Why Shanghai?

• It was a fishing village until the Opium Wars made it the greatest city in China
• It was one of the “Treaty Ports” and foreign powers carved out concessions and created an “International Settlement” there
• It was the home of Sun Yatsen, Chiang Kai shek and the Soong family – the makers of modern China
• The Chinese Communist Party was founded there (1921)
• Chiang Kai shek launched his anti-communist purge there, the Shanghai Massacres (1927)
• The Green Gang flourished there with support from Dr Sun and Chiang Kai shek
• Lu Xun, one of China’s greatest modern writers, wrote his stories there and lived in the Japanese concession
• In the 1920s and 30s it was the “Paris of the Orient” and famous and infamous for crime and vice
• Jews, Russians and others used it as a haven from revolution and persecution in the 1930s
• It was bombed by the Japanese in 1932 and 1941 and was the leading city in Japanese Occupied China
• Mao launched his Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution there (1966)
• It was home to Zhou Enlai and Jiang Qing, Madam Mao
• It is again the richest city in China and China’s showplace of 20 million people
• It aims to be the economic and financial capital of the richest region in the world: Asia Pacific
• It is the leading city in one of the fastest growing economies in the world
• If the 21st century is to be the China century then Shanghai will be its symbol of progress and achievement

…and so for all of these reasons, and more, we go to Shanghai. I hope it will be a wonderful learning experience for all.

I am very happy to be taking you to Shanghai. Have a great time.

John Wood, Head of the Humanities Faculty, October 2008