Chinese Narrative and Space Politics:The Image of Shanghai in Shanghai Girls

As a Chinese American writer,Lisa See favors Chinese narrative in which she constructs the image of China,its people and its cities.Shanghai is an important setting in Shanghai Girls.In this novel,the author presents Shanghai's charm as a cosmopolitan city,which is impressively modern,graceful and commercialized.Meanwhile,the author reveals its urban entropy: the unspeakable past of the well-off,and huge gap between the poor and the rich.Further more,Lisa See expresses her political appeal by description the urban space of Shanghai: the colonial history,the inequality between city dwellers,the alienated relationship between people.Lisa See deconstructs the stereotype of China,and realizes the oriental construction as well.