The Utopia Of Modernity: The Image Of Shanghai In 1930s With The Atmosphere Of Cultural Nostalgia

Since 1990s, there has been a wild wave of cultural consumption of reminiscent texts, especially those about "Shanghai in 1930s". The wave has not waned in the past 20 years, but has increasingly been enriched by multiple forms of media. Moreover, the reminiscence has gone beyond the arena of mere cultural consumption and become widespread social mentality. Tracing the nostalgia of Shanghai in 1930s and the cultural value behind it will shed new light on this mentality.This paper starts on analyzing the elements of various artistic forms of the image of "Shanghai in 1930s", and then explores its connotation and summarizes its mode production. In fact, using "Shanghai in 1930s" is not a random choice, but a unity and an agreement generated by mutual effect of "reality in experience" and "reality in history". Although the reminiscence targets on "the past" and exhibits the "historical reality" of the image of "Shanghai in 1930s", it is the contemporary context that this targeting and exhibition are deeply rooted in. Croce once declared that "All history is contemporary.' Therefore, in Chapter 3, we mainly look for the real reason of the nostalgia by resorting to the contemporary context. We think that the nostalgia of the "Shanghai in 1930s" is a response and adjustment of modern experience, and an effort of reshaping modernity, which has invaded the individual life. In the world-wide reflection of modernity, reminiscence is a power not to be neglected. It may take different forms in terms of locations and subjects; but whatever form it takes, it is a selective repair of one defect of modernity. The same rule applies to "Shanghai in 1930s" in the reminiscent culture, which highlights the individual independence, chooses an easy life style, and rebuilds a stable connection between the individual and the outside world. These are what the contemporary world misses after modernity "colonizes" the "life world", and because of this missing, the meaning and value of the cultural nostalgia of "Shanghai in 1930s" are manifested.