ABSTRACT
The famous and respectable Old Jazz Band in many ways personifies Shanghai: resurrected, full of life, having one hell of a time, but really having no idea where it’s going. From 1990 to 1994, Shanghai of the Yangtze Delta accounted for more than one-quarter of China’s increased economic production. Xiao Lin, an economist with the city planning commission, outlined Shanghai’s “modest” plans. Across the Huangpu River, the Shanghai planners are in the midst of building the huge and complicated Pudong New Area, which was designated by the Central Government State Council to be the focus of growth in all of China. China’s development is chaotic–a little like a chain reaction that at any moment could set off explosive charges. At the Shanghai Stock Exchange in the old Pujang Hotel, for instance, one realizes how very different is China’s “communist company” or “socialist market economy”.
