Life In Shanghai Research Articles

Газета «Шанхайская жизнь»: источниковедческий обзор

The article is devoted to the source study of «The Shanghai Life», its dissemination outside China and current collection situation. Due to the absence of this newspaper in the collections of Shanghai archives and libraries, information about its collection in archives, libraries and museums of other countries is relevant for both Chinese and Russian researchers. For several years, the author of this article has been trying to gather the most complete collection of issues of this newspaper and to reconstruct a comprehensive picture of the history of the newspaper’s dissemination outside China, to know the current collection situation of this newspaper in various libraries, archives and museums around the world.

The Process of Shanghai Becoming “Far Away” in Shanghai by Hayashi Kyoko

In her novel Shanghai, the titular city seems to have become psychologically distant from Hayashi Kyoko. This paper analyzes the continuity of life in Shanghai in the post-war period, focusing on the issue of occupied territories that has not received much attention to this point in the studies on Shanghai. Through the prism of post-colonialism, this paper examines the causes of “Shanghai becoming far away” in terms of the remaining sense of control people felt over their lives, the impact of the border crossers from occupied territories, and the tensions within the discourse on the experience of the war. The paper starts with a brief introduction to the author Hayashi Kyoko and her novel Shanghai, and theories of post-colonialism. Second, it clarifies how Hayashi expresses her sense of both control and guilt by describing her preparations before leaving for Shanghai. Next, this paper analyzes how Hayashi describes and views the border crossers produced by Japanese colonialism. Finally, it analyzes the problem of discussing the experience of the war in the novel, as the “I” expresses Hayashi’s own experience, but there is no confidence in its delivery of the truth. This paper explores the reasons for Shanghai becoming “far away” from Hayashi and how the legacy of the occupation is expressed in the novel.

Contributors

Jeremy Brown is professor of history at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. He is the author of June Fourth: The Tiananmen Protests and Beijing Massacre of 1989 (2021).Alexander F. Day is associate professor of history and chair of East Asian studies at Occidental College. He is the author of The Peasant in Postsocialist China: History, Politics, and Capitalism (2013).Matthew D. Johnson is an associate professor of the University of Pittsburgh Asian Studies Center. He recently edited Redefining Propaganda in Modern China: The Mao Era and Its Legacies (2021).Jan Kiely is professor and director of the Centre for China Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and associate editor of Twentieth-Century China. He is the author of The Compelling Ideal: Thought Reform and the Prison in China, 1901–1956 (2014) and coeditor of Modern Chinese Religion II, 1850–2015 (2015), Recovering Buddhism in Modern China (2016), and Fieldwork in Modern Chinese History: A Research Guide (2019).Fabio Lanza is professor of modern Chinese history at the University of Arizona. His recent publications include The End of Concern: Maoism, Activism, and Asian Studies (2017).Covell F. Meyskens is assistant professor of history at the Naval Postgraduate School. He is the author of Mao's Third Front: The Militarization of Cold War China (2020).Sigrid Schmalzer is professor of history at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is the author of Red Revolution, Green Revolution: Scientific Farming in Socialist China (2016).Aminda Smith is associate professor of history at Michigan State University. She is the author of Thought Reform and China's Dangerous Classes: Reeducation, Resistance, and the People (2013).Jake Werner is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Global Development Policy Center, Boston University. His research interests include labor, nationalism, everyday life, and the trajectory of global capitalism. He is currently completing a book manuscript, “Everyday Crisis and the Rise of the Masses: Life in Shanghai, 1925–1972.”

