The thesis of this paper is that the nostalgia of “Shanghai in the 30s” is an avoidance of its semi-colonial history and this nostalgia underlies the cultural anxiety in present-day Shanghai in the context of globalization. If the ideology imposed by Chinese Communist Party on its people repressed the collective memory of the city, then the commercialism of globalization represents another repressing force. By taking advantage of Chinese people’s current depoliticizing tendency and encouraging the nostalgia of an imagined “the 30s” of Shanghai, commercialism truncates the cultural memory of the city and therefore puts the cultural identity of its people into question.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
No
Event Title
Hawaii International Conference on Humanities and Arts 2004