Shanghai as a Rich City for Globalization - Research Paper Example

Contemporary Globalization of Shanghai Globalization is one major aspect that sees a country or a in to urbanization or development. Since this aspect is too wide, it is influenced politically, economically and socially. Since a country which is urbanized is regarded as a global country, then the matters of globalization revolve around the expansion from local to international levels. Issues related in this expansion may be businesses, the agriculture sector, tourism, trade and the educational sector. With this in mind, shanghai is one of the globalized city in china. There are several aspects that support the above statement. This paper will give detailed proofs of how shanghai has undergone globalization and expanded from being local to international levels. The main mission of this paper is to enhance a better contact with shanghai. The underlying premise depicts that Shanghai is a rich city for Globalization. Instead of viewing globalization as an external factor influencing Shanghai, this paper will show how globalization is inherent in the city of Shanghai and that the investigation of the distinctive features of Shanghai starting from the abandoned factories which are now viewed as creative clusters, to the Lilong architectures, luxury malls and street peddlers lights up the world globalization both in the past and the future. The main factors that have led to shanghai globalization are the tourism attractions, the Shanghai’s resurgence, competition of the Chinese cities and the tale of two cities (shanghai and Hong Kong). There are other unmentioned factors that have seen shanghai in to globalization. Shanghai is a global city which sees itself as the city of the future. This continued belief of the Shanghai globalization is driven by the history of the city. With this in mind, questions like can shanghai reanimate the cosmopolitanism of its past? Will its attempts of fostering a culture of creativity succeed? Can it bear an urban golden age that is energetic and innovative enough to influence the rest of the world just like New York or London arise. First shanghai will be viewed as a model of development and trading partner for India. (Liu, 786). Secondly, the city will be regarded as one of the important zones of economic opportunity within the larger Chinese world. Without the global business networks of the Taiwanese, Hong Kong and the Chinese American entrepreneurs, shanghai city would not have risen to higher levels. Additionally, the city will be viewed as a magnet for the migration within the country of China. Back in the old times, the city of shanghai was a city of sojourners. But currently, the city is at the middle of the swiftest and powerful process of urbanization that the world has ever experienced. Shanghai has over 20 million people as its population, and it is a huge and popular tourist destination since it has historical landmarks such as the Bund with historic buildings lining the Huangpu River. However, the increasing financial power of the city and the rapid economic development of China are given a reflection by the ultra-modern and ever-expanding Pudong skyline, in conjunction with the oriental pearl tower, the Jin Mao and the 492-meter world financial center. In reality, the city of Shanghai started to be globalized in the early 1990s. In the year 2005, the wealthiest metropolises as they were measured by their approximate GDP, were run by the urban centers of the chief advanced economies. Then what will happen in the coming years? By 2020 a third of these cities will constitute the large emerging economies. According to Derudder, “Shanghai‘s strategic position at the mouth of the Yangtze River has made it an ideal location to assume a position in the urban paragon” (644). That is why the city was and is still among the globalized cities in the world thus making China to be a country of wealth. On the other side, Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta contribute to the largest concentrations of adjacent metropolitan areas in the world. It is said to be the home to approximately 80-90 million people who have a GDP of approximately US$2 trillion which is equivalent to the economy size of France. Between the years 2010-2011, shanghai benefited a double-digit growth unlike the France, which experienced a growth rate of 1-2 percent. Currently the city of shanghai is experiencing a growth rate of 8-9 percent per year which is healthy for a city like shanghai. When it comes to the Shanghai’s Resurgence, the city benefited the issue of globalization through several aspects. Before the town was globalized, it was a town of fishing and textiles. But afterwards the city grew into importance in the 19th century. The swift development of the city is attributed to the 1840 opium war when the powers of the west forced China to open five of its coastal cities. The cities that were opened included the city of Shanghai hence they were opened to foreign trade. The powers of the colonial period forced the weak Qing government to append their signature for the treaty that gave them the right to give the establishment of foreign concessions. The Pudong that was found on the east side was left untouched while the Shanghai city, grew ever larger in size. By the year 1920s and 1930s, the city of Shanghai had already become a key base international trade and finance particularly in the East Asian region. However, shanghai was subjected to one calamity after one another in the late 1930s and 1940s. Firstly, it was affected by the currency crisis in 1935 then the Sino-Japanese War that started in the year 1937. Afterwards, there was the onset of the pacific war that occurred in the late 1941 and finally the aftermath of World War II and the civil war in the years 1945-1949. This is when Shanghai started experiencing downfall in globalization. After everything