“The Paris of Asia:
Shanghai in Modernist Chinese Literature”
During the 1920s
to 1930s, China became a more modern country and society. Many people were
moving from the rural parts of China to big cities for work and better
opportunities. Shanghai was one of these cities. It was a booming, urban city
in the 1930s, on the sea. People from not just all over China, but from all
over the world came to Shanghai for business and pleasure. It was a cultural epicenter for business and the arts. Although it is
described often as a busy, beautiful city, the culture of Shanghai clashed much
with traditional Chinese culture and values. The modernist writings of Shi
Zhicun and Mao Dun provide a much different portrayal of Shanghai that contrasts with the nickname the "Paris of Asia".
In Shi Zhicun’s short
story “One Evening in the Rainy Season”, the narrator describes a walk home in
the rain on the busy streets of Shanghai. As he is walking in the rain he
describes the landscape and architecture of Shanghai. In the story, he notices
a woman exiting a bus and decides to walk her to wherever she is going while
under his umbrella. The narrator thinks the young woman is his childhood
girlfriend and begins having subconscious thoughts about her. He begins to worry about what others on the
street think of him and the young woman. As she leaves him to continue on with
her walk, she tells him that she is not his past girlfriend. When the narrator
arrives home, his wife greets him and asks where he has been. He responds that
he had tea with a friend. Zhicun’s short story describes Shanghai physically
and culturally. Zhicun describes the metropolis on the rainy day as
“The precise contours of people and
traffic, coming and going in the misty drizzle, would all vanish, the broad
avenues would reflect the numerous yellow lights, and now and again green and
red traffic would glisten in the pedestrians’ eyes. When it rained hard, the
sound of people talking nearby, even when it was loud, seemed to hang in the
air (Zhicun, 126).”
Zhicun describes Shanghai as a busy
city where the “wheels of cars do splatter mud” (Zhicun, 127) when they speed
by the narrator in the rain. He describes the busy traffic and the people
passing him on the street, and the how the sky is lit up from all the street
lights. Each detail provides the audience with a picture in their head of the
Shanghai he was viewing. Shanghai at this time was the “Paris of Asia”
where people all over the world came to vacation, live, and do business. While the narrator is at the bus stop he sees
the foreign influence in Shanghai as people are exiting the first class
compartment of the bus. The narrator notices a Russian woman, Japanese woman,
and two people from Ningbo, followed by the young woman whom he thinks is from
his past. None of the people were from Shanghai and had migrated there like many
others. Most of the Chinese people were not in the first class car. One thing that the reader can
notice is that the narrator is not describing Shanghai with beauty or
fascination, but as dark, rainy, and gloomy. This imagery directly connects to
the attitude of the narrator who seems less than excited about assimilating
into the culture of Shanghai. The
narrator does not see Shanghai as the “Paris of Asia”, but as a big city
where he is somehow trying to maintain individuality and independence. The
narrator refuses to catch the bus when it’s raining and does not own a rain
coat, even though his coworkers try to convince him to do so. The young woman
he believes to be his childhood girlfriend, can be seen as symbol of his
longing of his life before coming to Shanghai. He sees this young woman as beautiful and
bright. He longs for her, yet she walks away on her own. This is in
contrast to the face of his wife who can be seen as a symbol of his reality.
Mao
Dun’s “Midnight” portrays Shanghai in a similar fashion. Shanghai is not
described as this glorious city on the sea. It is more or less described as a
place of vice and indulgence, not a place where dreams come true and people
prosper. In the first section of “Midnight” we see the story or Mr. Wu, who is
an older Chinese man who works as a reformist until he is paralyzed in an
accident. While in Shanghai, the old man comes face to face with the vices of
Shanghai. He holds on to his copy of the Supreme Scripture. Mr. Wu describes
Shanghai as “the sinners’ paradise” (Dun, p 15) where “he was strong in his
belief that he could keep himself morally intact” (Dun, p 15). Mr. Wu
does not describe Shanghai as a beautiful glorious place, but more of a dark
place full of vice, Western influence, and far from the values of traditional China. He describes the street lights as “a
snake-like stream of black monsters, each with a pair of blinding lights for
eyes, their horns blaring” (Dun, p 16). His sons fall into the vice and
indulgence of Shanghai. When Mr. Wu sees young women barely clothed with dancing
around him he suffers a stroke and later dies. Mr. Wu represents the
traditional China that is no longer present in Shanghai. He could not handle
the ideals of “New China” in Shanghai which was much different than that of
traditional China. Just like the narrator in “One Evening in the Rainy Season”,
Mr. Wu is holding on to something. He is holding on to historical heritage in
this metropolis that make him an individual. He did not want to be like those in
the city, including his sons, who have fallen into the new culture of Shanghai.
Yet the traditional China and people like Mr. Wu are dying out in Shanghai,
where this a new culture budding. In the
last paragraph of the story, Mr. Wu’s son compares him to China:
“When he
lived in the country he existed like a mummy. The country was his grave, in
which he couldn’t decompose easily. In this modern city of Shanghai he was done.
He’s gone, and good riddance. One mummy old China the less. Old China herself
is a mummy five thousand years old, and she’s decomposing fast. She can’t
weather the storm of this new age much longer,” (Dun, 31-32).
Shanghai was a
bustling center of commerce and business in China and the world and still is in
modern times. Often called the “Paris of Asia”, Shanghai was a
multi-cultural epicenter. Yet many modernist writers in China did not see
Shanghai as this beautiful city with streets paved in gold. Shi Zhicun and Mao
Dun described a much different Shanghai. A Shanghai that separated itself from
traditional Chinese values and where people assimilated into this new culture.
A Shanghai that ran wild with vices and indulgences. A Shanghai that would
decompose the old China. The narrator in “One Evening in the Rainy Season” and
Mr. Wu in “Midnight” are battling to hold on to something. They were holding on
to their individuality; their independence; their past. They are not interested in the new Shanghai and decided to hold on to their ways and individuality. But even these old ways disappear into the night or die under the pressure of city life in the "Paris of Asia".
Sources:
Mao, Dun. Midnight. Peking: Foreign Languages, 1957. 9-32. Print.
Zhicun, Shi. "One Evening in the Rainy Season." The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature. By Howard Goldblatt. New York: Columbia UP, 2007. 126-35. Print.
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