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VII. Shanghai MM: A bourgeois sentiment cultivated by the westernized metropolis
The days can be traced back to the time of Eileen Chang when this much westernized, golden business metropolitan city began to greet visitors with its characteristic luxurious look and sexy feeling. A heaven for the bourgeoisie or middle class, the city is made of and for fashionable, exquisite, elegant, and tasteful women that are confident about themselves, romantic, quality-life loving, yet realistic enough to rightly position themselves. The bourgeois manner and attitudes are the most impressive and distinguishable characters of the ladies in Shanghai whose superior feeling and confidence come from the top metropolis status of the city they reside in, which also makes them free of the worry for being outdated. This unique distinct a Shanghai girl from Beijing girl that in comparison the latter's confidence seems not as deep rooted.
Girls of Shanghai are so fit for apparel. Once being put on a Shanghai girl, clothes of any and color will shine. Women in Shanghai typically hold such an aesthetic view on beauty: it should be made only for themselves to enjoy and feel, rather than anyone else. This has been considered by some as being self-important and bourgeois sentiment, and is probably what has attracted criticisms from non-Shanghai residents. However, the sentiment, shown more or less by nearly all Shanghai women, was treasured as a heritage for being the cream in fashion and --they believe in that the feminine characters they possess make them the best of women. Fashionable clothing, perfumes, cosmetics, light music and social dancing are what they love so deeply, as much as they love their own bodies. The Shanghai women brim over with romantic sentiment just as the city does. |
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