Table Of Content15 mm front 153 mm 8 mm 17 mm 8 mm front 153 mm 15 mm
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1
ASIAN CITIES 3 ASIAN CITIES
S
c
h
e
e
Publications n
Shanghai is a city in flux. In recent years, workers and machines have
frantically destroyed large parts of the city to build a new one. But the mental
maps and personal memories of its citizens are not as easily erased. Shanghai
Literary Imaginings: A City in Transformation explores the social, cultural
and mental impact of Shanghai’s recent urbanization process, providing an
unique overview of contemporary Shanghainese literary culture.
Lena Scheen is Assistant Professor Faculty Fellow at New York University
Shanghai (NYU Shanghai). Her publications include the edited volume
Spectacle and the City: Chinese Urbanities in Popular Culture and Art (with
S
Jeroen de Kloet, Amsterdam University Press, 2013). h
a
Lena Scheen
n
g
h
‘Lena Scheen writes a lucid and compelling account of literature written a Shanghai Literary
i
amidst Shanghai’s sweeping transformations from 1990-2010. She evokes L
m i
m t
40 lived experiences of the city via literary and cultural analysis informed by er Imaginings
2 field research on influential authors, their texts and their public reception. a
r
y
Shanghai Literary Imaginings is essential reading on turn-of-the-millennium
I
m
Shanghai literary culture.’
a
Robin Visser, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill g
in A City in Transformation
i
‘Shanghai Literary Imaginings offers significant new insights into contemporary n
g
Chinese urban culture from a highly innovative methodological perspective. s
Its truly interdisciplinary approach makes Shanghai Literary Imaginings stand
out from other books that comment on contemporary Chinese city life.’
Michel Hockx, Director SOAS China Institute, London
ISBN: 978-90-8964-587-6
AUP.nl
9 789089 645876
m
m
5
1
15 mm front 153 mm 8 mm 17 mm 8 mm front 153 mm 15 mm
m
m
5
1
ASIAN CITIES 3 ASIAN CITIES
S
c
h
e
e
Publications n
Shanghai is a city in flux. In recent years, workers and machines have
frantically destroyed large parts of the city to build a new one. But the mental
maps and personal memories of its citizens are not as easily erased. Shanghai
Literary Imaginings: A City in Transformation explores the social, cultural
and mental impact of Shanghai’s recent urbanization process, providing an
unique overview of contemporary Shanghainese literary culture.
Lena Scheen is Assistant Professor Faculty Fellow at New York University
Shanghai (NYU Shanghai). Her publications include the edited volume
Spectacle and the City: Chinese Urbanities in Popular Culture and Art (with
S
Jeroen de Kloet, Amsterdam University Press, 2013). h
a
Lena Scheen
n
g
h
‘Lena Scheen writes a lucid and compelling account of literature written a Shanghai Literary
i
amidst Shanghai’s sweeping transformations from 1990-2010. She evokes L
m i
m t
40 lived experiences of the city via literary and cultural analysis informed by er Imaginings
2 field research on influential authors, their texts and their public reception. a
r
y
Shanghai Literary Imaginings is essential reading on turn-of-the-millennium
I
m
Shanghai literary culture.’
a
Robin Visser, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill g
in A City in Transformation
i
‘Shanghai Literary Imaginings offers significant new insights into contemporary n
g
Chinese urban culture from a highly innovative methodological perspective. s
Its truly interdisciplinary approach makes Shanghai Literary Imaginings stand
out from other books that comment on contemporary Chinese city life.’
Michel Hockx, Director SOAS China Institute, London
ISBN: 978-90-8964-587-6
AUP.nl
9 789089 645876
m
m
5
1
PROEF 3
Shanghai Literary Imaginings
PROEF 3
Publications
The International Institute for Asian Studies is a research and exchange platform based in Leiden,
the Netherlands. Its objective is to encourage the interdisciplinary and comparative study of Asia and
to promote (inter)national cooperation. IIAS focuses on the humanities and social sciences and on
their interaction with other sciences. It stimulates scholarship on Asia and is instrumental in forging
research networks among Asia Scholars. Its main research interest are reflected in the three book
series published with Amsterdam University Press: Global Asia, Asian Heritages and Asian Cities.
