Alan Balfour

Zheng Shiling

"This change, from a monumental relic of colonial ambition and Chinese confusion into one of the most aggressively international mercantile cities in the world, has seen Shanghai emerging, not as some naive representation of Western reality, but out of the 3000-year history of urban culture in China - a culture whose rational administrative and financial structure has in many past ages managed human populations in a state of harmony and prosperity unmatched in the West. The dynastic capitals of China from Xian to Beijing have until the last two centuries been the power centres of the nation, reinforcing the absolute divine power of the Emperor. The emergence of a commercial capital able to rival Beijing in power and influence creates an as yet unresolved disturbance in the deep structure of Chinese culture.".

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