ABSTRACT
This chapter sets both the historical and contemporary scene for the book’s focus on the rise of Pudong and its role in the remaking of global Shanghai. Shanghai is China’s ‘dragon’s head’ city, reflecting its geographical location at the estuary of the Yangtze River and its leading role in the regional and national economies. This chapter divides the history of modern Shanghai into three broad stages – colonialism (1843–1949), socialism (1949–78), and globalism (1978–present) – defined by the political, economic, and social contexts of those periods. It provides an overview of Shanghai’s evolution from a trade town to an international metropolis in the 1920s and 1930s, and of the regaining of its global city status in the 21st century. The development of Pudong since 1990, as a national strategy, has led the re-emergence of Shanghai onto the world stage. Within three decades, Pudong has risen to be a new city area of global importance. This book seeks to reveal how this urban miracle has been achieved.
