May 18, 2015.
We can watch the following videos of Nanjing, Shanghai, and Beijing as a competition of cities. What is promoted about these cities? What is the role of history and modernity in each video? Finally, do you think there are more similarities or differences between the portrayals of Chinese cities seen here?
What is promoted about these cities?
What is
promoted mostly in all these 3 Videos shown above are the modernity of each city, their
glowing and towering infrastructure, their road and rail transport etc.
In the
case of the Nanjing video, it is a very short one, consisting of flashes of
bits and pieces of Nanjing that this video producer tried to show to the
audience. I don’t think it’s that well done, as they are more sublimal in
nature, and you cannot really tell what the producer is trying to convey. It is
not a sales promotion, tourist-type video, since the screenshots are all fast
blips, and some culture is shown, especially that of the Sun Yat-sen Monument,
as Nanjing is the birthplace of Dr Sun, the founder of the modern Chinese
Republic in 1911. Also shown, is the new Olympic Stadium for the 2014 Youth
Olympics which was held in Nanjing from 16th August to 28th August 2014.
The
same type of “scenery” can be said of the equally short Shanghai video – fast
and blip, sublimal shots of Shanghai’s huge skyscrapers, super highways, lights
and traffic movements, Whampoa river – the city to be in, at least in terms of
doing business in China. Again, to me, it is not a promotional-type of video,
since with such blip and fast-moving, scatter-shots quality photos, it is
difficult to convey to the audience – especially if one is an investor, or
potential investor – who may be thinking of using Shanghai as his/her business
base, since there are no speaking scenes, like also the Nanjing video. It is a
fast-paced, glorious example of what Shanghai is liked today, and how the
Communists have turned this farmland into “socialism with Chinese
characteristics” and how it epitomizes what “socialist
capitalism” in China is all about, and how it can be achieved, along
with its Marxist principles.
Frankly,
I am rather surprised that the Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration,
which, I believe, is the tourism body promoting Shanghai, has not done a
slicker video about the vast business and cultural potentials of this megacity
of 22 million people, the biggest in China.
In the
case of the 12-minute long Beijing video, this, to me, is more like a
promotional video about business and tourism in Beijing. It goes over and over
again, some of Beijing’s most famous, and world-famous cultural sites like the
Palace Museum, the Great Wall, Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square, Ming Tombs,
National Grand Theatre, Hutong Tour, Beijing Art District 798, Tsinghua
University, Summer Palace, modern shopping malls, Peking University, Beijing
International Airport, and so on. Plus mouth-watering and must-have Peking
Roast Duck, Butterfly Tea House, Beijing Nights, Peking Opera, and the likes.
It is an interesting, long video, and shows all the four seasons – spring,
summer, autumn, winter – and how Beijing evolves over these periods. The
stunning scenery all round is accomplished by contemporary, symphonic music, very
pleasing to the ears.
A
common theme which runs through all these3 Videos is the ultra-modern cities
that recent engineering China has achieved, its sophistication coupled with
inherent beauty and touches of history for each city.
What is
the role of history and modernity in each video?
Nanjing:
Nanjing
is a rarity in China: the ten-times Chinese capital is one of the very few
cities where history, urbanization, and nature can be captured in one
photograph. Yet it remains relatively unexplored by international travellers.
Nanjing is the commercial, political, and cultural center in east China, and
the capital of Jiangsu Province. The 6,600 square-kilometer city is a 3-hour
drive, or 90-minute bullet train ride from Shanghai in the northwest. This city
of 8 million people is also a stop on the five-hour high-speed rail (HSR) route
between Beijing and Shanghai.
Due to
its strategic location along the Yangtze River – China’s longest river and
several of its branches also flow through Nanjing – and, at the halfway mark on
China’s coastline, Nanjing served as the capital of ten Chinese dynasties for
1,800 years. In 1356, in a peasant rebellion, Zhu Yuanzhang, later
to become the Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty
(1368-1644), conquered the city and renamed it Yingtian Fu.
In 1368, Zhu established the Ming Dynasty – the last feudal dynasty ruled by
the Han people – and gave Yingtian Fu the new name of Nanjing. Ten years later,
the emperor made Nanjing the capital of the country.
Following
officials’ advice of “building walls and producing grain to consolidate
the rule”the emperor ordered the construction of the city walls. Today’s
majestic walls in the city, the longest of its kind in the world, are the
result of that phase of construction.
