Every Saturday evening, the principally commercial Xujiahui District transforms itself into a cultural center.

Faculty members from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music hold public concerts, its performing bills ranging from classical Chinese to modern Western music in Xujiahui Park. The performances have grown in popularity and now attract people from around the city.

Xiao Yeying, director of the social and cultural affairs division of the Shanghai Municipal Culture, Radio, Film and Television Administration, regularly makes the trip out to the crowded park.

One rainy Saturday evening not long ago, Xiao was watching the performance when she saw several people rushing to catch the show. They were disappointed: the show was just about to end. The group had traveled from the relatively distant Hongkou and Zhabei districts.

In today's Shanghai, "people young and old, men and women, all care more about their cultural life," Xiao said.

The popularity of the concerts - not to mention the mere fact that they are held at all - underlines a push to develop a cultural soul for Shanghai.

The city's residents are famous for their business acumen, but they are turning more and more to culture to fill their free time. They want more shows, more movies, more theatrical performances and more music.

And their demands are being answered.

Tai chi (shadow boxing) and ballroom dancing were typical evening pastimes in years gone by. They are now being replaced by cinemas and public lectures, as people look for more diversity and more multi-cultural experiences.

According to the municipal government, for every 10 square kilometers there are more than four public cultural facilities. There are 2.7 cultural or entertainment groups for every 10,000 residents.

Last year, there were more than 32,000 grass-roots cultural activities, about 88 every day. Almost three times the figure in 2003.

The numbers in 2003 were skewed by the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak, which dealt a blow to every aspect of business and culture across the country.

Still, according to cultural officials, the growth is impressive for a city more focused on high profits than high culture.

This cultural growth is part of a master plan by the city government to give Shanghai more soul. The city plans to set up 30 new community cultural centers this year and 100 by 2007.

For Shanghai's government - and its people - culture is not a luxury; it is a necessity.

The well educated want high-quality art performances and exhibitions. The less educated want more public cultural diversity. Even migrant workers want their own libraries.

"With improving living standards, people ask for a richer cultural life," said Xiao.

Last year, the government took its focus on culture to a whole new level. It included the municipality's cultural development scheme into its agenda and vowed "to protect people's legal cultural rights."

In a city as big and diversified as Shanghai, culture is more than big budget stage performances or blockbuster Hollywood movies. Culture trickles down to the community groups that are the building blocks of every city.

Rong Xiufen, head of a community committee in Minhang District, has seen this trickle-down effect first hand. For her, the drive for more interesting and varied cultural events is not mandated by the government above but by the people she serves.

"Our residents want to enjoy a colorful cultural life," she said.

Her committee organizes classes in painting, English, singing and musical instruments. Sometimes she organizes tours for the residents to neighboring cities to get a taste of different lifestyles.

Sun Qin'an, a researcher from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, says Shanghai is the product of a cultural blend. Western cultures, for example, have been embedded in Shanghai's daily life for decades.

"Generally speaking, Shanghainese have an inclination towards Western-style life," Sun said. They want to behave like Westerners, and are embracing a wide spectrum of Western cultural influences.

This inclination has helped Shanghai overcome the handicap of a relatively short history - particularly when compared with Beijing and Xi'an.

Another new policy by the central government, which will open the doors on the cultural market wider, will play right alongside the city's move to raise the level of its cultural profile.

As of September 1 this year, China will allow foreign performance brokers to set up joint ventures with local partners. The policy will allow more foreign cultural activities into the country while offering people abroad more access to Chinese performances.

"Only when Shanghai can influence other cultures, can it be called an international cultural city," said Sun.

Foreigners also plan to benefit from the city's renewed emphasis on culture.

Andreas Tschirky, a Swiss who has lived in Shanghai for more than five years, said it is very "smart" for the government to highlight its rich culture as it tries to attract more investors.

"Shanghai has a large group of highly educated people and expatriates who care a lot about culture and spiritual life," he said.

He believes Shanghai's diversified colonial past will give rise to new cultural interpretations.

A culture lover and regular movie and theater-goer, Tschirky was recently impressed by the acrobatic ballet "Swan Lake," performed in March and April at the Shanghai Grand Theater.

"This is a special and wonderful blend of international and Chinese cultures," he said.

What's more, a new local cultural scene may be the most powerful unifying force in a city known for its diversity.

Walking from the old French Concession, through the traditional Hongkou District to Pudong, what people can find in common is the sheer diversity of it all. The first area is known for its European architecture and luxuriant French phoenix trees. The second is traditionally Chinese, with quarters built closely together and a plethora of street vendors. The third is an ultra-modern business metropolis big on flash but short on depth.

Even disadvantaged groups, like rural migrant workers, are on the government's cultural agenda.

"We can't leave these people behind. They are also part of the city," Xiao said.

Shanghai has opened training courses for the wives of the migrant workers, and set up communities and libraries for them.

This cultural blanket has extended across the city and the outskirts are no longer the cultural black holes urbanites love to hate.

"People no longer depend on mah-jong to kill time. They are beginning to do paper cutting, carving and other cultural things," Xiao said.

When a group of urbanites were recently relocated to the outskirts to give way for urban construction, Xiao said they were surprised to find that their new community was full of cultural events.

"The benchmark of our cultural work is to see whether it satisfies the needs of the citizens," Xiao said.

(China Daily August 10, 2005)