Analysis on adult health life expectancy in Shanghai

Objective: To investigate health status and calculate health life expectancy (HE) of residents in Shanghai, analyze health related factors and provided foundation of health policy. Methods: A multi-stage stratified random sampling was used to obtain self-reported health survey in Shanghai. WHO questionnaire was used to evaluate the health quality of life which was designed for the world health survey, Sullivan's method was used to calculate HE. Results: The self-assessment disability measure for adults over 18 years old in Shanghai was 0.25, higher for women (0.28) than for men (0.23). LE was 65.76 years for adults over 18 years old, higher for women (68.22) than for men (63.39). HE for adults over 18 years old was 47.99 years old, higher for men (49.05) than women (47.14). HE's proportion in LE gradually decreases with age. It accounts for 72.97% in the 18 years old and 39.00% in the 85 years old. Conclusions: The health of adult male in Shanghai is higher than that of female, and the proportion of HE loss of elderly is higher than young people. It is necessary to focus on the aging problem and strengthen the long-term care and health support system for the elderly. Improve the prevention and control of major diseases such as chronic diseases,which affect the quality of life expectancy seriously. Promotes the health level and quality of life in Shanghai.

Vertical travel and cosmopolitanism in Florence Ayscough’s A Chinese Mirror (1925)

ABSTRACT Focussing on Florence Ayscough’s A Chinese Mirror (1925), this article examines the potential for vertical travel to have political and ethical implications. Born in China, Asycough was a Shanghai-based sinologist who garnered an international reputation for translating Chinese literature and culture. Well-qualified for this task through her extensive knowledge of local history, language, literature and culture, Ayscough revises the horizontal axes of travel and writing that were dominant in the 1920s, turning her life in Shanghai and her journey along the Yangtze River into vertical travels involving new modes of microspection. The article argues that Ayscough’s writing demonstrates how vertical travel could be deployed to resist and critique imperial aspirations and their reliance on violence, domination and existing hierarchies of culture and nature, self and other. It reveals the significance of verticality in her critique of British imperialism and her self-representation as a cosmopolitan with cultivated distance from Eurocentrism.

Efforts to break the ‘score determinism’ and transfer college enrolment from recruiting ‘scores’ to ‘people’: The exploration and practice of comprehensive quality evaluation of general high school students in Shanghai

Shanghai has always led college entrance examination reform in China, and has piloted the new round of college entrance examination reform for 5 years. At present, the comprehensive quality evaluation of general high school students has been carried out on a regular basis, and the comprehensive quality evaluation information of graduates of the latest three years has been initially used in college enrollment. The comprehensive quality evaluation adheres to the ‘Education in Five Aspects’, reflecting students’ comprehensive and personalized development. Students actively participate in social practice activities and research-based learning, and use what they have learned to solve real problems in real life. People from all walks of life in Shanghai generally agree with the achievements and experience it has achieved in this reform. The united education system inside and outside the school has been initially established, students’ creative spirits and practical abilities have been strengthened, college and university enrollment has begun to change from recruiting ‘scores’ to ‘people’, etc. On the basis of summarizing the problems existing in the comprehensive quality evaluation raised by some scholars, this paper proposes four action directions such as strengthening the feedback of comprehensive quality evaluation information, enhancing its normalized evaluation, paying more attention to students’ learning process, realizing the better combination of students’ social practice activities and research-based learning, and improving the ability of college enrollment selection.

Slow Train to Democracy: Memoirs of Life in Shanghai, 1978 to 1979, Anne E. McLaren

Slow Train to Democracy: Memoirs of Life in Shanghai, 1978 to 1979, Anne E. McLaren

