Better City, Better Kitsch: Marketing Faux-Modernity in Contemporary Shanghai

Abstract

ABSTRACT“The debate about the relationship between social, political, economic, cultural and artistic modernity is still far from resolved”—Gabriele Bryant (Hvattum & Hermansen, 2004:68)In the aftermath of Mao, and in transition to a socialist market-economy, Shanghai became a key site for the People's Republic of China to engage the world economy. Since the early 1990s, the city has aggressively pursued a new, global identity by assembling a collage of international projects, meant to symbolize modernity and to attract foreign investment. This article examines the ways in which Shanghai has attempted to re-brand itself as the state balances social plurality and a modernizing economy with its demand for absolute political power (Shambaugh, 2007:25). As a metaphor for the inherent conflicts that arise while running a city under socialist capitalism, the author introduces kitsch as a way to raise questions regarding cultural deception: How do symbols of international culture define, disrupt, or invert the l...