Yu Qiuyu

media - "Shanghai too narrow-minded"

Do you want another sign that Shanghai has definitely fallen out of grace? Listen to the writer Yu Qiuyu, here quoted by official news agency Xinha (h/t China Digital Times).

Shanghai will never be able to come on the same level as other cultural centers like New York, Paris and Beijing, he said on Wednesday (so I guess it must have been last week).

According to the people in my office he has a reputation of making himself enemies. He has a nice try here:

"Cultural differences are fascinating and should be
respected, but we should not overemphasized such differences," said Yu.

"All over China, localities have been trying to build their cultural image, digging deep into their regional legacy, trying to find something to take pride in or even prove that their culture is better than someone else's," said Yu. "Sometimes these efforts are laughable."
"Shanghai is no exception. It has concentrated its efforts on exploring its own city culture," said the Chinese scholar. "A great culture should always be free of parochialism."
"Artists have their own nationalities but culture is a human treasure that has no boundaries," said Yu. "Shanghai should take a broader cultural perspective and be more tolerant so as to create and amass valuable things for the whole of mankind."

Of course he is right, but right or wrong, Chen Liangyu would have known what to do with this kind of people who tell the truth about Shanghai. Now, with the party secretary out of his way, Yu even gets praised by the Shanghai Media Group. Here is another great one for Shanghai:

"Cultural workers in Shanghai are overwhelmed with rubbish and agitation and cannot create high quality literary works," said Yu.