Inspiring Shanghai, a collection of essays soon to be published, presents Shanghai from various angles as a megapolis where China and the world interact.

Motion graphics: TassinariVetta

In his essay, David Gosset, the editor of the book, makes a reference to André Malraux (1901-1976). In 1933, Malraux won the prestigious French literary award, Prix Goncourt, for his novel La Condition humaine - the human condition, translated in English as Man's Fate. The action of the novel takes place in Shanghai. Malraux refers to the massacre of 1927 during which Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975) organized the repression of communist revolutionaries.

In the video footage, Malraux reacts upon receiving the award.

J’ai essayé d’exprimer la seule chose qui me tienne à cœur,

I have tried to express the only thing that is close to my heart,

de montrer quelques images de la grandeur humaine.

and to show some images of human greatness.

Les ayant rencontrées dans ma vie,

Having encountered them in my life,

dans les rangs des communistes chinois,

in the ranks of the Chinese Communists,

écrasés, assassinés, jetés vivants dans les chaudières, et détruits de toute façon,

crushed, murdered, thrown alive into the boilers, and destroyed anyway,

c’est pour ces morts que j’écris.

it is for these dead that I write.

——André Malraux

The text that follows is an abstract of David Gosset's essay for Inspiring Shanghai.  

“The themes of Man’s Fate are those that occupied Malraux all his life: the encounter between East and West, History, destiny, engagement, death. But there is also that of the union of men, fraternity (...) If Shanghai is indeed a universal city where China and the world dialogue, if it is the city of avant-gardes, what would it be the precursor of today? What future would its circulation of goods and ideas announce?

It is from the hope that it will be the place where new sorts of fraternity are forged that, not only the writing of this text, but indeed the whole construction of Inspiring Shanghai stems from.”