In
1839, the First Opium War began after Lin Zexu, the incorruptible government
official, burnt twenty thousand boxes of foreign opium imports in Humen. The
corrupt and weak Qing government was forced to capitulate, and signed the
notorious Nanjing Treaty, the first of the many “Unequal
Treaties” China was forced to sign, and, in this instance, ceded Hong
Kong to Britain, which was to rule it for over a hundred years.
| First Opium War | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Opium Wars | |||||||||
.jpg) The Nemesis destroying Chinese war junks during the Second Battle of Chuenpee, 7 January 1841 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Qing dynasty | |||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 19,000 troops | 200,000 troops | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 69 killed 451 wounded | 18,000–20,000 killed or wounded | ||||||||
| Casualties source:[2] | |||||||||
The Taiping Rebellion:
Peasant
groups of Taiping rebelled against the Qing government in 1853, called the Taiping
Rebellion (1850-1864) and established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in
this region, Nanjing’s name at that time, but in 1864, the Qing government with
the aid of foreign troops, took back the city. In the Xuyuan Garden, which is
within the Presidential Palace, one can still see part of the former residences
of the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan and his cohorts of the
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
| Taiping Rebellion | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Taiping cannonade against the Qing war-junks besieging the Heavenly Kingdom capital | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
Later stages:[1]
| Taiping Heavenly Kingdom | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 1,100,000+[3] | 500,000[4] | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 145,000 killed | 243.000 killed | ||||||
| Total dead: At least 20 million, including civilians and soldiers (best estimate).[5] | |||||||
- Hong Xiuquan, born Hong Renkun, courtesy name Huoxiu, was a Hakka Chinese who led the Taiping Rebellion against the Qing Dynasty, establishing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom over varying portions of ... Wikipedia
- Born: January 1, 1814, Huadu District, China
- Died: June 1, 1864, Nanjing, China
The
1911 Revolution led by Dr Sun Yat-sen finally overthrew the Qing government,
and Sun established the First Republic of China, with himself as President, and
Nanjing as the capital again.
- Sun Yat-sen was a Chinese revolutionary, first president and founding father of the Republic of China, and medical practitioner. Wikipedia
- Died: March 12, 1925, Beijing, China
- Spouse: Soong Ching-ling (m. 1915–1925), Kaoru Otsuki (m. 1903–1906), Lu Muzhen (m. 1885–1915)
- Chiang Kai-shek was a Chinese political and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China between 1928 and 1975. He is known as Chiang Chung-cheng or Chiang Chieh-shih in Standard Chinese. Wikipedia
- Born: October 31, 1887, Xikou, China
- Died: April 5, 1975, Taipei, Taiwan
- Spouse: Soong May-ling (m. 1927–1975),More
- Education: Imperial Japanese Army Academy (1907–1911), Baoding Military Academy
On
April 18, 1927, Chiang Kai-shek launched his coup and made Nanjing his
headquarters until 1937, when the Japanese Army invaded Nanjing, and Chiang and
most of his Nationalist troops fled to Chongqing, where he established his new
wartime capital. Nanjing witnessed the “Nanjing Massacre” by
the invading Japanese Imperial Army troops. In six weeks from December 1937,
the Japanese troops slaughtered more than 300,000 Chinese men, women and
children including thousands of left-behind Chiang troops, and committed its
infamous “Rape of Nanking” slaughtering, murder, disemboweled,
rape some 80,000 Chinese women, out of this 300,000 killed.
| Nanking Massacre (Rape of Nanking) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Second Sino-Japanese War of World War II | |||||||
 Massacred victims on the shore of the Qinhuai River with a Japanese soldier standing nearby | |||||||
| |||||||
| Nanking Massacre | |||
| Chinese name | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 南京大屠殺 | ||
| Simplified Chinese | 南京大屠杀 | ||
| |||
| Japanese name | |||
| Kanji | 1. 南京大虐殺 2. 南京事件 | ||
The Rape of Nanking Images (WARNING!!! Graphic Content)
Rape of Nanking Images (Graphic Content)
These images are from the Japanese terror campaign in Nanking (Nanjing) in December 1937. 300,000 dead and 20,000 raped from an original population of 600k-700k.
Some of these photos were used as postcards to send back home.
