cheng
Part I
Old Shanghai Remembered and Imagined
C HAPTER 1
Shanghai and the Birth of Chinese Nationalism: The May 30th Movement and the North-China Daily News
Graham J. Matthews
C HAPTER 2
The Architectural Structure of Prewar Shanghai: Analysis of the Longtang Setting in Street Angel (1937)
Gabriel F. Y. Tsang
C HAPTER 3
“City Lights” and the Dream of Shanghai
Mariagrazia Costantino
C HAPTER 4
Wang Anyi’s Song of Everlasting Sorrow : Memories of Shanghai as Commentary on Modern Society
Lisa Bernstein
Part II
Shanghai as Other
C HAPTER 5
Japanese Accounts of Shanghai in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
Lianying Shan
C HAPTER 6
Shanghai: City of Sin—City of Hope: Representations of Shanghai in Memoirs by Jewish Exiles and in Literary Texts about This Diaspora
Jennifer E. Michaels
C HAPTER 7
J. G. Ballard’s Shanghai: The Ur-Postmodern City
Grant Hamilton
C HAPTER 8
Shanghai in The White Countess : Production and Consumption of an Oriental City through the Western Cinematic Gaze
Chu-chueh Cheng
Part III
Shanghai Reinvented for the New Millennium
C HAPTER 9
The Shanghai Lady, 1880s–1990s: A Fictional Figure Adrift in the Maelstrom of Chinese Modernity
Andrew David Field
C HAPTER 10
Constructed City, Constructed Self: Wei Hui’s Shanghai Baby and the Unfixing of the Modern Self
Heather Patrick
C HAPTER 11
“Only Shanghainese Can Understand”: Popularity of Vernacular Performance and Shanghainese Identity
Fang Xu
C ONTRIBUTORS
I NDEX
Illustrations Figures 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 At the beginning of Street Angel , the camera pans a skyscraper from top to bottom, shows the subtitles “1935 / Autumn / The underground of Shanghai,” and then jumps to an anonymous actor who is playing a drum in a longtang . Figure 2.4 When the parade goes through a narrow lane, the public stands beside the lane under the advertising banners. Figure 2.5 Xiao Hong eating an apple that Xiao Chen has thrown out his window to her. Figure 2.6 Xiao Hong having her hair permed. Figure 3.1 The mother of the family in Scenes of City Life peeps through the peephole to catch a glimpse of Shanghai. Figure 3.2 The title of Street Angel mixes itself with images from the montage sequence. Figure 3.3 The title of the film Scenes of City Life is imagined to also be the title of the traveling show composed of little bulbs and cardboard figures. Figure 3.4 Yuan Muzhi singing while he interprets the role of the peep-show man. Figure 3.5 The eye of the family father in Scenes of City Life caught in the act of looking at the diorama and getting an “anticipation” of his likeness as pawn shop owner in Shanghai. Figure 3.6 The luminous logo of the Mingxing Film Company as seen at the beginning of Street Angel . Figure 3.7 Superimposition of Shanghai’s moments and monuments conveying dynamism through the slanting angle of the shot in the foreground. Figure 3.8 Neon lights advertising international entertainment and products. Figures 3.9 and 3.10 A Shanghai mosque and the imposing neo-Gothic-style Roman Catholic cathedral of St. Ignatius, also known as Xujiahui Cathedral. Figures 3.11 and 3.12 Vaudeville-style night shows and lanterns with superimposed festoons of lights. Figures 3.13 and 3.14 The text yi jiu san wu nian, qiu (“year 1935, autumn”) appears in the forefront of this shot of a reconstructed model of the Metropole Hotel (1930), also vaguely reminiscent of Rockefeller Center in New York. Figure 3.15 Lights along the Suzhou River on West Suzhou Road. (Photo by Mariagrazia Costantino) Figure 3.16 Rudimentary LED and neon lights advertising a gas station on Jiaozhou Road, near the Jing’an Temple, Shanghai. (Photo by Mariagrazia Costantino) Figures 3.17 and 3.18 Two Shanghai landscapes from The Goddess , scenarios of different moments in the protagonist’s working day—what she sees from