Abstract:
Taking inspiration from major cities such as New York and Tokyo, the government of Shanghai has sought to convey a mixture of modernity and high culture through a blend of high-rise construction and historic preservation. City branding is a major part of Shanghai’s urban development program. Apart from the building of multiple modern skyscrapers, the local government sees protection of distinctive “architectural artifacts” as essential to the branding of a city with global ambitions. !e drive behind preservation, however, raises lingering questions regarding the residents currently living in these historic “monuments.” !rough ethnography, I show the lives of three di"erent groups of residents whose sense of home is de#ned by completely di"erent factors. “Traditionalism as a way of life” can be de#ned as practices that can only be understood within a highly contemporary framework, in which enacting or embodying “the past” has value in contemporary
Chinese economic and globalized structures.