The Japanese actually had contests to see who could kill 100 men first.
One of the contest involved throwing babies into the air and catching
them with samurai swords and bayonets
See what they did in The Rape of Nanking?
During this period, 300,000 Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants were murdered by soldiers of the Imperial Japanese. The International Military Tribunal for the Far East estimated that 20,000 women were
raped, including infants and the elderly. A large portion of these rapes were systematized in a process where soldiers would search door-to-door for young girls, with many women taken captive and gang raped. The women were often killed immediately after being raped, often through explicit mutilation or by stabbing a bayonet, long stick of bamboo, or other objects into the vagina. Young children were not exempt from these atrocities, and were cut open to allow Japanese soldiers to rape them.
Massacre
Eyewitness accounts of Westerners and Chinese present at Nanking in the weeks after the fall of the city say that over the course of six weeks following the fall of Nanking, Japanese troops engaged in rape, murder, theft, arson, and other war crimes. Some of these accounts came from foreigners who opted to stay behind in order to protect Chinese civilians from harm, including the diaries of John Rabe and American Minnie Vautrin.
Other accounts include first-person testimonies of Nanking Massacre survivors, eyewitness reports of journalists (both Western and Japanese), as well as the field diaries of military personnel. American
missionary John Magee stayed behind to provide a 16 mm film documentary and first-hand photographs of the Nanking Massacre.
A group of foreign expatriates headed by Rabe had formed the 15-man International Committee on November 22 and mapped out the Nanking Safety Zone in order to safeguard civilians in the city, where the population numbered from 200,000 to 250,000. Rabe and American missionary Lewis S.
C. Smythe, secretary of the International Committee and a professor of sociology at the University of Nanking, recorded the actions of the Japanese troops and filed complaints to the Japanese embassy.
Massacre contest
Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=2d5_1415662994#faxB7t37Y0Q8wECz.99
The above graphic images are from the Rape of Nanking perpetrated by the Japanese Imperial Army as they captured Nanking in December 1937, and in these six weeks of mayhem, looting, murder, rapes, they murdered, disembowelled and raped some 80,000 Chinese women and children.
To this day, this is only an "incident" in the psyche and mentality of the Japanese nation, and they have never admitted their atrocities here. Is it any wonder that the Chinese nation and its people - from 1937 and Chiang Kai-shek's time, to today, are relentless in their pursuit of justice from these dastardly Japanese evil deeds?
Nanjing
regained some fame when it staged the Nanjing 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games
(YOG) from 16-28 August 2014, featuring over 3,500 athletes aged between 15 and
18 years old, competing in 28 sports, including shooting, wrestling and
fencing.
Shanghai:
The
role of history and modernity is also very evident in the Shanghai video. With
a history of over 700 years, Shanghai today is the largest economic and
transportation center in China, and the largest city in China, with 23.9
million people – the “city of skyscrapers” – in 2013, and is the largest city proper
in the world as well. It has a population density of 3,700 people per square
kilometer, or 9,700 people per square mile.
Shanghai
began as Huating County, an administrative district established in 751 AD. In
991 AD, Shanghai Town was set up in the county. During the 1260-1274 period,
the town evolved into an important trading port. On August 19, 1291, during
the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), the then-central government approved
the establishment of Shanghai County in this area. Hence, this day became the
anniversary of the founding of the city of Shanghai.
In the
16th century (or the middle period of the Ming Dynasty), Shanghai became the
national center of the textile and handicraft industry. In 1685, Shanghai set
up its first customs office. After the First Opium War in 1839, Shanghai served
as the major trading port and gateway to inland China. With the foreign
imperial powers conquering China, Shanghai was turned into a semi-feudal and
semi-colonial city for about 100 years. On May 27, 1949, the People’s
Liberation Army (PLA) of the Communist Party of China took control of Shanghai,
and since then, Shanghai has undergone its historic and dramatic
transformation.
Shanghai
has remained one of the fastest growing cities in the world for the last twenty
years, with double-digit growth nearly every year since 1992, except during the
global recession of 2008-2009. Shanghai has one of the highest life
expectancies in the world, and the highest in mainland China, at 82.13 years.