happened, the people of the republic of China and the most foreign corporations relocated to Hong Kong in the name of an exodus of foreign investment. This happened after the People’s Republic of China was declared in the year 1949. At this time, Hong Kong thrived while Shanghai fell into a historical oblivion. That is when the “Pearl of the Orient” had to lose its position as the East Asia’s main financial center. But in the years 1950s and 1960s, shanghai went through transformation, and it became an industrial center. Things in Shanghai changed after the China came back to its open-door policy in the early 1980s. For instance, investment and a resurgence of trade came up after decades of neglect. This showed that shanghai had a rapid nature of recovering and moving forward in globalization. That is why it had to get support from the government for it to recover fully (Liu, 756). Later there was a great transformation that was evident in the early 1990s. That is the time when Deng Xiaoping gave a declaration that Shanghai would be "the head of the dragon" drawing the country into the future. Another factor that helped shanghai to restore was the development of the Pudong. The development of Pudong gave great help to the restoration of shanghai city. It helped in restoring Shanghai’s historical significance for the Yangtze River Delta and, and mostly for China. With this in mind, the city of shanghai came back to its normal state of being globalized and owning its former position (Zhu, 324). With the improvement in finance, issue of education, political stability and economic growth, the City of Shanghai was back and shining as always and leading the rest of the cities in the country and the world. Shanghai and Hong Kong have been reviewed as rival cities for the economic center of the Greater China region since in the early 2000s. The city of Hong Kong had lower taxes and a fully-convertible currency than Shanghai. On the other hand, Shanghai had strong connections with both the Chinese interior and the central government with an impressive manufacturing and technology base. With these competitions, the city of Shanghai had to widen its claws and strengthen its factors thus to be considered as the most globalized city in the country of China (Zhu, 544). Since the year 1990, shanghai has been experiencing development, and it has thrived more than Hong Kong despite the fact that Hong Kong had historical wealth and capabilities. Hong Kong has been haunted by anxiety and doubt over the future. With the competition between Shanghai and Hong Kong, Hong Kong holds the best position as a great financial center. Financial Development 2009 by the World Economic Forum (WEF) reveals that Hong Kong is ranked the 5th worldwide as per the financial sector development. It emerges one of the financial premier centers in Asia in the same similar to the other cities Tokyo and Singapore (Wang, 212). With the current financial crisis, the Asian cities are nearing London and New York as the leading financial centers. Shanghai is trying to catch up although it is still behind Hong Kong in matters of finance. Notably, financial sector in Hong Kong has been boosted by the decades of globalization. Wang notes, “The rise of Singapore as a financial center has been also driven by determined government policies and multinational investment. Shanghai’s emergence as a future financial hub has been shaped by similar forces: years of financial reforms and multinational investment and more recently, a strong support by the central government” (212). In the year 2009, the state council of China gave an approval of the Shanghai’s plans to get the position of the world’s leading financial and shipping centers by the year 2020. Afterwards, like a month, the central government gave a nod to five major trading cities including the city of shanghai. The nod was to use the Yuan in overseas trade settlement, which give a reflection of the China’s recent gradualist moves to expand the use of its currency globally. With this in mind, the city then recovered fully from its slow development and started to gain its rightful position in the finance sectors and the globalization. It is the best ranked city in the relations with other countries. Recently there is increased competition between the city of shanghai and Hong Kong city. But it is noted that since the number and scale of Chinese cities is much far higher comparative to their equals in advanced economies. “Since, the establishment of the People’s republic of China, Shanghai’s population base was subjected to increase in fast relative to other cities only briefly during the massive infrastructure projects of the 1990s” (Inda and Renato, 343). It is depicted that shanghai is economically growing but in a slow rate as prior to other cities. Finally, the shanghai city has been globally identified with major issues revealing such issues. With the availability of tourist attraction, trading areas and markets in the city, the city of shanghai has developed to the sense of being a globalized city. It is urbanized with the latest versions of technology, improved infrastructure like roads, schools, hospitals and market places. Such aspects make the city global since it is well off. Works cited Derudder, Ben. International handbook of globalization and world cities. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2012. Print. Inda, Jonathan Xavier, and Renato Rosaldo. The anthropology of globalization: a reader. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 2002. Print. Liu, Jin. Chinese under globalization emerging trends in language use in China. Singapore: World Scientific, 2012. Print. Wang, Peggy. Contemporary Chinese art: primary documents. New York: Museum of Modern Art ;, 2010. Print. Zhu, Yaowei. Contemporary Asian modernities transnationality, interculturality, and hybridity. New York: Peter Lang, 2009. Print. Read More