The International City of Shanghai: a ‘Semi-Colonial’ History

In Shanghai, overshadowed by incredible modernist structures such as Shanghai Tower, is a 1.6km stretch known as ‘The Bund’, adorned by buildings of an entirely different architectural style. The large Pudong Development Bank, once the HSBC building, with its large classicist columns and marble-paved floors, could fool any unknowing viewer into believing they had just exited Bank Tube Station. Yet, the river lined by these impressive structures reminiscent of London’s 19th-century architecture is not the Thames, but the Huangpu River, one of Shanghai’s many features that made the city an attractive addition to Britain’s empire of commerce in Asia.

Known as a ‘Treaty Port’, Shanghai was coercively established in 1842 as a hub of international trade after the first destructive Opium War in 1839-42, a war led and won by the British, in response to the Qing destruction of opium in an attempt to alleviate the social and economic damage caused by the addiction of Chinese residents to opium illegally smuggled into China by the British. Becoming a thriving foreign settlement in which merchants and tradespeople from a variety of foreign countries interacted with the Chinese population, free from the direct control of both Chinese and foreign governments, the confusing littoral space of ‘The Bund’ represents an incredible history of interacting cultures and financial systems, that deserves recognition for its influence on modern-day Shanghai.    

The British established a concession in Shanghai in 1843, known as the 'International Settlement', to last until 1943, and it has been debated by historians since whether such Settlements can be described as 'colonies'. While I would need to do further research to feel comfortable making such a historical judgement publicly, the relationships between the many governmental and civilian actors in this multicultural space are fascinating. Run by the Shanghai Municipal Council, the Settlement had an independent form of local government, separate from and often unsupported by the British government, yet British residents and businessmen dominated decision-making.

To be merged with an American settlement in 1863 and accompanied by a French concession, these settlements in the later decades of the 19th century were forming a hub from which Western powers could carry out their commercial interests in East and South East Asia. Nevertheless, the history of the Shanghai Settlement is increasingly recognised as one defined by Chinese merchants and residents, who formed a large majority of the city's population. Despite lacking the political autonomy of foreign councillors, the Chinese merchant community enjoyed autonomy and prosperity, setting up businesses and cooperating with foreign actors, to ensure they too would benefit from the birth of 'Shanghai capitalism' and the international dynamism of the settlement's economy.

The Anglo-Indian colonial suburban houses, enclosed within verdant gardens of British roses and magnolias, that lined the newly planned streets at the start of the Settlement's century of existence, evidenced the unequal, imposed and Westernizing ideology behind European presence in Chinese Treaty Ports. However, merchants and workers arriving from throughout the Qing dynasty would, from both within and outside the borders of the relatively small settlement area, influence and be influenced by the international economic and social interactions facilitated by this littoral space. By setting up businesses, amassing significant amounts of wealth, building social networks and investing in their own communities' interests, Chinese actors adapted and laid the foundations for the modern-day city of Shanghai, unequivocally the financial hub of China.

Beyond architectural character and art, western presence in Shanghai manifests today in ways far more complex and difficult to define than the tree-lined avenues and boutique cafés of the French Concession, or the legacy of Shanghai jazz still enjoyed by listeners around the world. Shanghai has played an undeniably important role in the economic development of China in the last few decades, and continues to attract global investment. Furthermore, in a country with a centralized, authoritarian system, known to promote 'national unity' and cultural assimilation to a debated extent, Shanghai has a uniquely multicultural identity, seen as China's most cosmopolitan city and perhaps an influential blue-print of the global city of the future.

Alexander Bonoldi

Photo: a view of the Bund in Shanghai in the 1930s, VCG.com

Bibliography:

Bergère, Marie-Claire. Shanghai : China's Gateway to Modernity / Marie-Claire BergèRe ; Translated by Janet Lloyd. 2009. Print.

Chi-Kong, L.  (2024, August 21). Imperialism and Treaty Port Industrialization. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History. Retrieved 9 Nov. 2024

Jeremy E. Taylor. “The Bund: Littoral Space of Empire in the Treaty Ports of East Asia.” Social History, vol. 27, no. 2, 2002, pp. 125–42.