Shanghai is all superlatives: fastest, loudest, biggest and most modern... and I had but three days to see it in 2005.

A presenter on China's CCTV9, with a knowledge of Dickens, described China as "A tale of two Cities" - Beijing and Shanghai. Of course this is a media illusion: a student from Sichuan once said to me that Chengdu (capital of Sichuan) has a population of 10 million, "But who in the West has heard of it?" he asked.

Every second or third Chinese movie (i.e. not about martial arts or the anti-Japanese war) is about Shanghai in the 30's. This was supposed to be Shanghai's golden age - which makes one wonder why developers are being allowed to demolish almost every last vestige of it.

For me the most striking thing about this teeming city of nine-day wonders was how different it was from historic Beijing. The next shock was the circumstances before and after my visit, that lead to the production of this document - the strangest I have experienced in my university.

My university has a business relationship with a number of Chinese universities but staff at my university know virtually nothing about it. Knowing I was going to China I approached the public relations department to suggest I write a little magazine piece on one of these universities. My proposal was approved but the finished article was never published and I was never told why.

I conducted the following interview with Prof. Yuan in Shanghai on the 19th August 2005. He checked and approved every word so what remains is not the least controversial from his point of view. The Shanghai Fisheries University is one of several in China where my university teaches various subjects and this area of activity is intensely political within my university. Perhaps this is just an example of how sometimes doing business with China is harder than we Australians expected.

Professor Yuan Hong Chun is Associate Professor in Information Technology at the Shanghai Fisheries University, head of the School of Information Management and Information Systems, a Phd. and Supervisor of Masters Students. He is 34. I first met him in early 2005 while he was a visiting academic in Information Systems at the University of Tasmania.

I once remarked to my Chinese lecturer, Tao Min, that on my next visit to China I would like to visit the much-fabled city of Shanghai. Tao Min introduced us and with typical Chinese generosity Professor Yuan immediately offered to be my guide should I make it to his hometown.
The Fisheries University has two campuses; one in Shanghai and the other at Nan Hui where Professor Yuan is based. True to his word he met my overnight train from Beijing, found me accommodation at his university and took me on a whirlwind three-day tour of what is arguably the most exciting city in China. It is a boomtown; a crowded, busy city bustling with commercial activity, ostentatious wealth, soaring buildings of the most flamboyant design and at the same time many beautiful parks and public amenities. The Shanghai Museum, for instance, is definitely worth a look for a lesson on China’s five thousand year culture.

In a few days there wasn’t time for a more representative sample, but I found what I was told was typical Shanghai restaurant food very tasty. Sometimes the many regional cuisines available in Beijing are a bit of a challenge for a simple country boy like me – and I’m not just talking about chicken’s feet (Sichuan food should carry a government health warning)!

China’s largest city (18 million) is booming because, while Beijing is the political capital, Shanghai is the finance capital of China. Before 1997, when it was returned to Chinese rule, Hong Kong was the commercial centre but since then the focus has shifted to Shanghai. In 2005 the Bank of China acknowledge this reality by shifting their head office from Beijing.

Shanghai’s distinct character comes partly from more than its huge cluster of skyscrapers. Beijing, although very much a modern city, always conveys a sense of its ancient origins. In Shanghai there is the obvious European influence, especially in the elegant rows of 19th century bank buildings along the Huangpu River, opposite the extravagantly modern Bund District. One night I stood on the riverbank with Yuan and his wife Linda to see the lights from these shrines to business reflected in the water. In those few minutes no less than twelve different people tried to sell us Rolex watches for 200 yuan. I wondered if this was the spirit of old Shanghai living on or just the true face of modern capitalism?

Sadly much of old Shanghai, that which I think truly gives the city a special character distinct from other cities, is being rapidly demolished. It is these fascinating laneways of narrow, seedy, two and three storey houses dating from the 20s and 30s that meant Shanghai to me – much like the hutong of Beijing. To walk down those crowded little streets is to step back in time to a world of gangsters, pedlars, pickpockets, opium dens and a city that never slept - all to a jazz soundtrack with a uniquely Chinese flavour (and of course Gong Li looking deadly in a red satin qi pao).

Professor Yuan argues that in China it is common for university professors to be even younger than him. Notwithstanding his passion for Shanghai, he has only been here for three years, being born in Jiangsu province. In many ways he embodies the new China; completely happy if not excited by the rapid economic growth of his city, married with a daughter, a wife who works in one of the glass towers in the city centre, and living with her parents in a beautiful one million yuan apartment on the 10th floor of an ornate apartment block close to the university.

He also points out that the cost of his apartment is normal for Shanghai and he doesn’t drive a car because he doesn’t consider he can afford (rather than out of any concern for the environment which he acknowledges is somewhat polluted). He does ride a non-polluting electric scooter like many staff and students at his university. Shanghai is currently the only Chinese city where authorities charge a significant fee (averaging over 30,000 RMB) for a number plate. In number terms the salaries of Chinese academics look almost close to their Australian counterparts – until you realise that the Chinese yuan (RMB) is only worth one sixth of an Australian dollar.

(Click on images to enlarge)

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