Shanghai shows different sides of herself to different people. It’s just like Shanghainese women: to Westerners they embody the mysterious East, and to Chinese they represent the fashionable West. In sum, the Shanghainese are the best at making people see what they want to see. In the past 100 years, Shanghai has attracted people from all over the world. As a result, the Shanghainese have learnt to understand the want and needs of all kinds of people. Even though Shanghai isn’t one of the main sources of traditional Chinese culture, Western culture is still an imported commodity.

The people of Shanghai understand what is needed to make products which both Westerners and Easterners desire, based on their respective multicultural environments, for instance, the traditional Chinese qipao. During the 1930s Shanghainese tailors altered the loose, long-sleeved dresses worn by the Manchu women of the Qing Dynasty into the form fitting qipao we see today. The qipao hugs the body from head to toe. It has the allure of a traditional Chinese garment, but at the same time it shows off curves and exposes skin, which makes the dress more attractive by Western standards. The Shanghainese take the good from all cultures and skillfully shaped them into a unique, incomparable “Shanghai Culture”.