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It shows in granular detail the good and bad of colonial cosmopolitanism (I know: how can colonialism be good? bear with me).
The bad is obviously the rascist power heirarchies that suffuse just about everything to do with the Shanghai Race Club
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The bad is obviously the rascist power heirarchies that suffuse just about everything to do with the Shanghai Race Club
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The good, however, is the creative cultural hybridity that, ultimately, defines so much of what Shanghai was and, arguably, still is, from architecture to literature to economics to "style".
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And the production of that hybridity was done by Europeans and Chinese together and seperately. The European and Chinese elements, however much divided by the former's racism, were never wholly distinct within the confines of the city, and that includes the "Chinese city."
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It is a contradictory, unconventional (or, maybe, anti-conventional), tense at times experience that has left a lasting legacy. Even the old clubhouse building still stands as the Shanghai History Museum:
http://www.shh-shrhmuseum.org.cn/historymuseum/historymuseum/zl/index.html
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http://www.shh-shrhmuseum.org.cn/historymuseum/historymuseum/zl/index.html
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Perhaps the best facet of the book is the depiction of the end of colonial power, the effect of imperialist expansion, especially, in the particular history of Shanghai, of Japan.
By focusing on a specific day, an apotheosis of sorts, Carter opens a view on the details...
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By focusing on a specific day, an apotheosis of sorts, Carter opens a view on the details...
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of daily life in a strangely unsustainable social space, traces of which are still visible but the essence of which is gone forever.
And the descriptions of horse races are great!
/fin
And the descriptions of horse races are great!
/fin