Effect of chronic disease self-management program on the quality of life of HIV-infected men who have sex with men: An empirical study in Shanghai, China.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic rages on in China, particularly among men who have sex with men (MSM). MSM with HIV/AIDS also tend to have poorer quality of life than other members of the population. A major contributor to these issues is the huge gap between the increasing demand of MSM for medical services and the availability of such services; their current needs cannot be met only with the services of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The aim of the present study was to examine the quality of life of MSM with HIV/AIDS in Shanghai, as well as determine whether it is influenced by chronic disease self-management (CDSM). We conducted a pre-post study to evaluate the effect of CDSM on participants' quality of life. Four hundred twenty participants were assigned to either the CDSM group (n = 210) or the control group (n = 210). We collected data on quality of life (using the Medical Outcomes Study HIV Health Survey [MOS-HIV]) and various psychological and behavioral variables via interviewer-administered questionnaires. The physical and mental health summary scores of the MOS-HIV were 53.7 and 49.9, respectively. The CDSM group showed a significant improvement in quality of life and a significant decrease in the proportion of participants with anxiety symptoms (from 38.6% to 22.6%). Furthermore, the frequency of condom use increased from 43.3% to 47.3%. MSM with HIV generally had low quality of life in Shanghai. The CDSM program might help promote the quality of life of MSM while helping them practice healthy behaviors.

Urban “Clutter”: Stairway Landings of Shanghai

This piece presents a photographic documentation of the staircase landings of a high-rise apartment building in Shanghai in which I have been residing since August 2017. On these stairway landings rest various “stuff” that appear to be merely, “mess” or “clutter.” Amid the rush of daily life in Shanghai, I pause to think through this series of photographs. The photographs and accompanying statement reflect on the mundane objects left on the staircase landings which do not map too neatly within the urban order laid out in rapidly rising Shanghai. This piece seeks to open conversations into what could be a deeper understanding of the messiness of urban life in post-Mao China – an aesthetic or a mode of life that is constantly being revised, organized, fixed, and upgraded.

Vermander, Benoît, Liz Hingley

Shanghai Sacred offers a detailed examination of religious life in Shanghai. Benoit Vermander, Liz Hingley, and Liang Zhang aim to map religious diversity and its related social dynamics in one of the biggest metropolises in the People’s Republic of China (24 million inhabitants in 2016). The study is the result of fruitful collaboration between the three authors, each having conducted fieldwork and interviews throughout the city. The book is enriched with comprehensive maps of the fieldwork ...

A short history of written Wu, Part II: Written Shanghainese

AbstractThe recent publication of the novelMagnificent Flowers(Fan Hua繁花) has attracted attention not only because of critical acclaim and market success, but also because of its use of Shanghainese. WhileMagnificent Flowersis the most notable recent book to make substantial use of Shanghainese, it is not alone, and the recent increase in the number of books that are written partially or even entirely in Shanghainese raises the question of whether written Shanghainese may develop a role in Chinese print culture, especially that of Shanghai and the surrounding region, similar to that attained by written Cantonese in and around Hong Kong.This study examines the history of written Shanghainese in print culture. Growing out of the older written Suzhounese tradition, during the early decades of the twentieth century a distinctly Shanghainese form of written Wu emerged in the print culture of Shanghai, and Shanghainese continued to play a role in Shanghai’s print culture through the twentieth century, albeit quite a modest one. In the first decade of the twenty-first century Shanghainese began to receive increased public attention and to play a greater role in Shanghai media, and since 2009 there has been an increase in the number of books and other kinds of texts that use Shanghainese and also the degree to which they use it.This study argues that in important ways this phenomenon does parallel the growing role played by written Cantonese in Hong Kong, but that it also differs in several critical regards. The most important difference is that, to date, written Shanghainese appears almost exclusively in texts that look back to “old Shanghai” and/or to traditional alley life in Shanghai, and that a role of the type written Cantonese has in Hong Kong is not likely to be attained unless or until Shanghainese texts that are associated with modern urban Shanghai life, especially youth culture, begin to appear.

From Nostalgia to Reflection: An Exploration of The Song of Everlasting Sorrow by Wang Anyi

Wang Anyi is one of the most remarkable figures in the Chinese literary scene of recent decades. Her extensive writings, covering a rich variety of pieces, include the 1995 novel The Song of Everlasting Sorrow, which holds a unique place in Chinese literature as a magnificent portrait of life in Shanghai over four decades of the twentieth century. This masterpiece has generally been related to the nostalgia wave of the 1990s that has echoed in literary and other cultural spheres. However, this is not merely a journey to the past, but also, and notably, an exploration of China today and a lucid reflection on its future. Taking nostalgia as a reference point for analysis, the novel uncovers some of the more distinctive features of Wang Anyi’s particular literary universe. Wang’s view of history as a discourse in which time and memory are inextricably linked provides profound insights into the social evolution of China in the twentieth century, and her very singular evocation of the city of Shanghai reflects an outstanding writing style and exemplifies the luxuriance and diversity of contemporary Chinese literature.

