Why is Shanghai called the magic capital?

In the process of a city's development, people often give the city some nicknames in order to show its local characteristics more appropriately. Shanghai is called the "magic capital" because of its rapid economic development and the improvement of human culture, which has a far-reaching impact on the future. Let's find out why Shanghai is called the "magic capital".

Why is Shanghai called the magic capital?

Magic Capital was one of the nicknames of Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s. Compared with western names such as "the greatest city in the Far East" and "Paris in the East", Magic was the customary name for Shanghai by the Japanese at that time.

The word "Magic Capital" originated from the best-selling novel "Magic Capital" written by the famous Japanese writer Muramatsu who lived in Shanghai about a century ago. In this work, Muramatsu invented the word "magic capital" to refer to Shanghai.

Today, the word Magic City can be understood as "MAGIC CITY" in English, which means magical city or magical city.

Compared with "Imperial Capital" Beijing and "Magic Capital" Guangzhou, the magic capital refers to Shanghai. Later, some people used the magic capital to refer to Nanjing. Therefore, Shanghai and Nanjing are "Big Magic Capital" and "Little Magic Capital" respectively.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the best-selling novel Magic Capital by Shao Feng Muramatsu, a Japanese writer living in Shanghai, is the representative work of these works. Muramatsu Jianfeng was probably the first person to call Shanghai the "magic capital". Since then, the word "magic capital" has been used by many people to describe the complex world of Shanghai.

At that time, Shanghai was called the "magic capital" because it had a magical attribute that other cities in the world did not have, and the root of this magical attribute was that there were "two different spaces" in Shanghai due to the establishment of the concession.

Due to the mutual infiltration and conflict between these "two different spaces" (that is, the concession and the county seat), Shanghai has become an unparalleled "compatible" city, which has produced various strange phenomena, which can be summarized by the word "magic capital".

In recent years, the word "magic capital" has completely become synonymous with Shanghai.

Due to the title of the 34th episode of the popular classic comic "Little Master of China", "Magic Capital Shanghai! The widespread influence of "The Dark Cooking World Declares War" has become the main communication force of the new generation of network society and culture. In the 1990s, anime lovers popularized the very representative vocabulary "Magic Capital Shanghai" to some extent. The Shanghainese who knew this word gradually accepted it and began to proudly call themselves "Magic People". When it comes to Shanghai, they also habitually use "magic capital" instead.