From the Weekend Standard:
From the third floor restaurant in Shanghai’s Oriental Riverside Hotel, the view west across the Huangpo river is uninterrupted. The European architecture along the Bund on the opposite bank remains a symbol of Shanghai’s 1930s heyday, in the same way that the skyscrapers on this side of the river in Pudong proclaim the great city’s modern resurgence.Inside the hotel, a scene is occurring that many would say is also symbolic of Shanghainese pride. As delegates from a conference in the Shanghai International Convention Center next door flow in for lunch, accountant Liu Xiaopei is standing with colleagues who are chatting among themselves. But Liu, from the northern province of Heilongjiang, cannot join in because the discussion is in Shanghainese.
