Chapter Three: Despair, Extravagance, and The Sinking Shanghai
The night in Shanghai is a very strange world. Some of the air was gloomy and gray, some were bloody, and some smelled of incense powder. Due to the limitations of the concession treaty, even if the Japanese soldiers invaded Shanghai, as an occupying force, the area controlled was not the whole territory of Shanghai. Although the public concessions and the French concessions along the Huangpu River were surrounded but not occupied, the municipal authorities were still in the hands of the concession's Ministry of Works. In this area, external traffic remains smooth, and internal traffic is gradually restored, forming a free commercial market for complete freedom of domestic trade import and export. Its scope includes the huangpu river in the east, Fahua Road and Daxi Road in the west, Suzhou Creek in the north, and Zhaojiabang in the south. A famous journalist Tao Juyin once wrote: Suzhou Creek is separated by a river, on the one hand is the sound of cannons shaking the sky, on the other hand is Sheng Ge Da Dan, whenever night falls, the electric torch in the concession that is bright all night, through the dark night sky, is connected with the fire in Zhabei, reflecting half of the sky. In this strange world, where heaven and hell are only one river apart, people have aptly named it 'island'. Indeed, under the iron heel of the Japanese occupation forces, Chinese, whether inside the island or outside the island, felt the threat of death and the humiliation of national subjugation all the time. Fate is like an isolated island in a corner of the vast sea, terrified of the rise and fall of the tide, and I don't know which day I will be buried in the wind and waves. All of them are trapped on an "island". The "island" is only as far as the range of machine gun bullets, and the crisis is as vast as the East China Sea. The daily life of the whole city of Shanghai is in a state of extreme decadence, and even those who temporarily hold power will feel that life is boring and not worth looking forward to. All ideals seem so vain that only despair is real.
Mr. Tao Yinju
Some people are fighting, using blood to Chinese Mingzhi; some people have long been absolutely disappointed in the future, and they are drunk in this day and drunk in this day, and they only hope that they will not treat this life badly in their dreams and dreams. Of course, the heroes of the former have always been rare among human beings. The idea of life first still holds most people firmly. Before the smoke of the artillery fire had cleared, the ghosts of prosperity were quickly revived on the ruins and corpses.
Due to the unimpeded shipping links between the concession and foreign countries, coupled with the resumption of transportation with the mainland, the rich and wealthy households in various places have brought a large amount of money to Shanghai to avoid disasters, and have lived a parasitic life of extravagance and lavishness, which has created a false prosperity scene for the market. Shanghai's department store owners supply both medium- and low-end goods suitable for the daily life needs of the general public, as well as high-end luxury goods suitable for the "rich asylum seekers", so the entire retail business has never been more prosperous. The small department store industry was originally concentrated in the area of Nanjing East Road, Guangdong Road and Jinling East Road, and then developed to Xiafei Road, Xizang Road, Jing'an Temple Road, Tongfu Road and so on. The number of small department stores in these areas increased by 1 to 3 times compared with before the war. The newspaper industry has made a statistic that there are more than a thousand households in the retail industry, which is about 1 times more than before the war. Several commercial streets in the concession are lined with new shops and signboards, of which there are 277 companies on Jinling Road, 242 in Xizang Road and 378 on Jing'an Temple Road. In the retail small department store market, almost every morning and evening customers are full of doors, and people are flooding.
Shanghai's six major department stores are booming, and merchants have decorated their facades to further attract customers. The small Luzon department store on Jinling East Road has renovated the floor of the mall, using thick glass with electric lights, and the lights are brilliant every night, and walking into the store hall is like walking into the Crystal Palace. The famous Yongan company has an average turnover of more than one million yuan almost every day. Every day, from the opening of the door to the closing of the market, there is always an endless stream of customers. In the afternoon, it was even more crowded, the mall was crowded with people, and the counter was crowded with customers. On average, each employee has to receive fifty or sixty customers in a day, so busy that they don't even have time to eat, and often have to work overtime.
It's almost impossible to book a room, so much so that tickets to see a weekend movie have to be pre-booked, and nightclubs are lined up. The foreigners in the concession, such as the Americans and the British, seemed to live in exactly the same pattern as the war, and they ate, danced, and drank more than before. Most people are employed by large corporations and their salaries are settled in dollars or pounds, so their lives seem to be getting happier as China's currency depreciates. However, the most extensive, ordinary people in Shanghai are secretly suffering from the spreading pain of subjugation, just as the illness of a family heralds the chaos of the whole family. ”
All the prosperity of the "isolated island" is deformed and eroded, even desperate. Wealth is related only to a very small number of people, and the rest are lambs to be slaughtered. During the "island" period, prices rose for a long time and speculation was rampant. Although production resumed rapidly and the efficiency was better than before the war, many factories paid workers' wages at 70 to 80 percent of the pre-war wages for various reasons, and the situation of the working class actually deteriorated. Before the war, food and rent accounted for 53.2% and 8.3% of the living expenses of Shanghai workers, respectively, but at this time, the actual income stagnated due to high prices, and food and housing expenses accounted for more than 82% of the total expenditure. Items that used to cost 100 yuan now cost 365 yuan, and compared with the rise in prices, the increase in wages is almost invisible, or there is no one at all. The declaration paper reported in a helpless and sarcastic tone as follows: "The price of goods is like a kite that has been blown off its line, and it is like a fairy, soaring on the ground." Utility workers repeatedly went on strike, and trams and cars only hated not being able to fill up like theater gardens and hotels. The copper and silver coins have all been looted, and the stamps have a new use, temporarily making auxiliary coins, but unfortunately people cannot send letters, otherwise the difficulty of squeezing the car can be avoided. The competition for survival gradually sheds its ornaments and masks, revealing its original viciousness. Shame is not cheap, and many people maintain it unaffordable..."
Because it was the only "zone of peace" and the lack of proper control, speculation in the concession reached an almost insane level. From 1939 onwards, Shanghai's stock market was out of control, speculators were inflating war-concept stocks to incredibly high prices, and currency exchange rates jumped up and down with every rumor. There is a popular saying in Shanghai: "Industries are not as good as businessmen, and businessmen are not as good as hoarding." "Shanghai is extravagant in despair, sinking in despair.