When one of China’s top leaders in charge of the country’s architectural landscape recently berated Chinese cities for their breathless rush towards modernity, none deserved the reprimand more than Shanghai.
This most forward-looking city in China is in a quandary. Driven by its overpowering desire to modernize, Shanghai wants to forge a new identity, but is reminded at every step that its uniqueness is entirely defined by its historical legacy. So it has chosen brazenly to assert its new image by steadily obliterating its past – and its character….[Full Text]
(Photo via Flickr: Shanghai’s Oriental Pearl by arr√≤salforn .. is against censorship!)