Shanghai
Population in 2010 Census:
According
to the 2010 Census, Shanghai’s population was 89.3% (20.6 million) urban, and
10.7% (2.5 million) rural. More than 39% of Shanghai’s residents are long-term
migrants, a number that has tripled in ten years, and some 80% of the
population are from rural areas. These made up the largest percentage of the
city’s population growth, as Shanghai’s natural growth rate has been negative
since 1993 because of low fertility rates.
It is
projected that Shanghai, along with Beijing, will have a population of some 50
million people by 2050, doubled the current level because of fast-paced
urbanization in the region, and continuing economic growth.
China’s
famous, or infamous one-child policy, has helped to keep the nation’s
population in check. On the other hand, this has contributed to a shrinking
workforce in the area, as well as a rapidly aging population in Shanghai, and,
for that matter, the whole nation. For instance, as of 2009, of Shanghai’s
registered residents, 8.3% of the total were under the age of 14, while 22.54%
were over 60.
The
Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway (HSR) Line:
Against
Nanjing and Beijing for instance, Shanghai has no history or much culture to
shout about, but its phenomenal economic growth is the envy of China, and the
high-speed railway (HSR) Beijing-Shanghai line has no equals in China, or the
world. Completed in 2010, and put into use in 2011, the 209 billion yuan rail
line is 1,318 kilometers (820 miles) long, shortening the train ride between
Beijing and Shanghai from 10 hours to 5.5 hours, at an average speed of 240kph
(150mph).
The
Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway Bullet (G) trains, as they are officially
called, link Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and the provinces of Hebei, Shandong,
Anhui and Jiangsu, facilitating the transportation between these cities, and
lowering costs compared to airline flights. The link makes access from
Beijing/Shanghai to tourist locations like Nanjing, Mt Tai and Yellow Mountains
(Huangshan) very convenient.
Wonder
of Wonders: The Beijing-Shanghai HSR is expected to report an annual profit of
1.2 billion yuan (USD 192 million) in 2014, but experts warned that the same
success may not be seen with other HSR lines. This is because more than 100
million passengers travelled on the Beijing-Shanghai HSR in 2014, a rise of 27%
year-on-year, providing 30 billion yuan in ticket revenue, Xinhua news agency
reported on January 26, 2015.
It is
generally agreed that the “post-Olympics” effect for Beijing, arising from its
hosting of the Olympic Games in 2008, has been mainly positive ones. Following
on from the pre-Olympic facelift to the city’s living and business environment,
Beijing has continued to experience tremendous growth, although various
nationwide economic issues, and more importantly, a spill-over effect stemming
from the deterioration in the external economic environment, contributed to a
slowdown in momentum recently. However, the city continued to construct
world-class infrastructure networks and commercial real estate offerings,
paving the way for its transformation into one of the world’s largest city
economies.
Shanghai’s
GDP in 2014 expanded 7% from 2013 – less than the national average growth of
7.4% - and slowing from 2013’s 7.7% pace. The city’s overall GDP growth rose to
2.35 trillion yuan (USD 384 billion) in 2014, with the service sector producing
68.5 of the total.
So this
traditional rivalry for economic supremacy goes on between Beijing and
Shanghai. However, in one important aspect, Beijing has the upper hand over
Shanghai: for instance, the Fortune Global 500 Companies For 2014 released in
July 2014, show Chinese companies filling up 100 places in this List,
increasing from 89 in 2013 to 95 for China-Mainland companies, mostly
State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), and the balance 5 from Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Walmart of America took the top spot in this 2014 List, with USD 459.6 billion
in revenue, Royal Dutch Shell No. 2, and China’s Sinopec Group became No. 3,
overtaking ExxonMobil, with revenues of USD 457.2 billion.
History
here is more important for Beijing’s status that modernity, since close
proximity to the Chinese Central government and other regulatory bodies has
made Beijing a strategic choice in which to locate for these top global Chinese
enterprises. At least 86 of these top Chinese enterprises in the 2014 Fortune
List have offices in Beijing, and over 50 of them have their HQ functions there
as well. Having a Beijing address is not exclusive to the SOEs, since many of the
foreign firms in this same List also have a presence in the capital city of
China.
Finally,
do you think there are more similarities or differences between the portrayals
of Chinese cities seen here?
