"Kevin Gowen" <kgowenNOSPAM@myfastmail.com> wrote in message 

> You're from Shanghai, eh? I am friends with a number of students at SIFT
> (http://www.shift.edu.cn/). I think a good Chinese analogy would be Beijing
> is to Shanghai as Tokyo is to Osaka. I think Shanghai/Osaka's histories as
> merchant cities, the linguistics differences, mutual perceptions, and other
> factors make for a good analogy.

The analogy actually isn't too appropriate because in China, Beijing
is referred to as the cultural center and Shanghai is believed by most
Chinese to be the snobby white-worshipping Westernized city.  This is
an unfortunate misconception because many Chinese arts and philosophy
(dating back to the Tang) originated from the Shanghai region (most
notably Suzhou and Hangzhou).  The reason for this misconception
though was the relocation of the national capital from Nanjing (100 mi
from Shanghai) to Beijing during the latter half of the Ming Dynasty. 
 And also, Beijing is hardly a progressive and open enough city to be
paralleled with Tokyo (Shanghai is much more suited).

What my analogy was mainly focused on was in the outlooks of the
people and the general nature of the regions, as well as in the
aesthetic preferences of the regions.  Whereas Beijing is a macho
city, Shanghai is thoroughly feminine, often personified as an
'elegant lady.' As result, there really is a world of difference
between these two areas.  The architecture of the region around
Shanghai is soft and minimalistic with a typical color scheme of white
walls and simple black tile roofs.  Whereas in Beijing and regions
around it, the architecture is gaudy (red, yellow gold plating, etc)
and the emphasis placed on size as opposed to detail.

Whereas Beijing emphasizes culture by festivals, dragons,
celebrations, Great Wall/Forbidden City; the area around Shanghai
emphasizes culture by art, music and other ESSENCES of culture. Even
today, this generalization is not inaccurate and as result on the
surface it appears that Beijing is all about culture while Shanghai is
purely a capitalistic void.

So in terms of openness and progressiveness, Shanghai (with its early
exposure to the West) I believe is like Tokyo; but in terms of
cultural essence, Shanghai and its surrounding cities is very much (I
deduce at least) like Osaka.

As you can see, I'm not a fan of drum banging, dragon dancing, and
other extravagant and loud cultural rituals; I'm into simple
expressions of culture that are more intellectually stimulating, more
bare and vulnerable, and more human.