Discussing the issue of Shanghai culture inevitably involves issues such as broad and narrow, nominal and real, new and old, and also necessarily involves the characteristics of the times.
First, let's look at the broad and narrow, that is, the problem of the broad sea school and the narrow sea school.
Since the formation of the Shanghai school in modern times, it has been accompanied by discussion. A cursory review, the big discussion was held four times. These discussions, on the whole, unfold along the logic of moving from the narrow Hai school to the broad Hai school.
The first was in the 1920s and 1930s, when the theater world discussed The Haipai Peking Opera. In the late Qing Dynasty, Shanghai and other places appeared in Shanghai and other places, and its performance characteristics caused some controversy. In 1926, the "News Daily" published an article by Ma Fanbird of Fudan University, "On the Joint Bomb Not Created from the Hai School", which made a positive evaluation of the Haipai Peking Opera, believing that the performance techniques such as the tunes and the joint bomb adopted by the Haipai Peking Opera were a progress in the history of Peking Opera, which was warmly welcomed by the audience and should be affirmed. Ten years later, the dramatist Zhang Geng published "Haipai in Old Drama", which systematically sorted out and clearly discussed the artistic characteristics and social repercussions of Haipai Peking Opera, believing that Haipai Peking Opera is a new kind of civic drama and a commendable change in the history of drama.
The second time, from 1933 to 1934, the controversy around the Haipai resumed, involving at least 14 publications and at least 38 articles. This controversy was gradually diluted by the outbreak of the all-out War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the drastic changes in the living environment of the cultural people of the two places.
For the third time, from 1947 to 1948, progressive scholars such as Xia Kangnong and Yang Han published several articles positively evaluating the value and status of Shanghai culture in modern China. It is worth noting that Xia, Yang and others have extended from the literary and literary circles to the new cultural movement to the entire urban economic structure, social structure, historical tradition and cultural characteristics, and the Shanghai culture they discuss in their writing is equivalent to the Shanghai urban culture described today. Xia and Yang Xue were both extremely rich, and their positions were relatively detached, and their arguments were relatively fair.
The fourth time, in the mid-to-late 1980s after the reform and opening up, Shanghai discussed the urban development strategy, and the ideological and cultural circles discussed the cultural development of Shanghai accordingly, and raised the issue of "revitalizing the mighty style of The Shanghai School", which triggered a discussion of the Shanghai school culture that lasted for several years. This discussion essentially continues the thinking of Xia Kangnong and Yang Han, and although the Hai school is involved in literature and art, literature, etc., it is not limited to this, but includes the entire Shanghai urban culture, such as commercial culture, civic culture, revolutionary culture, left-wing culture, red culture, and Cultural exchanges between China and the West.
Let's look at the question of name and reality.
The so-called urban culture, as the urbanist Mumford showed in the book "Urban Culture", is a comprehensive convergence of human material civilization, institutional civilization and spiritual civilization displayed through the city: "In places like the city, the beams of light scattered by human social life and the brilliance it shines will be gathered and focused here, and eventually condensed into the efficiency and practical significance of human society." "In modern times, the discussion of Shanghai culture, along the art (fine arts, Peking opera), literature, and later extended to the entire urban culture, including behavior, values, aesthetic tastes and other aspects, this is a logical natural extension and extension from the narrow sense to the broad sense, because whether it is art or literature, the main body is people, its behavior is inseparable from people's values and aesthetic tastes, and its activity space is a city, which is inseparable from the urban economic structure, social structure and international ties.
From the perspective of nominality, the problem of the broad and narrow Hai sect mentioned above is also a matter of nominality in essence, because whether it is the generalized Hai sect or the narrow Hai sect, it is the name of the Hai sect, but it is only the name of different scopes.
In 2015, Shanghai's 13th Five-Year Plan pointed out that Shanghai should "inherit the essence of Chinese culture, absorb the essence of world culture, carry forward the cultural character of The Shanghai School, focus on enhancing the appeal of core values, the persuasiveness of theoretical achievements, the influence of public opinion, and the competitiveness of cultural industries, and basically build an international cultural metropolis." In 2017, Shanghai proposed to launch the "Shanghai culture" brand, "rich red culture, Shanghai culture, Jiangnan culture is Shanghai's precious resources, to make good use of it." The "Haipai culture" mentioned here is the Urban Culture of Shanghai in a broad sense, and it is also a redefinition of The Haipai Culture from the substantive level.
