Gu Xiaoming, a professor at the department of history in Fudan University, said that as an international metropolis promoted by China, Shanghai has few Chinese characteristics. In the process of striving to become an "oriental Manhattan" and "oriental Broadway," the city is losing its own characteristics.

Splendid Shanghai is undoubtedly a wonderful city. From "oriental Paris" in the early 20th century to the most developed cultural center in the Chinese mainland, Shanghai is always China's fashion landmark. However, it is "wonderful" but not "classic." From an involuntary colony in the beginning to intentional hot spot afterwards, it seems that fashion in Shanghai is accompanied by "westernization." It is westernization that has brought Shanghai prosperity, but at the same time, it has deprived Shanghai of its original oriental culture. As a result, some people opine that Shanghai cannot be called an international metropolis because it does not have a soul of its own under its beautiful copied-from-abroad appearance.

Shanghai was a metropolis envied by the whole world in the early 20th century. It was the center of the Far East region in terms of business, trade, finance, culture and fashion and was therefore called the "oriental Paris." Since reforms and opening-up, Shanghai has recovered its great ambition and vows to become an international metropolis again in the backdrop of rapid economic development on the mainland. Nevertheless, at present, aspiring Shanghai is still miles away from an international metropolis.

In Gu Xiaoming's opinion, a really international metropolis should first have a showcase, namely, it ought to show the outside world China's multifarious and diversified cultures and all sorts of Chinese ethnic cultures should be found in Shanghai. An international metropolis should heartily welcome traditional culture accumulated from real life. However, Shanghai fails to do a satisfactory job in this aspect and even cannot be compared with Beijing.

Gu said that when planning to build nine towns with foreign flavors, the Shanghai municipal government chose western styles including Italy, Germany, Britain and Canada but did not intend to build small towns with Arabian, Iranian, Thai and South Korean features. This demonstrates that Shanghai only target cultures of developed western countries and admire those countries but does not open itself to international cultures which are the real sediments of culture accumulated over the ages.

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