Chapter 2: Registration
Opened to foreign trade in the late Qing, crowded with foreign concessions, a cosmopolitan port of glitter and excess. This was the ancient history that formed people's first impression of the city. The county seat of Shanghai, built in the sixteenth century, had undergone earth-shaking changes in the years since. Even now, taking the No. 11 bus through the old town in Nanshi District traced roughly the boundaries of Shanghai County during the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Now, in its march toward modernization, the city expanded at monstrous speed, swallowing the surrounding mountains and turning them into buildings of steel and concrete. High-rises crowded together, transport formed its arteries, and the entire city was carved into more than a dozen districts.
Students renting rooms outside nearby schools huddled in old courtyard-style lanes, along with college graduates struggling in the city, dreaming of one day affording a down payment on an apartment in Xuhui District. Every day, they passed through dark, mold-covered passageways untouched by sunlight year-round, emerging into daylight, into that dazzling city and the dull weight of life.
Yu Qiuyu said that Shanghai people's vision exceeded their drive, and their adaptability far outstripped their pioneering spirit. They had the bearing of a master, but not the commanding presence of a general; a panoramic view of the world, but not the boldness to stride across it. What constrained them was an employee's mentality. Shrewdness inevitably came with timidity: they would neither fight to the death nor make a last stand. Looking backward and forward, hesitant and muddled, even their wisdom became merely a toy in private hands.
Although the words of a master criticizing in hopes of revitalization were inevitably sharp, they still could not conceal the charm of this city, which would become China's economic center