Shanghai City Guide - Culture

Exposed to Western influences as well as unparalleled economic growth, pre-war Shanghai was the nursery of many modern developments in Chinese culture. Lu Xun led the development of modern Chinese literature during his time here and Shanghainese writers closely followed him. The prints and graphic arts of the period are rightly renowned as important cultural manifestos for new artistic styles and fashions. Shanghai cinema likewise was an important catalyst for China's cultural evolution. All this ended with the war and the Communist government has since kept a tight lid on cultural activity. Cultural experimentation that has happened since has been more or less controlled. Well-supported ensembles, such as the Shanghai Ballet Company, the Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra and the Shanghai Municipal Performance Company, keep the city at the forefront of official culture. Common prejudice has it that Beijing has the intellectuals and artists, while Shanghai has the wealth creators - but such easy pigeon-holing flies in the face of Shanghai's modern cultural importance. Shanghai is also smart and sophisticated and that implies a cultural gloss.

There is no central ticketing agency in Shanghai, however, since so many events take place at the Shanghai Grand Theatre (see below), a venue that serves, in some respects, as a de facto agency for high-culture events. Details on cultural and artistic events can be found in 8 Days (website: www.8days.sh), That's Shanghai (website: www.thatssh.com) and City Weekend (website: www.cityweekend.com.cn) city listings magazines. For daily commentary on cultural happenings and musings on city life, www.shanghaiist.com is an excellent blog.

Music: The Shanghai Concert Hall, 523 Yan'an Dong Lu (tel: (21) 6218 6507; website: www.shanghaiconcerthall.org), inevitably is the leading vehicle for classical concerts. The Shanghai Municipal Performance Company is associated with it, and with the Majestic Theatre, 66 Jiangning Lu (tel: (21) 6217 2426). The Shanghai Grand Theatre, 300 Renmin Da Dao (tel: (21) 6217 2426; website: www.shgtheatre.com), is a major venue for music concerts, as well as for theatrical performances. The Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra plays here. The Glamour Bar, 6/F, No 5 The Bund (tel: (21) 6350 9988) hosts regular jazz and contemporary music concerts in a beautifully atmospheric space. Club JZ, 46 Fuxing Xi Lu (near Yongfu Lu), tel: (21) 6431 0269) is Shanghai's premier late-night jazz café with a nightly programme of high-quality performers. Opera is a Shanghainese favourite, particularly the Chinese variety. The Shanghai Grand Theatre and the Majestic Theatre frequently host traditional and modern Chinese operas.

Theatre: Theatre buffs are splendidly served in Shanghai, with a large number of high-class venues. Shanghai Grand Theatre (see above) offers official prestige productions by visiting ensembles, including some Chinese opera. The Dramatic Arts Centre Theatre, 288 Anfu Lu (tel: (21) 6473 4567 or 6433 4546 for bookings), is more purely dramatic, eschewing musical and operatic productions.

Dance: The Shanghai Grand Theatre (see above) plays host to both the National Ballet of China and the Shanghai Ballet Company, as well as visiting ensembles. For traditional acrobatic dance, the Shanghai Acrobatics Troupe (website: www.shanghaiacrobats.com) performs regularly at the Shanghai Centre Theatre, 1376 Nanjing Xi Lu (tel: (21) 6279 8663). Era:Intersection of Time (tel: (21) 5677 8964; website: www.circus-world.com) is a spectacular nightly show at the Shanghai Circus World, 2266 Gonghexin Lu (next to Shanghai Circus World metro station), that blends acrobats, dance, music, high-tech lighting and daredevil stunts.

Film: Raise the Red Lantern (1991), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2001) Hero (2002), Perhaps Love (2005) and The Promise (2005), China's largest budget movie in history, have convinced the outside world that China has a vibrant film culture. China is now the focus of great interest from western movie companies, with an eye on both its lower production costs, magnificent settings and huge interest for both local and international cinema. Between September and December 2004, Merchant Ivory Productions were in town to film a new period movie set in the city: The White Countess, starring Ralph Fiennes and Natasha Richardson. And Tom Cruise pitched up in late 2005 to shoot scenes for Mission Impossible 3.

Hollywood classics like Josef von Sternberg's The Shanghai Gesture (1941) or Orson Welles' The Lady From Shanghai (1948) may have played heavily to the Western conception of Shanghai as the ultimate Oriental flesh pot of vice, but native film culture of the time was far more diverse and sophisticated; the latest global hits debuted almost as soon as they hit American screens. Post-war, Shanghainese film has been as drab and sparse as general cultural activity in the People's Republic of China. Shanghai Triad (1995) by Zhang Yimou, the wunderkind of modern Chinese cinema, only touches on the glamour of 1930s Shanghai at its beginning, despite its title.

Cinema venues are the Golden Cinema Haixing, in the Haixing Plaza in Ruijin Nan Lu (tel: (21) 6418 7034), and Studio City at the Westgate Mall, 1038 Nanjing Xi Lu (tel: (21) 6218 2173). The Shanghai Film Art Centre, 160 Xin Hua Lu (tel: (21) 6280 4088), is the city's closest approximation to an arts cinema. The Shanghai International Film Festival (website: www.siff.com) is the city's regular prestige film event drawing stellar names that including Anthony Minghella, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman.

Literary Notes: The creator of modern Chinese literature, Lu Xun (1881-1936), is a pervasive presence in Shanghai. The house at Shangying Lu, where he spent the last four years of his life, is a museum to the writer, while Hongkou Park contains his tomb. However, his writings offer little in the way of a key to the city itself. For a fictional guide to Shanghai in its worst crisis, there is Shanghai '37 (1939) by Vicki Baum, which deals with the run-up to the catastrophic bombing of the city by the Chinese Nationalist air force in 1937. J G Ballard brought a surrealist sensibility to the depiction of wartime Shanghai, which had been nurtured by his own childhood there. His Empire of the Sun (1987) is one of the few works to do it justice. Man's Fate (1933), by André Malraux, is the French novelist and politician's account of Communist revolutionaries in Shanghai in the 1920s, based on his own experiences. Shanghai Baby (2001) by Wei Hui is a controversial, portrayal of late-1990s Shanghainese sexual habits. Carl Crow: A Tough Old China Hand, by Paul French, tells the intriguing tale of a pre-war American journalist, adman and socialite who became - and remains - one of the city's best-known and most beguiling foreign imports.