Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
h is violence is largely buried in o' cial documents about Chongming's
history and future. Instead of looking back to the violent past, the Chong-
ming government, like boosters anywhere, focuses on the optimistic stories
of growth, potential, and development. But even that optimistic story can be
hard to tell by the numbers. Contemporary Chongming is defi ned by a nega-
tive population growth rate and relatively low economic activity. Politically,
Chongming is part of the Shanghai municipality, but strong cultural, eco-
nomic, and linguistic divides persist.
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Chongming Island occupies 20 per-
cent of Shanghai's total land area but contributes only a tiny share to the
city's GDP. h ere are diff erent economic and social challenges on the island.
Chongming residents, for the most part, skew on the old side, and there are
very few young people among the current farmers (and the farm laborers are
imported from nearby regions). Most who are still farming are old, weak,
sick, disabled, and female (Lao, ruo, bing, can, fu).
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Chongming youths who
can do so leave the island to get educated and work in Shanghai, and few
return to live permanently, though many come to visit often, particularly on
the weekends.
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Nowadays, Chongming and Shanghai o' cials are trying to change the
island's status, from a sinkhole that ambitious people escape to a site of
dynamic investment opportunity. h e key to changing the relationship of
dynamic center to dragging periphery is to extol the island's natural and
ecological assets. Change on Chongming is a result of a complicated matrix
of marketing/branding and fi scal investment through land and real estate
development. Initially, development is primarily conceptualized in infra-
structure terms, mainly improving the transportation connections to the
island.
h us, a key part of Chongming's development depends on transforming
perception—to value “nature” and, more important, to fi nd some way to
profi t from it. In “Shanghai's City Plan 1999-2020,” government planners
positioned Chongming as the site of Shanghai's sustainable development,
