A short history of written Wu, Part II: Written Shanghainese
Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>The recent publication of the novel<jats:italic>Magnificent
Flowers</jats:italic>(<jats:italic>Fan Hua</jats:italic>繁花) has attracted attention
not only because of critical acclaim and market success, but also because of its use
of Shanghainese. While<jats:italic>Magnificent Flowers</jats:italic>is the most notable
recent book to make substantial use of Shanghainese, it is not alone, and the recent
increase in the number of books that are written partially or even entirely in Shanghainese
raises the question of whether written Shanghainese may develop a role in Chinese
print culture, especially that of Shanghai and the surrounding region, similar to
that attained by written Cantonese in and around Hong Kong.</jats:p><jats:p>This study
examines the history of written Shanghainese in print culture. Growing out of the
older written Suzhounese tradition, during the early decades of the twentieth century
a distinctly Shanghainese form of written Wu emerged in the print culture of Shanghai,
and Shanghainese continued to play a role in Shanghai’s print culture through the
twentieth century, albeit quite a modest one. In the first decade of the twenty-first
century Shanghainese began to receive increased public attention and to play a greater
role in Shanghai media, and since 2009 there has been an increase in the number of
books and other kinds of texts that use Shanghainese and also the degree to which
they use it.</jats:p><jats:p>This study argues that in important ways this phenomenon
does parallel the growing role played by written Cantonese in Hong Kong, but that
it also differs in several critical regards. The most important difference is that,
to date, written Shanghainese appears almost exclusively in texts that look back to
“old Shanghai” and/or to traditional alley life in Shanghai, and that a role of the
type written Cantonese has in Hong Kong is not likely to be attained unless or until
Shanghainese texts that are associated with modern urban Shanghai life, especially
youth culture, begin to appear.</jats:p>
Type
Journal articlePermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/20564Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1515/glochi-2018-0011Publication Info
Snow, D; Senyao, S; & Xiayun, Z (2018). A short history of written Wu, Part II: Written Shanghainese. Global Chinese, 4(2). pp. 217-246. 10.1515/glochi-2018-0011. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/20564.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
Collections
More Info
Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Donald Snow
Professor of Language and Writing at Duke Kunshan University

Articles written by Duke faculty are made available through the campus open access policy. For more information see: Duke Open Access Policy
Rights for Collection: Scholarly Articles
Works are deposited here by their authors, and represent their research and opinions, not that of Duke University. Some materials and descriptions may include offensive content. More info