Shanghai"s Shopping Consumption!
In his history of urban culture, Leo Ou-Fan Lee argues that Shanghai's cosmopolitanism and modernity have always been inextricably bound to shopping.
At the very beginning of the 20th century, the neon lights and 'big four' departments stores on Nanjing Lu - Xianshi (Sincere), Yong-an (Wing On), Xin Xin (Sun Sun) and Daxin (Sun Company) - lured giant crowds and shaped the city's cultural landscape.
These great 'edifices of commerce', packed with diverse, international merchandise, introduced key aspects of modernity to Shanghai, including non-negotiable prices, fast elevators, salesgirls, central heating and air conditioning.
Despite their Western flavor, these modern department stores catered primarily to the local population.
Lee quotes a 1920 handbook on the city: "There are 1,000,000 Chinese to 15,000 Western foreigners.
Powerful as the foreign influence may be, this is China and the vast overwhelming majority of people in the streets are Chinese.
" Nevertheless, as Hanchao Lu writes in his history of everyday life in the city, the "dazzling life symbolized by the Bund and Nanking Road" were only ever interesting asides to the real commercial life of the city.
"What mattered most in daily life was the petty but vigorous commerce and activities conducted in an area within walking distance from home.
" Streets in residential neighborhoods were crowded with small stores selling food, clothing and household goods, small 'proletarian' restaurants and the ever-popular yanzhidian tobacco and paper stores that marked the entrance to practically every lane.
Inside the alleyways, where most people lived, dozens of hawkers gave life its color and rhythms.
The most common and popular goods were Shanghai's famous xiaochi (snacks), advertized with a song and often served from portable kitchens, which street peddlers carried on poles (to see an example visit the shikumen museum in Xintiandi).
Besides the food vendors, barbers and seamstresses were stationed in the alleys and small traders frequented them with their carts or stalls selling "newspapers, flowers, fresh vegetables, rice, salt, needles, thread, socks, handkerchiefs, towels, soap, cigarettes, mats, bamboo poles (for hanging out clothes to dry) and many other things.
" This same teeming diversity of stores and stalls characterizes the commercial life of Shanghai today.
Large department stores and fancy fashion boutiques operate side by side - and are vastly outnumbered - by the street peddlers and small shops and stores that line the city's streets and lanes.
Outlets of the Shanghai Tobacco Group and branches of convenience chain stores Lawsons, Kedi or Alldays can be found on almost every corner.
These compete with countless low-end stands selling drinks, cigarettes and ice cream.
Many of these are outfitted with a public phone and sell the long distance and pay-as-you-go phone cards.
Every neighborhood also has a series of small specialty stores, which, although they appear to be independently owned, seem to faithfully replicate themselves throughout the city.
Some examples include stores selling a dizzying array of light bulbs which are specifically suited to the often eccentric trends in home decoration, or shops selling a selection of buckets, mops, pots and pans, or stores dedicated to cheap household furniture.
There are also singular shops, some merely tiny spaces consisting of just a few racks, often stocked with an odd mix of items.
In addition, thousands of boutique clothing stores cater to the middle and lower classes, selling cheap dresses, sweaters and pants.
Amidst all this are the peddlers.
An old woman with her collection of hair clips sprawled on a blanket, migrants carrying aromatic trinkets, or animal pelts, bike carts stuffed with stockings, mugs, platters and bowls, flowers and plants, or handy tidbits like clothes pins, fly swatters and coat hangers.
In a 2007 article for the New York Times, Emily Prager marvels at the commercial vibrancy that flourished right outside her Shanghai downtown door.
"People buy fresh food daily.
They buy clothes directly from clothes carts or in markets.
Things like nail clippers and cotton swabs are sold from carts in the street outside the lane, as are dishes and cups and most other household items.
I went to buy some string one day and the man cut me 12-inch piece.
"
At the very beginning of the 20th century, the neon lights and 'big four' departments stores on Nanjing Lu - Xianshi (Sincere), Yong-an (Wing On), Xin Xin (Sun Sun) and Daxin (Sun Company) - lured giant crowds and shaped the city's cultural landscape.
These great 'edifices of commerce', packed with diverse, international merchandise, introduced key aspects of modernity to Shanghai, including non-negotiable prices, fast elevators, salesgirls, central heating and air conditioning.
Despite their Western flavor, these modern department stores catered primarily to the local population.
Lee quotes a 1920 handbook on the city: "There are 1,000,000 Chinese to 15,000 Western foreigners.
Powerful as the foreign influence may be, this is China and the vast overwhelming majority of people in the streets are Chinese.
" Nevertheless, as Hanchao Lu writes in his history of everyday life in the city, the "dazzling life symbolized by the Bund and Nanking Road" were only ever interesting asides to the real commercial life of the city.
"What mattered most in daily life was the petty but vigorous commerce and activities conducted in an area within walking distance from home.
" Streets in residential neighborhoods were crowded with small stores selling food, clothing and household goods, small 'proletarian' restaurants and the ever-popular yanzhidian tobacco and paper stores that marked the entrance to practically every lane.
Inside the alleyways, where most people lived, dozens of hawkers gave life its color and rhythms.
The most common and popular goods were Shanghai's famous xiaochi (snacks), advertized with a song and often served from portable kitchens, which street peddlers carried on poles (to see an example visit the shikumen museum in Xintiandi).
Besides the food vendors, barbers and seamstresses were stationed in the alleys and small traders frequented them with their carts or stalls selling "newspapers, flowers, fresh vegetables, rice, salt, needles, thread, socks, handkerchiefs, towels, soap, cigarettes, mats, bamboo poles (for hanging out clothes to dry) and many other things.
" This same teeming diversity of stores and stalls characterizes the commercial life of Shanghai today.
Large department stores and fancy fashion boutiques operate side by side - and are vastly outnumbered - by the street peddlers and small shops and stores that line the city's streets and lanes.
Outlets of the Shanghai Tobacco Group and branches of convenience chain stores Lawsons, Kedi or Alldays can be found on almost every corner.
These compete with countless low-end stands selling drinks, cigarettes and ice cream.
Many of these are outfitted with a public phone and sell the long distance and pay-as-you-go phone cards.
Every neighborhood also has a series of small specialty stores, which, although they appear to be independently owned, seem to faithfully replicate themselves throughout the city.
Some examples include stores selling a dizzying array of light bulbs which are specifically suited to the often eccentric trends in home decoration, or shops selling a selection of buckets, mops, pots and pans, or stores dedicated to cheap household furniture.
There are also singular shops, some merely tiny spaces consisting of just a few racks, often stocked with an odd mix of items.
In addition, thousands of boutique clothing stores cater to the middle and lower classes, selling cheap dresses, sweaters and pants.
Amidst all this are the peddlers.
An old woman with her collection of hair clips sprawled on a blanket, migrants carrying aromatic trinkets, or animal pelts, bike carts stuffed with stockings, mugs, platters and bowls, flowers and plants, or handy tidbits like clothes pins, fly swatters and coat hangers.
In a 2007 article for the New York Times, Emily Prager marvels at the commercial vibrancy that flourished right outside her Shanghai downtown door.
"People buy fresh food daily.
They buy clothes directly from clothes carts or in markets.
Things like nail clippers and cotton swabs are sold from carts in the street outside the lane, as are dishes and cups and most other household items.
I went to buy some string one day and the man cut me 12-inch piece.
"
