Shanghai Rising: State Power and Local Transformation in a Global Megacity ed. by Xiangming Chen (review)

There is little doubt that Shanghai has become one of the main symbols of China’s rise to global prominence. Within the China field, Shanghai is likewise firmly cemented as a major focal point for studies of urban history, urbanization, and globalization in China and East Asia. Yet, questions about the nature and consequences of Shanghai’s rise are only beginning to surface. Can Shanghai’s current rise be attributed to its past? If so, which past? Has the state aided or hampered Shanghai’s attempts to reach global megacity status? Is Shanghai’s pattern of globalization (and by extension, China’s) unique? Is Shanghai a global city? In bringing such questions to the surface, Xiangming Chen’s edited volume makes an important and original contribution to this growing body of scholarship in several ways. First, unlike most existing work on Shanghai, the volume’s contributors attempt to place the city in comparative light whenever possible. There are chapters offering comparisons with Hong Kong and Singapore, and also with North American cities. Second, a number of chapters attempt to bring history back into the picture of contemporary globalization and urbanization by noting Shanghai’s past as an important center of regional and international trade. Finally, there is an effort to examine the role that the state has played in shaping Shanghai’s rise at both the macro and local level.

Putting together an interdisciplinary collection like this is no easy task, and the editor has done an admirable job organizing the volume. The book is divided into two sections. Part 1, “Global Cities West and East,” provides the comparative context so often lacking in studies of Shanghai. Part 2, “Globalization and the Local Transformation of Shanghai,” brings the focus to the local level and includes an analysis of the interplay between global, national, and local forces in shaping the course of the city’s development. A comprehensive introduction and thoughtprovoking conclusion frame the two sections, providing the reader with food for thought about how the sections link together.

The chapters in part 1 aim to place Shanghai in broader comparative perspective. Here, a central emphasis is on the relationship between major cities competing with one another for global city ranking and functions. The first three chapters compare Shanghai with cities in North America in order to measure the extent to which Shanghai has become global and to highlight areas where the city lags behind its competitors. In chapter 1, Saskia Sassen provides an updated account of her influential global cities thesis with the aim of fitting Shanghai into the picture. Sassken emphasizes how global capital concentrations have concrete localized forms. She argues that the “local” is best conceived as a “microenvironment” with global span (p. 21) and asks the provocative question, given these processes in the global city, “to whom does the city really belong?” (p. 20). She encourages Shanghai experts to pursue such questions to see the extent to which the city is embedded in the global system.

Chapters 2 and 3 offer lessons for Shanghai by drawing on experiences from cities in North America. In chapter 2, Ann Markusen and Pingkang Yu use the criteria of high-tech occupations to measure a city’s global connectivity. They find that older industrial cities in the United States do surprisingly well in this regard because they remain diversified. The authors then offer advice to Shanghai, urging planners not to push high-tech too far at the expense of other areas of the economy. In chapter 3 John Kasarda applies his concept of aerotropolis development to Shanghai. He argues that if we take the aerotropolis idea as a key indicator of future global success as a city, then Shanghai is on the right track but faces certain challenges in terms of issues of custom, cargo agreements, and competition with other Chinese cities that are also...