University of California, Los Angeles: Shanghai - Global Studies: Consequences of the New Market Economy

Nowhere on earth is the pace of change more breathtaking than in Shanghai. Anything seems possible in the world’s largest city of 25 million residents, which, in a decade, transformed farmland across the river from “old Shanghai” into the entirely new and globally oriented “second city” of Pudong. This is the second birth of international Shanghai, which was also the cosmopolitan center of East Asian commerce in the late 19th century – as is still evident today in the narrow streets of the British and French colonial concessions, interwoven with contemporary corporate skyscrapers. This dynamic and eclectic city is still presided over by the Communist Party of the People’s Republic, though in a manner very different from what Mao envisaged fifty years ago.

This program will explore the relationship between the old and the new in Shanghai, concentrating on the city’s booming economy, the role of the communist political system, and how the lives of the Shanghai-ese have changed since the opening to the market and the west a decade ago. Students will study both how globalization has been experienced in the Shanghai region and the promise and perils of political, economic and social development as they have played out in one of the world’s most dynamic cities. Classroom sessions will be coupled with field trips around Shanghai. Short courses in survival Chinese will be available to all students on the program.