Vintage Poster of a "typical" Shanghai girl

While there is little doubt about adjective one might use describing Chongqing girls (correct answer is “beautiful”) – situation is different when the discussion is switched to Shanghainese. In this article I will try to summarize the impressions of other netizens regarding Shanghai girls.

First of all it’s important to note that due to Shanghai’s greater openness to the international community its residents are best known to foreigners. Thus it’s no wonder that Shanghainese girls are more famous (and sometimes infamous) compared to their sisters from other Chinese cities.

Shanghai’s glory and fame is largely related to its status of cosmopolitan city (that peaked in 1930s, faded later and is being revived today again). It always had been the pioneer in introducing different innovations including fashion (see, for example, my previous article on the history of Chinese dress qipao).

As a result, Shanghai girls are always informed about the latest trends and know exactly what kind of life they want to lead.

Going back to the golden era of Shanghai’s history one can think of popular vintage posters with flamboyant advertisements depicting stylish and sexy ladies wearing qipao and drinking cocktails or smoking thin long cigarettes or even playing golf. Not sure if such personages were wide-spread in real life – as with any kind of advertisement – but they definitely served as a compass to a desired lifestyle.

Shanghai girls pay very close attention to their outlook and can be almost obsessive about any detail of their dressing. Their drive for popular brands is so high that they can spend an income of few months to buy a fashionable bag or other accessory. In this light it is unsurprising that a recent survey found an average woman in Shanghai to use no less than 20 different cosmetics every day, making it the top figure in the world.

Understandably the patterns of relationships between Shanghai girls and their men are very specific. Their Mr Right face very high standards. If you make a search on “Shanghai girls” in internet – sooner or later you will come across the term “zuo” which refers to a mixture of characteristics like capriciousness, coquetry, mystery.

Shanghainese wife (“shanghai taitai”) is a recognized term meaning a woman with high maintenance who is not ready to do any housework. High demands are not always met and though the first place in statistics of divorces among Chinese cities Shanghai (38%) handed to its rival Beijing (39%) – most of them were initiated by women.

One netizen comparing the traits of Beijing and Shanghai girls found that the latter are more independent and would more often go Dutch when given a bill in restaurant.

I would like to conclude with a short video that has been popular on internet. It shows a Chinese girl going nuts when her boyfriend doesn’t want to buy her a car – in the end forcing him to make a purchase. It is indicative that most commentators quickly came to conclusion that the girl is Shanghainese.

After rereading the article I feel that this review of other internet resources draws a very negative portrait of Shanghai girls. So, I invite the readers to add their comments and balance it.

Yet another netizen, Crystal Tao