摘 要

作为中国的经济、金融、贸易、航运中心，上海，这座神秘的大都市一直有着“魔都”的称呼，其文化模式也备受中外学者的研究和探索。上海作为旧中国最早一批开埠的城市，由于西方殖民文化对东方传统文化强制性的侵入，形成了颇具本土特色的海派文化。上海文化作为西方殖民主义在中国殖民统治时期的遗留产物，对上海乃至全中国的政治、经济、文化等方面都产生了重要影响，是研究中国近现代史的主要参考之一。本研究旨在特定分析“租界文化”对上海的影响，从租界文化的起源和传入到对沪上市民性格及生活方式的影响的角度来帮助人们更好地理解上海文化的独特内涵，来一窥上海，这座古老而现代的都市魅力之所在。从而促进中国与世界的跨文化交流，使人们正视这段有特殊意义的中国近现代史。

关键词：租界 租界文化 市民性格 生活方式

Abstract

As the center of China's economy, finance, trade and shipping, Shanghai, a mysterious metropolis, has always been called "magic capital", and its cultural model has also been studied and explored by Chinese and foreign scholars. Shanghai, as one of the the most representative cities in modern China, has formed a Shanghai style culture with local characteristics due to the forced invasion of Western colonial culture into the eastern traditional culture. Shanghai culture, as a legacy of Western colonialism in the period of Chinese colonial rule, has an important influence on the politics, economy, culture and other aspects of Shanghai and even the whole China, and is one of the main references for the study of modern Chinese history. The purpose of this study is to specifically analyze the impact of "concession culture" on Shanghai, and help people better understand the unique connotation of Shanghai culture from the perspective of the origin and introduction of concession culture to the impact on the character and lifestyle of Shanghai citizens, so as to have a glimpse of Shanghai, the ancient and modern city.

Key Words: concession, concession culture, character, lifestyle

Contents

1 The origin and characteristics of concession 1

1.1 The origin of concession 1

1.2 Characteristics of concessions 2

1.3 Culture of concession 3

2 The influence of concession culture on Shanghai People's character 4

2.1 Westernized 4

2.2 Arrogant 5

2.3 Gentlemanlike 6

2.4 Following the rules 7

2.5 Rational spirit 8

3.The influences of concession culture on Shanghainese lifestyle 9

3.1 Shikumen and Alley 9

3.2 Old Shanghai café 11

4 Conclusion 13

References 15

Acknowledgements 17

An Analysis of the Influence of Western Culture Represented by Concession Culture on the Character and Lifestyle of Shanghai Citizens

1 The origin and characteristics of concession

• 1. The origin of concession

In modern China, the concession began in Shanghai. According to its literal meaning, concession refers to the "leasehold territory" and "the residence and trade area opened and operated by the imperialist powers in China and other sovereign states from the middle of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century". It is characterized by the violation by foreigners of the local administrative powers and sovereignty of some other countries, which are exercised mainly by foreign consuls or municipal agencies, such as the working departments and bureaus of overseas Chinese organizations, making these areas "states within states", which are not governed by their own governments.

Shanghai began to develop gradually from a small town to a world metropolis in 1843. After the first Opium War, the Qing Dynasty was forced to sign the Treaty of Nanjing, which stipulated that five ports of Commerce, namely Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo and Shanghai, should be opened. In accordance with the unequal treaties concluded with the Qing government of China, the imperialist powers set up permanently rented lots at trading ports and cities in the name of residence and business. In view of this, Shanghai opened in 1843 and became the first batch of trading ports in modern China.

In order to carry out the "Chinese-Foreign separation", the Qing government had almost no restrictions on the activities of the people inside and outside the concession, including policies and regulations, lifestyles, religious beliefs, etc., and acquiesced in the development of the concessions. Britain, France and Japan were three main countries in the concession, followed by the development of the United States, Germany, Australia and Italy, which made Shanghai, located in the Yangtze river delta, exotic.

Britain was the first to acquire concessions in China. After the British forced the Qing government to sign the treaty of Nanjing in 1842, on November 29, 1845, the British consul and Shanghai government signed a charter of Shanghai land lease, "delimiting the land north of Yangjing(洋泾) and south of lijiazhuang,(李家庄) and allowing British merchants to rent the land for building houses and living". Before long, the great powers successively delimited concessions in Shanghai and other Chinese cities and exercised administrative and judicial jurisdiction in the concessions, forming a "state within a state" and seriously undermining China's sovereignty.

• 1. Characteristics of concession

Unlike the ceded territories, concessions nominally remain a leasehold state and have no extraterritorial nature of their own. However, historically, all the suzerain countries obtained the citizens' consular jurisdiction through unequal treaties. The administrative autonomy of the concessions limits the leasehold countries from exercising their administrative power in their areas, and some concessions even have legislative powers. The sovereign territorial owners of the concessions regard the concessions as foreign territory and dare not easily interfere in the internal affairs of the concessions, not to mention the presence of the army and the police. Therefore, it is difficult to carry out judicial activities against ACTS committed in the concessions.

Concession is generally distributed in the coastal, along with the river and other treaty ports or facilitate trade activities in the city. In other words, foreign capitalism can carry out economic activities in the location. Because of the characteristics of the concession, foreigners are more willing to invest in the concession to set up factories or engage in trade activities, in addition to the establishment of churches for the mission, the opening of schools, hospitals, cemeteries with the characteristics of the country and other ancillary facilities. Therefore, the economic and cultural prosperity degree of the concession is often much higher than that of the surrounding areas. In accordance with the way of urban development, the concession naturally becomes the commercial center of the city, and slowly expands outward with the concession as the center, leaving the city with strong foreign characteristics different from traditional culture. And become the opportunity that pulls development of city relevant industry partly.

• 1. Concession culture

Some scholars believe that the so-called "concession culture" refers to the successive opening of foreign concessions in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing and other places since the mid-1940s, the cultural form of the combination of China and the west, which is colonial, commercial, modernized, urbanized and citizenized. It is a kind of culture that has certain connection and obvious difference with Chinese traditional culture, Shanghai culture and urban culture pattern. Some scholars also think that concession culture is a kind of immigrant culture with the main characteristics of mixed Chinese and Western culture, which is based on concession with the establishment of concession and the increase of contact between China and foreign countries. It is commonly recognized by renters, and has distinct colonialism, diversity, modernity and autonomy. Although scholars have different understanding of concession culture, generally speaking, the fact that concession culture has four characteristics of diversity, inclusiveness, colonialism and commerciality is generally recognized

1. The influence of concession culture on Shanghai People's character

Since modern times, Shanghai people have been a very special community in China. When you travel to Shanghai, you will be most impressed by the hustle and bustle of Shanghai people. They have many tacit life orders and internal norms, which have become a set of psychological and cultural ways, which can be called "Shanghai civilization". When an outsider comes to Shanghai, whether on a bus, in a shop or in a street, he will soon be recognized, not because of his appearance and language, but because he can't fit the Shanghai civilization. In the same way, several Shanghai people who go to other places often seem very striking, even if they don't necessarily speak Shanghainese. I think the root cause is still that Shanghai is not very harmonious with traditional Chinese civilization from the root. As for the origin of these inconsistencies, they are closely related to the impact of concession culture.

As time passing by, cultural conflicts such as ancient and modern, urban and rural, refined and popular, old and new, rational and emotional, have gradually changed, eased and even converged in frequency, which has a direct impact on the character of Shanghai citizens.