#28 Why Shanghai is known as Modu (魔都)...
Understanding Chinese history will help one to be better informed about China. This is because it has a diversity across different parts of the country due to its long unbroken civilisation.
I think for a foreigner to have a complete understanding of China , it is imperative for him to understand its history and culture. This is because China has an unbroken civilisation of at least 4000 years and so the cultures of the people in various parts of China are deeply entrenched since ancient times.
In fact, the north-south differences are there if one looks into the food, behaviours etc. This is because the current unbroken civilisation of Han Chinese started from the Yellow River and if you look at philosophers like Confucius, Mencius etc., they were northern Chinese. It was not until Jurchen and Mongol invasions that caused a massive migration to the south for Northern Chinese and hence cultural assimilation between north and south took place. But southern Chinese still retain their own “idiosyncracies” that are different from the Northern Chinese and one example is Shanghai.
Modu (魔都)
The above screengrab was taken from from the Apr 2022 blog post (weibo) of Hu Xijin, the ex-chief editor of The Global Times and a very popular blogger at weibo with more than 20 million followers. In it, he was lamenting about the long lockdown in Shanghai during the second quarter of this year and he actually referred to Shanghai as 魔都 (Modu/Módū) which has a few meanings literally as it could mean magic capital or devil capital. So what gives?
魔都 is actually a loan word from Japan and apparently there are two versions of 魔都 if you look at the Japanese definition. The current meaning , based on this encyclopedia website says:
"幻惑的な大都会。あるいは異文化を持つ大都市のこと"
which means
"A fascinating big city. Or a big city with different cultures"
So I would translate Shanghai as "Fascinating Metropolis" for 魔都.
The original word was actually coined by the novelist Muramatsu Shōfu 村松梢風 when he visited Shanghai in 1924. Basically he was saying the old Shanghai (旧上海) was a sin city with freedom & thus was magical, hence the name 魔都. 旧上海 refers to Shanghai during the days of Republic of China (ROC) & 新上海 "New Shanghai" refers to it being “liberated” after the communist party won the civil war.
I managed to find an excerpt of what he wrote in the book (translated from Japanese into Mandarin) that contains the word 魔都and have translated it into English :
"将上海称之为魔都，称之为罪恶的渊薮的人，未必就是真正了解上海的人。这是将其他国家各自的法律、习惯、道德等基准来衡量上海、观察上海所发出的言辞。上海并没有这样严峻的法律，没有这样固定的生活方式，没有这样刻板的道德。人们差不多都随自己的意愿在生活。简而言之，在上海罪恶本身已不成为罪恶了。这是每个个人的生活，个人的行为。进行这种行为的人毫无后悔反省，道德上的反省只存在于道德观整饬的地方，在上海这种本身就没有道德标准的地方却要去寻求是非道德是一种奢望。"
My translation:
"Those who call Shanghai the devil's capital 魔都 and the abyss of sin are not necessarily the ones who truly understand Shanghai. This is a statement made by measuring Shanghai and observing Shanghai based on the laws, customs, and morals of other countries. Shanghai does not have such strict laws, no such fixed way of life, and no such rigid morality. People live pretty much as they want. In short, sin itself is no longer sin in Shanghai. It's about individual life and individual behaviour for each person. Those who carry out this kind of behaviour have no regrets to reflect, and moral reflection only exists in places where moral values are regulated. It is an extravagant hope to seek right and wrong in a place like Shanghai where there is no moral standard."
Old Shanghai versus New Shanghai
Below is my view after my understanding of 魔都 :
Shanghai is unlike the rest of Chinese cities as it does have the inherent capitalism DNA which attracts many foreigners to it. In that regard, it would be difficult for it to be as responsive as other Chinese cities during the covid crisis as many people would want freedom over control. Hence it is not a surprise that Shenzhen instead of Shanghai was picked as a model Chinese city with socialism characteristics.
Conclusion
Shanghai’s debacle in its response to the covid spread this year does indicate that every Chinese city has its own unique culture that could be different from other cities given the long history of such cities. By comparison, Shenzhen had a quick lockdown in March this year and it remain unscathed and one should realise there is diversity in a socialist/communist China.