Moral Global Storytelling: Reflections on Place and Space in Shanghai’s Urban Neighborhoods

Based on my long-term ethnographic research in the traditional alleyway neighborhoods in Shanghai, known as lilong (“li” meaning neighborhood and “long” meaning lane), I discuss “popular stories” surrounding their existence. As a legacy of the city's treaty port era (1842–1932), the lilong houses and neighborhoods are to Shanghai more than just a physical structure, but also a distinct cultural relic. I focus on the “moral responsibility” to live a life that aligns with one's narrative of historic preservation. I demonstrate how the forces of globalization play a major role in the changing socio-political landscape of life in lilong neighborhoods. We could better understand those forces by placing them in the context of morality. I here reveal three major themes: the discourse around the ideas of “authentic Shanghai life,” the perceptions of lilong neighborhoods in relation to the political economy of heritage brought about by the popular knowledge about Shanghai, and how architecture tells its stories of...

DEVELOPING SHANGHAI UNDERGROUND PEDESTRIAN SYSTEM UNDER URBANIZATION: MOBILITY, FUNCTIONALITY AND EQUITY

Shanghai is being transformed through a process of rapid urbanization. Urbanization has the effects of increasing urban population and the income levels of residents as well as changing the structure of transportation. Under the background, from the 1980s, Shanghai has increasingly built and extended underground pedestrian systems (UPS) within central areas to complement pedestrian networks. UPS have significantly affected urban life in Shanghai under the decades of development but to date, research on UPS usage and perceptions of UPS users has been lacking. This research conducted an on-the-spot survey in Shanghai's UPS in People's Square, Jing'an Temple and Xujiahui areas. Investigation through observation, face to face questionnaires and interviews generated qualitative and quantitative findings on the usage characteristics and perceptions of UPS users. The discussion focused on social usage and equity and the functionality of UPS. It revealed defects in the design and management of Shanghai's UPS, including deficiencies with regard to consideration of the elderly, disabled groups, management of homeless people, the range of merchandise categories and orientation (i.e. way-finding) systems. This research is a significant contribution to enriching knowledge and providing insights into the performance of UPS in a developing country under rapid urbanization.

Future Publics: Politics and Space in East Asia’s Cities: Introduction

This special issue of Footprint began life in Shanghai, with the third Annual Delft School of Design (DSD) and International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) workshop, which was organized in conjunction with the Architecture Department of Hong Kong University (HKU) and took place in their Shanghai Study Centre in April 2011. The seven papers presented here look at issues of public space in East-Asian cities, beginning with an overview since 1945 and thereafter concentrating on cities in China, such as Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Nanjing, as well as a realm that is not often considered public space: urban rivers. The issue also considers the city of Bangkok, where urban design is examined as a counter public sphere.

Future Publics: Politics and Space in East Asia’s Cities: Introduction

This special issue of Footprint began life in Shanghai, with the third Annual Delft School of Design (DSD) and International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) workshop, which was organized in conjunction with the Architecture Department of Hong Kong University (HKU) and took place in their Shanghai Study Centre in April 2011. The seven papers presented here look at issues of public space in East-Asian cities, beginning with an overview since 1945 and thereafter concentrating on cities in China, such as Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Nanjing, as well as a realm that is not often considered public space: urban rivers. The issue also considers the city of Bangkok, where urban design is examined as a counter public sphere.

