Xuelin essay| from "driving a trolleybus" to see the Shanghainese "no boundary" and "clear"

The "stranger society" composed of five parties and thousands of merchants has created the inclusiveness and rule awareness of Haipai culture.

If nothing else, this feature can be illustrated by the multiple sources of Shanghainese alone. The word "Ala" in "Ala Shanghainese" was introduced from Ningbo dialect; with the increasing number of Northern Jiangsu people coming to Shanghai to make a living, northern Jiangsu dialect described it as a very good and good "croak", and gradually became a more frequently used word in Shanghainese. There are also many words in Shanghainese that are transferred from English, such as "Watergate", "bus", "coffee" and so on.

Marx once said: Language is the direct reality of thought. Similar language phenomena are typical manifestations of inclusivity. The inclusiveness of Shanghai culture has also created a relatively free and relaxed social environment for the gathering activities of advanced intellectuals in Shanghai.

At that time, Shanghai had foreigners from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Henan, Hebei, Lu and other places, as well as foreigners from Britain, the United States, France, Russia, Italy and other countries. The inclusiveness of Shanghai culture allows these foreigners and foreigners to "move around at will" and move freely in cafes, snack bars, tea houses, and restaurants. This created favorable time and space conditions for the contact and gathering of advanced intellectuals and left-wing figures at that time.

In addition to inclusiveness, the sense of rules is also a distinctive feature of Haipai culture. Inclusivity and rule awareness go hand in hand. Tolerance without rules and constraints cannot be said to be "package" and "tolerance", but can only be called lawless and boundless.

The sense of rules in Haipai culture can also be reflected in the Shanghai dialect. "Not bounded" and "clear" and "unclear" are words used quite frequently in Shanghainese. The "boundary" in "not taking the boundary" is the meaning of the boundary and the boundary, and the "tie" means the meaning of overlap, common and related. The so-called "no boundary" is irrelevant, and the implication is that it has nothing to do with you (me).

There is also an expression of this irrelevant state, that is, "there is no boundary". When you say this sentence, if you say it in a categorical tone, it is the highest level of adjectives. If someone can't understand this kind of "non-boundary" thing, but always wants to get involved, it is "unclear".

The verb "carry" is associated with vertical. Only by "mentioning" vertically is it called "carrying", and the things that are picked up will be clear and clear. Shanghainese often use "carry clear" to describe quick thinking, strong understanding, good logic, and "knowing good and evil".

Through the use of "carrying a clear", it can be seen that Shanghainese people are heavy on "demarcation" and distinguish between each other's boundaries, so as to clarify whether this matter should be done or not, and whether it should be said or not. Whoever should do it or speak and make a decision on the spot, and whoever does it and speaks of it, is "carrying it clearly." This way of thinking is conducive to the existence and spread of new ideas in Shanghai.

In modern times, The Haipai culture also has the characteristics of industrial civilization that is ahead of the whole country. This trait is manifested not only in the fact that the ranks of the working class are ahead of the whole country, but also in the convergence of social psychology and industrialization.

According to a 1919 survey by the New Youth, there were 2,291 factories of various types in Shanghai, with a total of 500,000 workers. At that time, Shanghai's urban population was only 2 million, and workers accounted for a quarter, while the proportion of the working class in the country at that time was less than 5%.

The growth of the ranks of the working class has enabled the Shanghai culture to take the lead in integrating into industrial civilization. For example, in the Haipai culture, it is popular to "eat according to ability", rather than the "learning and excellence" advocated by traditional society.

Many technical terms that reflect industrial civilization have long entered the daily spoken language of Shanghainese. For example, talking without boundaries and talking nonsense is jokingly called "driving a trolleybus", working all night is called "driving a night train", and two-foot walking is called "driving an 11 tram". These seemingly ordinary word changes actually reflect the subtle influence of industrial civilization on Shanghai culture.

Thus, after the Shanghai workers' strike in June 1919, the shift in the center of the May Fourth Movement from Beijing to Shanghai was no so-called historical accident. Analyzed in terms of historical materialism, as Engels said, "contingency is the expression of necessity." It can be said that this shift is the inevitable manifestation of history.

(The author Gao Huizhu is a professor at Shanghai Normal University)