Looking back at the discussion of The Shanghai school culture in modern times with this definition, it can be considered that the reality of the modern Shanghai school culture is far greater than the specific scope of the "Shanghai school" discussed in the art, theater and literary circles at that time, and it should naturally include the production methods, lifestyles, values and aesthetic tastes of Shanghainese at that time, and should include the commercial culture, civic culture, revolutionary culture, left-wing culture, red culture, And Chinese and Western cultural exchanges in Shanghai at that time. After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the reason why Xia Kangnong and Yang Han and others were able to jump out of the barrier of the "Hai School" discussed by some cultural people before was that they were able to trace the roots with a grand and long-term vision, expand from the culture of art, literature and other conceptual forms to the economic basis and urban characteristics of such culture, and calmly and rationally consider the value of the Hai School. This is also the basis for us to logically put forward the "promotion of the cultural character of the Shanghai School" in the new era.
Finally, look at the new vs. old questions.
Because the Haipai culture has a process of getting a name, a stigma and a correct name in modern times, some scholars now advocate dividing the Haipai culture into the Old Hai School and the New Hai School to show the difference. In fact, this is unnecessary, because the Haipai culture, like other regional cultures, has its own epochality, including rupture and continuity, and its own internal evolutionary logic, and there is no need to artificially impose separation.
Modern Shanghai culture is in the context of globalization, under the cultural situation of extensive, frequent and intensive exchanges between Chinese and Western cultures, and neither culture is absolutely dominant, under the unique urban governance pattern in the world, with the extremely mobile immigrant population as the main body, and the spontaneous order of Shanghai society formed based on the above factors, with Jiangnan culture as the background, absorbing some elements of modern Western culture, and forming Shanghai urban culture. The open, innovative and inclusive character embodied in modern and contemporary Shanghai cities has been rich and long-standing in the vast Jiangnan area before modern times, and more than 80% of the immigrant population in modern Shanghai is Jiangnan people. The foundation of Haipai culture is Jiangnan culture.
After 1949, Shanghai's urban economic structure, social structure and urban functions have undergone tremendous changes, especially under the Cold War situation of the two major international camps, under the highly planned economic system, Shanghai's international and domestic contact information, circulation channels, and the external environment and dynamic mechanism of Shanghai's urban development have undergone fundamental changes, the "Haipai" in the modern sense has lost the soil that originally existed, and the voice of the "Haipai" has also fallen silent. However, this does not mean that the Haipai culture has completely disappeared, but continues to exist in another form.
For example, in the era of planned economy, Shanghai's lofty slogan of "one game of chess for the whole country" and Shanghai's outstanding contributions to industrial production, scientific and technological creation, fiscal and taxation for the country embody the spirit of responsibility in The Culture of Shanghai School. The spirit of westward migration in the 1950s, the spirit of spaceflight in the 1960s, and the spirit of two bombs and one star also have elements of Shanghai culture. In the era of planned economy, the awareness of the rule of law and contract, which is widely praised in modern Shanghai, is manifested in the fact that the large and medium-sized state-owned enterprises in Shanghai have completed the state's production plan to the letter, the high degree of execution power of grass-roots organizations such as the Shanghai Neighborhood Committee, and the high order of Social Management in Shanghai. The exquisite character in the civic culture is manifested in the limited material conditions, as far as possible to live a tasteful life, such as the citizens themselves to make furniture, fake leaders, half two food stamps, etc., is the strength of the Haipai culture, not the shortcomings.
After the reform and opening up, the country implemented a socialist market economy, Shanghai's tradition of opening up gradually recovered, and the Culture of Shanghai was given a new definition and a new connotation.
Any urban culture is contemporary. To summarize the characteristics of The Shanghai school culture in the new era, it is necessary to deal with the relationship between culture and spirit or character. For The spirit and character of Shanghai, we have a well-known and widely recognized summary, that is, the urban spirit of "embracing all kinds of rivers, pursuing excellence, being enlightened and wise, and being humble", and the urban character of "openness, innovation and inclusiveness". The urban spirit of Shanghai, which has been summarized, is highly consistent with the character of the city. Urban culture and urban spiritual character are the relationship between literature and quality, the relationship between behavior and soul, appearance and substance, and the quality of the text is more diverse and flexible, and the quality is more core and stable than the text.
In view of the characteristics of Shanghai's urban culture in the new era, in addition to the characteristics of the city's spirit, we can emphasize three points, that is, responsibility, refinement and refinement. These are fully expressed in the Shanghai culture of modern times and the planned economy era. In the present, it is of special practical significance to emphasize these things. Emphasizing the sense of responsibility is intended to highlight Shanghai's participation in world competition on behalf of the country, highlight the role of forerunner and leader, and also echo the spirit of the founding of the party in modern Shanghai, echoing with the red culture; emphasizing fineness, intending to highlight the goodness of Shanghai's urban management, one network communication office, one network unified management, remarkable achievements in fighting the new crown pneumonia, excellent subway and airport management, these are fine performances; emphasizing refinement is intended to highlight Shanghai's beautiful environment, quality of life, community temperature, buildings can be read, livable, suitable for work, and suitable for travel.
Author: Xiong Yuezhi, researcher of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, research librarian of Shanghai Municipal Museum of Culture and History
Editor: Chen Shaoxu