Feeding and growth of normal birth weight infants during the first year of life in Shanghai

AimThis study aimed to explore the relationship between infant feeding practices and growth outcomes in the first 12months of life. DesignInvestigators completed 262 questionnaires, which included infant feeding patterns, feeding environment, feeding beliefs/attitudes and caregivers' feeding behaviors through on-site face-to-face interviews with the main caregivers of infants at 12months of age. The infant's weight and length at ages 6 and 12months were measured. SettingThe study was conducted in urban Shanghai, China. SubjectsThis study included 262 healthy normal birth weight full-term singleton 6-month-old infants and their main caregivers. ResultsAmong 262 infants, 86 (32.82%) infants were overweight [BMI-for-age z scores (BAZ)>+1] at 12months. Compared with normal weight infants, the overweight infants had higher birth weights (P=0.009). Furthermore, the overweight infants gained significantly more weight (P<0.001) in the first year of life. In normal weight infants, caregivers worried more about infants being “underweight” and “eating less” (P<0.001) whereas caregivers with overweight infants worried more about infants being “overweight” (P<0.001). Consequently, the total score of caregivers' over-feeding behaviors was significantly higher in normal weight infants (P=0.029). However, in overweight infants, the scores of “fed quickly within 10min” (r=0.223, P=0.039) and “feeding was the best way to stop the infant's fussiness” (r=0.285, P=0.008) were positively correlated with BAZ. ConclusionsOverweight in early life is associated with carelessness about excessive appetite and some particular infant feeding behaviors of caregivers in Shanghai.

A performance of becoming: Embroidering self into otherness

In this paper I write about my embodied experiences of existence inside, outside and between two very different cultures, Australia and China. My intention in this paper is to unravel some of the many layers of lived experience of a western teacher creating meaning in the face of constant cultural misunderstandings. In revisiting the memories and experiences of my life in Shanghai I negotiate and interrogate my internal border-crossings and in-betweener states in order to translate previous impressions and sensory experiences into new embodied awareness. I value the border-crossings and in-between states and the deeper reflexive thinking they generate, because they allow me to see behind the heavily embroidered veil of ideological delusion.

Effects of etomidate preconditioning on expression of HL-60 cell apoptosis-related proteins

Objective To investigate the effects of etomidate preconditioning on the expression of procaspase-3, caspase-9 p35 and caspase-8 p20 in HL-60 cells. Methods HL-60 cells were purchased from Shanghai life science institute and cultured in RPMI-1640 culture medium at 37℃ in 5% CO2 incubator. The cells were randomy divided into 3 groups ( n = 3 each): control group (group C), etomidate group (group E) and etomidate preconditioning group (group EP). In group E, the cells were exposed to 500 μmol/L etomidate and incubated for 24 h. In group EP, the cells were exposed to 1μmol/L etomidate for 1 h and was allowed to recover for4 h after etomidate washout, then etomidate 500μmol/L was added and the cells were incubated for 24 h. The expression of procaspase-3, caspase-9 p35 and caspase-8 p20 was determined using Western blot. Results The procaspase-3 expression was significantly down-regulated, while the expression of caspase-9 p35 and caspase-8 p20 was up-regulated ingroup E and EP as compared with group C ( P ＜ 0.05). The procaspase-3 expression was up-regulated,while the expression of caspase-9 p35 and caspase-8 p20 was down-regulated in group EP as compared with group E ( P ＜ 0.05). Conclusion Etomidate preconditiong can inhibit etomidate-induced down-regulation of procaspase3 expression and up-regulation of caspase-9 p35 and caspase-8 p20 expression, resulting in suppression of HL-60 cell apoptosis induced by etomidate. Key words: Etomidate; Ischemic preconditioning; Apoptosis; Caspases

Community of Relatives–Occupation among Migrants: the Life in Shanghai of a Market Family from Wenzhou

Community of Relatives–Occupation among Migrants: the Life in Shanghai of a Market Family from Wenzhou