City character is not only a personified abstraction but an aesthetic judgement as well. It is a common state represented by the city’s landscape, residents’ behaviour, regulations, moral ethics, history and culture.

“Opening-up, innovation and inclusiveness are the three city characteristics of Shanghai, among which opening-up should be listed at the top”, said Xiong Yuezhi, a researcher of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences who has been living in this city for 48 years and has been researching the history of Shanghai for more than 4 decades. To further express these three characters, Xiong also mentioned some other features, like respecting cultural diversity, being patriotic as well as having an efficient working system.

Shanghai City Character is known to be the first book discussing the city character of Shanghai from the aspects of lifestyles and aesthetic preferences. According to Xiong, a cities character has its own uniqueness compared with a city’s spirit. The city character focuses more on the internal aspect of humanity which tends to be more mature and constant, while the city’s spirit lays its emphasis both on the internal and external side, covering a wider range.

At the review meeting of this book, all the attendees shared their understanding of the city character of Shanghai. In the future Shanghai City Character will be introduced as an educational book to help more people know more about the spiritual essence of Shanghai’s character. It is also important for teenagers to read to cultivate their sense of patriotism and belonging to this city as well.