In
China’s headlong rush to prosperity and modernity, its unrivalled economic
growth over the past decade or so, have given rise to the huge growth of
supercities or megacities, and, in most of these cases, we are seeing more
similarities rather than differences, as each megacity – for example, in our
Nanjing, Shanghai and Beijing basket case – strive to outdo the other. In this
respect, my own view is that Beijing stands to benefit most – as it is the
center of China’s government, and, in this respect more than any others, it
stands to gain more than any other city in China.
But the
problems of Beijing are, in a sense, symptomatic of China’s megacities, and we
list below a few aspects:
·
Beijing has an estimated population of 21.516 million permanent
residents at end 2014, 368,000 more than a year earlier. It is the third most
populous city in China, after Chongqing and Shanghai. The city’s population is
about the population of the whole of Australia!
·
The sheer size of Beijing’s population, which is also backed by
a hefty pool of wealthy individuals, has bolstered the largest retail market in
China, a trend which began when Beijing eclipsed Shanghai for the first time in
2008.
·
A very logical consequence of experiencing such a massive
population is the potential stretch of the city’s infrastructure to capacity.
For example, the last decade saw the subway track in Beijing quadrupled in
length, and on December 28, 2104, Beijing opened four new subway lines,
increasing the total subway length by 62 kilometers to 527 kilometers, making
it one of the longest for a single city in the world. The city’s subway system carries
approximately 10 million passengers daily on workdays. By 2020, the total
subway length is expected to increase to 1,000 kilometers.
·
All these mega-projects and massive infrastructure works
highlight the government’s continuous efforts in improving the intra-city
connectivity of Beijing (and, also other cities, like our Nanjing and Shanghai
for example), besides facilitating the sustainable development of decentralized
areas.
The Hurun Wealth Report 2014:
The Hurun Wealth Report 2014:
·
On September 11, 2014, the Hurun Research Institute released
its Hurun Wealth Report 2014, which provided a detailed
analysis of the number of high net-worth individuals and their geographical
distribution in China. Some salient points from this Report:
·
The country has 1,090,000 millionaires, and 67,000 super-rich,
an increase of 3.8% and 3.7% respectively from 2013.
·
Beijing has the highest number of high net-worth individuals
(HNWIs), classified as those with assets of more than RMB 10 million each,
accounting for 192,000 millionaires, or 17.6% of total, followed by Guangdong (180,000
and 16.5%), and Shanghai (159,000 and 14.6%). Nanjing, as a city, is not listed
among this Top 10 Cities. It is stated as having 13,400 millionaires, of which
920 are in the super-rich category.
·
For the Super-Rich, Beijing again topped the List with 11,300
and 16.9% of total, followed by Guangdong (10,000 and 14.9%), and Shanghai
(9,100 and 13.6%).4 of 6
Wang Jianlin, Chinese richest man today, beating Jack Ma of Alibaba, which is now second richest.
Wang Jianlin, Chinese richest man today, beating Jack Ma of Alibaba, which is now second richest.
In
terms of billionaires in USD, Beijing ranked in the top five – behind Moscow,
New York, and Hong Kong, but ahead of London. Beijing is expected to become the
world’s fifth largest city economy in 2025. Moreover, while Shanghai will also
be ranked as one of the top five largest city economies, Beijing is the only
current Tier-1 Chinese city that is listed among their top ten fastest growing
economies in the world.
Beijing Airports:
Beijing Airports:
Beijing
currently has two international airports – the Beijing Capital International
Airport (BCA) and Beijing Nanyuan Airport. BCA alone in 2014 handled 86,130,390
passengers – far exceeding its projected annual capacity of 76 million
passengers by 2015. It is the second busiest airport in the world, behind
Atlanta Hartsfied-Jackson International Airport in the United States, which
handled 96,178,899 passengers in 2014.
Beijing’s
proposed new international airport in Daxing, about 48 kilometers south of
Tiananmen Square, is scheduled to open in late 2018. It is planned to have six
runways for civil use, and one for military use, and will service up to 70
million passengers per year by 2025. This will ensure that Beijing will
continue to be one of, if not the busiest, airport traffic hubs in China.
Thus,
in this Beijing example, I believe we can see more similarities than
differences in the planning, expansion and future outlook, especially of
China’s many megacities, paying greater efforts in expanding and refining its
infrastructure networks. All government initiatives will set a very good
platform of economic activity in Beijing and all other cities – most of which
are megacities in terms of population – which, barring unforeseen
circumstances, will continue to roll on in the years ahead.
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