Urban Monsoon: The Cultural Spirit of Beijing and Shanghai (Revised Edition)

Author: Yang Dongping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: At the end of the first edition of Urban Breeze, I wrote: In the turbulent changes at the turn of the century, were the Beijing School and Shanghai School still a culturally valuable and charming theme? Today, it has indeed become an elegy. Shanghai is no longer that Shanghai, and Beijing is no longer that Beijing. It no longer matters. Life is still boiling, a new generation is creating their own culture in new cities—on platforms, in 798 Art Zone, in Super Girl—emitting their raw youth meditations and sharp dolphin sounds. To narrate the rapid changes in Beijing, Shanghai, and Chinese cities over the past decade would require the length of another large book. For the reissue of Urban Breeze, I selected several fragments to form two chapters, expressing my urgent concern for contemporary cities and conveying my urban feelings to the best of my ability. To preserve the original form, only minor revisions to certain factual details and corrections of typographical errors were made for the first ten chapters of the book. I am grateful to Yan Bofei, Kong Lingqin, and New Star Publishing for giving me the opportunity to organize and express my thoughts. Writing that is close to reality inevitably loses the depth and precision it should have. However, compared to the arduous efforts of physically intervening to save what is precious, words become less important. I am deeply grateful to Huaxin, Wang Jun, Fang Ke, and many old and new friends for their relentless efforts to protect Beijing’s ancient capital. They have not only used pens and cameras but also invested immense time, emotion, even heart-wrenching dedication, and even their lives, in battling bulldozers and the shortsightedness and greed of some. Like Liang Sicheng and Chen Zhanshang, they are the saviors of Beijing, and history will remember them.
Often people ask me whether I prefer Beijing or Shanghai. My heartfelt feeling is that because of their existence, the city of Beijing, devoid of them, has become somewhat lovable.