dawn to dusk. Figure 3.19 The actress Zhou Xun disguised as a siren in her double role as Moudan/Meimei. Figures 3.20 and 3.21 City Lights ( Chengshi zhi guang ), Yang Fudong, 2000, single-channel video, 6:00. Figures 3.22 and 3.23 Backyard—Hey! Sun Is Rising ( Houfang—hei, tian liang le ), Yang Fudong, 2001, single-channel video, 13:00. Figure 3.24 Light and Easy II ( Qinger yiju II ), Yang Zhenzhong, 2003, single-channel video, 5:12. Figures 3.25 and 3.26 Sleepwalking Is a Therapy III ( Mengyou liaofa III ), Yang Zhenzhong, 2007, single-channel video, installation, 14:59. Figure 3.27 Always I Trust ( Xin ), Cheng Ran, 2014. Figure 3.28 Always I Trust ( Xin ), Cheng Ran, 2014, multichannel HD video, color, sound, 16:9 screen and lightboxes, loop 6:13, installation view from the show Cinematheque at K11 Art Foundation, Shanghai, 2015. Figure 5.1 Sections of the painting Suzhouhe muqiao ( The Wooden Bridge over Suzhou River ) by Yasuda Rōzan (photo from Takatsuna Hirofumi and Chen Zuen, Riben qiaomin zai Shanghai 1870–1945 [ Japanese Residents in Shanghai , 1870–1945 ], page 5). Figure 11.1 DVD cover of the live taping of Zhou Libo’s 2009 performance Ridiculing Big Shanghai at the Majestic Theatre in downtown Shanghai.
Introduction
Shanghai—Real and Imaginary
L ISA B ERNSTEIN AND C HU-CHUEH C HENG
Shanghai is paradoxically encompassing and distancing, familiar and enigmatic. It has a complex history as a quasi-colonial city, the birthplace of Chinese communism, and icon of twenty-first-century capitalism. The dramatic social, political, and economic transformations the city has undergone since the end of the first Opium War in 1842 and continuing into the twenty-first century make it especially interesting for study today. In discourses of the West, East Asian countries, and even other Chinese regions, Shanghai has been portrayed as quintessentially exotic, associated with romance and decadence, and alternately labeled the “Pearl of the Orient” and the “Whore of Asia.” 1 Changes over the past three decades have further complicated the multifarious representations of Shanghai: the city contains and defies binaries of East and West, traditional and modern, communism and capitalism, cosmopolitanism and provincialism.
While other cities of the world are likewise cosmopolitan and culturally hybrid, 2 Shanghai is unique in its historical international diversity and social, economic, and cultural contradictions. From a small fishing village named the “city upon the sea” due to its strategic location at the mouth of the Yangzi River on China’s east coast, Shanghai was one of the very few Chinese cities to develop national and international trade before the Opium Wars. In 1843, Shanghai became one of five Chinese treaty ports forced to open to foreign trade and administrative control after Britain won the First Opium War against the Qing dynasty, and quickly became a quasi-colonial city divided into extraterritorial concessions and settlements run by Great Britain, France, the United States, and Japan. Capitalism surged following the Revolution of 1911 and the establishment of the Republic of China, which lasted from 1912 to 1949. While Shanghai flourished financially into the 1930s due to an influx of foreign business and migrants from other Chinese regions, the city’s cosmopolitanism and cultural modernity were accompanied by economic exploitation and political domination that led to extremes of wealth, poverty, dissipation, and corruption. The international population of Shanghai grew after Russia’s 1917 revolution and World War I; additionally, Jews from Iraq arrived via India to trade with and eventually settle in Shanghai. From 1937 to the end of World War II, Shanghai suffered social and economic decline under Japanese occupation. During the 1930s and 1940s, the extraterritoriality of th