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Telling the city’s story throughthe eyes of its 23 million people
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I first set foot in Shanghai in 1984 as part of a delegation of Western journalists. It was a bleak scene. Pudong was nothing more than paddy fields. There were no bridges or tunnels across the Huangpu River, no Metro underground. Cars were few; low-rise apartment blocks ramshackle. Nanjing Road was a dreary street of shoddy merchandise and surly service. People’s Park was hardscrabble.
But most of all, as a journalist, I noticed the absence of any local daily newspaper in English. It took 15 years for that void to be filled. Shanghai Daily began publication in October 1999.
It called itself “Shanghai’s window to the world.” It was not an easy window to open in a country where newspapers traditionally functioned as official mouthpieces. The challenge for Shanghai Daily was to establish credibility with foreign readers and to present news in a format that would shed light on the dramatic changes under way in the city.
Most of the young Chinese reporters and editors tasked with this endeavor had no experience with Western-style journalism. The job was — and still is — complicated by having to write in a second language.
In its pages over the last 15 years, Shanghai Daily has chronicled the history of Pudong’s skyscrapers, the Huangpu bridges and elevated highways, the luxury boutiques on Nanjing Road, the building of the world’s longest Metro system, biggest seaport and first commercial maglev train, the proliferation of foreign companies and the evolution of capital markets.
The list of economic achievements is long, impressive and well-documented, but it is only part of Shanghai’s story. To fully appreciate the transformation, one needs to understand how progress affects the grass roots.
Shanghai Daily has uniquely positioned itself to open that window.
Readers are invited into the homes and workplaces of average Shanghai residents to share their aspirations, their triumphs, their fears and their frustrations.
No other English-language media in the city offers this depth of insight into issues such as the needs of the elderly and handicapped, the heartache of the lovelorn, the overcrowding in hospitals, the pressure of school exams, the unaffordability of housing, the search for good jobs, the alarm over food safety, the plight of migrants, the trends in household spending, the sway of social networking, the battle against pollution and the campaign to preserve cultural heritage.
We meet the taxi drivers, cops, office clerks, students, housewives, young entrepreneurs, retirees, construction workers, musicians, teachers and charity volunteers who together weave the social fabric in a city of 23 million stories.
Shanghai Daily celebrates its 15th anniversary with laurels aplenty but no room to rest. The way forward will be as formidable as the road now trod.
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