From some deliberately given perspective, shanghai can sometimes be viewed as a town for passerby but,  if that's even slightly true, shanghai is much more an everlasting nest for the local, because no matter how long you live here as an outsider, you can never completely fathom how shanghainese live uniquely in the way they see and feel their home.

People with their youth illusion and dream drift here, to unconsciously make every moment the reason why they love in the meanwhile hate this undescribable town.  You can see swarms of people would rather live here as failure lying on the wisdom and experience of the successful than flee from here for a predictable future. We occasionally admit we dislike here, but we confess it is indeed the undefeatable charm of this town.

Isn't this true? We dislike here but we are still here, experiencing everything that has been experienced and can never be exactly depicted as a reason why we are never willing to leave! You and me, like any shanghainese, spent all our puberty and golden ages in this far and big town, previously seeing how the elder hold their dreams and now feeling perplexed what dreams we were really longing for. We grow fast here, and neverthelss we never grew and can never grow in the miraculous pace in which this town is growing itself, but this town never said sorry to us. Sorry is an impossible word in this town's vocabulary, which should instead be entirely inclusive of words like speed, performance, failure and triumph. We as unexpected comers have to bear all the sufferings affiliated by the fact we are living here and we will be here.

Shanghai is a mother town, ceaselessly living her unique life as an intoxicating young woman, tolerant for all the merit and demerit of her children, while whipping us by the cruel failures to be the premium kind in match with her permanent wonder. She hopes we are strong enough to protect her, but sometimes when we are weak, she says, you should be strong but if you are weak, it is ok, for I'm strong mother, so you should never leave me and I'll protect you.

A female writer wrote a book to tell a life-time story of a shanghainese woman and in fact the life-time story of shanghai itself, and she named this book the everlasting regret. Wonderfully structured but bizarrely named. This town has no regret, for innumberable people are desperately and completely willing to grow and bury their life-story here for no reason, where exists the regret then?  Shanghai has no regret and people who live in shanghai have no regret.

 

 

卡尔维洛说,当你开始讨论一个城市的时候,你已经在失去它。

在真正走进一个城市之前，我们总是带着无数的遐想和梦幻，连带一些带着个人色彩的憧憬和渴望，然而当我们真正渐渐走近的时候，一面幻想着某些奇异发生，一面却又习惯性地把一些不符合自己假想的东西定性成不喜欢甚至是难以接受。于是城市就像是在黑暗中和你素未蒙面的神秘女郎一样，你最好闭着眼睛想象着她符号般的姿势和藏在深处的暧昧入睡，第二天醒来，她已经梳洗好坐在阳台上喝着咖啡；黑暗中她的摸样，永远是你看不到的。

然而上海在我眼里，从来就不是神秘女郎。她是一个心里有点狠劲的无名氏，可以是光鲜的，可以是阴柔的，可以是干练的，也可以是风情的。她总是从容地接受着一切又固执地排斥着某些东西，总之这个城市是目标明确的。

小时候第一次听到上海这个名字，以为这个城市是在海上的。妈妈说，上海是大的，里面住着很多小姐和少爷，那里的男人十分会赚钱，女人也很十分会花钱。那时我对钱毫无兴趣，只是纳闷妈妈在讲其他故事的时候一直是用王子和公主之类的美好词汇的，怎么一到上海，怎么就变成小姐和少爷这么资本主义的东西了？

每天上班的时候，会经过一条百转千回的万航渡路，在这条路上永远能看到一处没落的红宝石蛋糕房，王安忆笔下的老克拉马上徐徐如生地跳了出来，他们手里夹着大光明或者远大前程，嘴里哼着前一个晚上在和平饭店听来的新派爵士，踱着优雅的步子向扫地的阿姨招了招手，说上海话要着心仪的红宝石奶油蛋糕。老克拉老得起不来床不出来买蛋糕了，车子就开到了静安寺，看到了百乐门，这处建筑即使在早上最灿烂的阳光下也是一脸沮丧和失落，你在鲜亮的空气中仍可以细观和揣测他往日的气派，而今他失魂落魄如坐针毡，气派不再是气派，只能用精致和菜肴来讨巧。上海商城倒是永恒的气派，很多上海人说它的每块砖都是从国外运来的，这昨座秦陵般的建筑，他在摩天大楼中间如坐磐石。波特曼里住的都是美国人，上海人更喜欢说克林顿风光的时候也下榻过。上海的小姐们更中意进这里的古姿店，它在各大使馆和外国航空公司的守护下用昏暗的颜色突出它的高贵和势利。只是硬石餐厅还是拆掉了，不能隔着窗子看到坐在外国人旁边的上海女人隔着窗子向外看的神情和神气，遗憾。衡山路是休闲而不拥挤的，它擅长汲取懒散的阳光做散漫的点缀，一个个小洋房让人忽然心情好起来。我更喜欢看坐在长椅上看书的学生，他们认真的样子和对他们对面的世界的无限憧憬，让你忽然觉得自己真的已经不再年轻。顺着常熟路就拐到了美美百货，这个名字最有上海特色。美美百货，天天生活美美，心情美美。只是如果你看清了里面的价格标签，心情就不再美了。但上海人说，那是些温州人爆发户去的地方，我们永远都不会去。也好，心情美美，才能真的生活美美。再接下来的路，就转入地下了，在拥挤中深呼口气，忘却地面上的是是非非，进入一个不属于任何城市的地下世界。