IIAS acts as an international mediator, bringing together various parties in Asia and other parts
of the world. The Institute works as a clearinghouse of knowledge and information. This entails
activities such as providing information services, the construction and support of international
networks and cooperative projects, and the organisation of seminars and conferences. In this way,
IIAS functions as a window on Europe for non-European scholars and contributes to the cultural
rapprochement between Europe and Asia.
IIAS Publications Offfijicer: Paul van der Velde
IIAS Assistant Publications Offfijicer: Mary Lynn van Dijk
Asian Cities
The Asian Cities Series explores urban cultures, societies and developments from the ancient to the
contemporary city, from West Asia and the Near East to East Asia and the Pacifijic. The series focuses
on three avenues of inquiry: evolving and competing ideas of the city across time and space; urban
residents and their interactions in the production, shaping and contestation of the city; and urban
challenges of the future as they relate to human well-being, the environment, heritage and public life.
Series Editor: Paul Rabé, IIAS, The Netherlands
Editorial Board: Henco Bekkering, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands / Charles Goldblum,
University of Paris 8, France / Stephen Lau, National University of Singapore / Rita Padawangi, National
University of Singapore / Parthasarathy Rengarajan, Gujarat Institute of Development Research,
Ahmedabad, India / Neha Sami, Indian Institute of Human Settlements, Bangalore, India / Hui Xiaoxi,
Beijing University of Technology, China
PROEF 3
Shanghai Literary Imaginings
A City in Transformation
Lena Scheen
Amsterdam University Press
PROEF 3
Publications
Asian Cities 3
Cover illustration: Model of Shanghai at the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center,
2013, by Rients van Goudoever
Cover design: Coördesign, Leiden
Typesetting: Crius Group, Hulshout
Amsterdam University Press English-language titles are distributed in the US and Canada by
the University of Chicago Press.
isbn 978 90 8964 587 6
e-isbn 978 90 4852 223 1 (pdf)
nur 635 / 757
© Lena Scheen / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2015
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of
this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise)
without the written permission of both the copyright owners and the authors of the book.
Every efffort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations
reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is
advised to contact the publisher.
PROEF 3
To my parents Anette Ölander and Chris Scheen
PROEF 3
PROEF 3
Contents
Acknowledgements
11
Conventions
13
Introduction
15
Shanghai Literary Imaginings: The City of Feeling Rising out of the City
of Fact
The City of Fact 16
A City in Transformation 23
Literature in Shanghai and Shanghai in Literature 28
This Book 47
1 Mappings
51
Drawing Mental Maps of Memories
Mapping Shanghai 53
“City Map”: The Series and the Authors 59
Literary Maps and Mental Maps 67
Mapping Memories 70
A Mental Map of Hongkou 82
Concluding Remarks 98
2 Seduction
101
Reproducing the City as Femme Fatale
Weihui and Ge Hongbing: Life and Works 104
Critical Reception: Selling Her Body and Selling His Intellect 108
A Complicated Love Afffair: Shanghai and the Femme Fatale 124
Weihui: The Screaming Body of a Shanghai Babe 129
Ge Hongbing: Whispering Souls on a Sandbed 136
An Imagined Love Afffair: Coco and Zhuge 147
Concluding Remarks 153
PROEF 3
3 Nostalgia
155
Restoring Old Buildings to Rewrite the Past
Wang Anyi and Chen Danyan: Life and Works 159
Shanghai Nostalgia: A Culture of Reappearance 161
Wang Anyi: The Song of Everlasting Sorrow of Shanghai’s Longtang 174
Chen Danyan: The Literary Preservation of Shanghai Memorabilia 185
Concluding Remarks 198
4 Escape
201
Mian Mian and Jin Haishu: Life and Works 203
Transformation and the Notion of Escape 208
Mian Mian: Escape into the Crowd 211
Jin Haishu: Escape into the Garbage Dump 224
Mian Mian and Jin Haishu: Escape into the Bathroom 231
Concluding Remarks 241
In Conclusion
243
The Shape of a City Changes Faster than the Human Heart Can Tell
Glossary
249
Works Cited
259
Index
275
