Overview

China is in the midst of the fastest and most intense process of urbanisation the world has ever known, and Shanghai - its biggest, richest and most cosmopolitan city - is positioned for acceleration into the twenty-first century. Yet, in its embrace of a hopeful - even exultant - futurism, Shanghai recalls the older and much criticised project of imagining, planning and building the modern metropolis. Today, among Westerners, at least, the very idea of the futuristic city - with its multilayered skyways, domestic robots and flying cars - seems doomed to the realm of nostalgia, the sadly comic promise of a future that failed to materialise. Shanghai Future maps the city of tomorrow as it resurfaces in a new time and place. It searches for the contours of an unknown and unfamiliar futurism in the city's street markets as well as in its skyscrapers. For though it recalls the modernity of an earlier age, Shanghai's current re-emergence is only superficially based on mimicry. Rather, in seeking to fulfill its ambitions, the giant metropolis is reinventing the very idea of the future itself. As it modernises, Shanghai is necessarily recreating what it is to be modern.

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9781849043274

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'This is a fascinating and highly original book - a difficult achievement given how much has been written about Shanghai in recent years by both journalists and scholars. The author contributes not only to the literature on contemporary China and conversations about the nature of Chinese modernity, but also to interdisciplinary debates in urban studies and philosophical and literary discussions of the future. Shanghai Future should find interested readers in fields ranging from Chinese studies to urban studies, cultural geography to science fiction studies.' - Jeffrey Wasserstrom, author of China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know

'This is a fascinating and highly original book - a difficult achievement given how much has been written about Shanghai in recent years by both journalists and scholars. The author contributes not only to the literature on contemporary China and conversations about the nature of Chinese modernity, but also to interdisciplinary debates in urban studies and philosophical and literary discussions of the future. Shanghai Future should find interested readers in fields ranging from Chinese studies to urban studies, cultural geography to science fiction studies.' - Jeffrey Wasserstrom, author of China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know 'Shanghai is a global metropolis that constantly seeks to outdo itself. Those who arrive in the city for the first time are routinely shocked and awed by its dizzying skyline, bursting urbanism, and glaring ambitions. Anna Greenspan uses this adopted home to delve into the intriguing question of the future city. Drawing on a wide range of materials and first-hand observations, Greenspan convincingly shows how Shanghai and China will continue to reshape the world and redefine our imaginations of the future.' - Tong Lam, author of Abandoned Futures and A Passion for Facts

Author Information

Anna Greenspan is a Shanghai-based philosopher who focuses on urbanism and digital culture. She teaches at New York University in Shanghai.

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