By Feiyu & Jiamian
What is Shanghai “little men”?
Little men, according to Urban Dictionary, means, “an adult male who, due to a psychological or physical issue (often lack of stature) which gives them a complex of inadequacy, feels compelled to ‘prove themselves’ to both friends and others on any given occasion by advocating and indulging in stupid and often dangerous acts of male bravado. The participants are often aided in these acts by their beer muscle” (“little man”). What is the difference between Shanghai little men and the little men in generally speaking?
Wives of Shanghai little men have almost the same salary as their husbands do and financial management is usually given priority to wives. In this case, Shanghai little men, rather referring to the men who feel compelled, are the men whose wives are strong-mined in family.
In the movie Everlasting Regret, there are several Shanghai men in the film, which can be divided into two types.
The first type, which is the most important one, is the men who always stay with Wang Qiyao, one of the protagonists of Everlasting Regret. These men include Mr. Cheng, Kang Mingxun, Kela, her cousin, etc. One thing they have in common is all of them have escaped from the real world of men and they are failures as well as evaders in the world of men so that they come to the women’s world seeking for help. Mr. Cheng, who is the most persistent one among her admirers, hasn’t married for his whole life. This shows his great love towards Qiyao.
The second type of man, who is the only man in the film without feminine features, is Officer Li. In appearance, he is a serious person who seldom laughs. Indeed, as a leader of army, he has great power and every decision he makes has great influence. He appears when Wang Qiyao is still a young girl who is eager for a romantic love with a great man having not only wealth but also power. Officer Li, in this case, is her ideal lover. Their relationship, which Wang Qiyao consideres the beginning of her happy life, turns out to be the beginning of her tragedy life.We’ve been talked about the definition of Shanghai men and also their images in movie in the first half. However, what are the real Shanghai men nowadays?
Speaking of shanghai men, people in China usually come up with a word: henpecked. The article “Shanghai men: Henpecked or just polite?” says:
Not that the city’s women are particularly masculine or coarse, it is just that their men have an age-old reputation for being, well, a little on the soft side.The “little men of Shanghai” have been derided for years in folk tales, novels, theater and, more recently, in films, television dramas and, most mercilessly on the Internet. Invariably, they are depicted as henpecked husbands who willingly subject themselves to a life of servitude at the beck and call of their wives”(“ Shanghai men: Henpecked or just polite?”).
This quote tells us that it has been a long history that Shanghai men are considered little men in terms of their relationship with their wives. They, compared with men from other cities, are more willingly subject themselves to a life at the call of their wives.
Are Shanghai men, as what is widely known by Chinese, afraid of wives? Lan Huaien, a prolific writer and public commentator on social issues and gender studies in Shanghai, says: “It is a way for Shanghai men to show how much they love and cherish their wives.” Also, she added, “is what sets Shanghai men apart from those in the rest of the country.” Therefore, the trait of being henpecked is not based on their scare of wives but, instead, according to Lan Huaien, shows Shanghai men’s respect and love to their wives.
Lung Yin-tai, “a Taiwanese essayist and cultural critic” (Wikipedia), has once published a commentary named “Oh. Shanghai men.” This commentary has raised a great argument about Shanghai men. She thinks what she says in the commentary is compliment about Shanghai men; however, to Shanghai men, they think of it an ironic thing. For example, Lung says, “How lovely Shanghai men are: they buy foods, cook, clean the house, and wash clothes for wives; yet, they don’t feel ashamed of that. They whisper to women; yet, they don’t feel uncomfortable. They let women dominate in family; yet, they don’t feel they are weak. They appreciate their wives’ success; yet, they don’t think they are failures” (Lung). After the commentary published, a lot of Shanghai men wrote letter to show their strong dissatisfactions. In their opinion, Lung generalizes one kind of Shanghai men to all kinds of Shanghai men, which is not fair to them.
Some people think that little Shanghai men can be not only a geographical concept but also a species concept. There must be some reasons for the little Shanghai man to be even a new species.Firstly, several decades ago, the average height of Shanghai men is not so lovely. Their height may give people the impression that they are “little”. Women usually don’t feel secure when being together with men who have the same height as they do.Secondly, there are some historical reasons. In Qing dynasty, Shanghai became a major trading city in China. In that way, many foreigners came to Shanghai and brought large quantity of modern fresh new things to the citizens. In the case, Shanghai men were more fashionable and paid more attention to their attire. Because of the details they focus on, their disposition became softer and softer. What’s more, owing to the commercial activities performed in shanghai, many Shanghai men became bosses and started their business lives, which made them get more cautious and careful so that they could make more fortune. At the same time, Shanghai men formed a habit that is diligence. They work hard and, thus, they gain things. It’s also a cause for the special characters of little Shanghai men. As time goes by, men tend to be more heedful and considerate than ever. They are also becoming diligent gradually. Lan huaien has summarized four main advantages of Shanghai men. Firstly, Shanghai men pay much attention to their family and love their family members by heart. Secondly, Shanghai men have good habits and customs. They seldom drink outside so that the probability of extramarital affairs can be very low.
Thirdly, Shanghai men have nothing to do with violence. They live a peaceful life and give their cherished people a same environment to live in. Fourthly, Shanghai men are relatively showing respect to women, which means compared to the other men who come from the rest part in China, Shanghai men do better job. These four points vividly show us a general image of the characters of the Shanghai men. The especial location of Shanghai is also an account of “little”. Shanghai is in the southern area of China so that people in Shanghai have many chances to get in touch with water. In some Chinese opinion, water is soft, clear, wet and feminine. In that way, people who are really closed to water can be influenced by it and gain same characters as water has. It is a natural thing for either men or women.
China, as we all know, is a great country in the world in terms of not only its large land area, but also huge population. Compared with Shanghai men, the personalities of men from other cities differ a lot. For example, Men in Shaanxi, a typical northwestern province, generally speaking, are very forthright and outgoing. They, rather than paying attention to the details of life, care more about general situation. Shaanxi men are not as cautious as Shanghai men. They seldom take care of their family because, in their opinion, their duty is to work outside, and family affairs belongs to their wives. Most of them only take care of their careers. When they get older, they might be regretful for not taking good care of family, but time never comes back. Moreover, lots of Shaanxi men like smoking and drinking white spirit. These bad habits give family members lots of harms and difficulties. But this is one of the traits of Shaanxi men’s life. To be honest, most Shaanxi men regard their wives as their assistants of their lives. To be with Shaanxi men, the biggest advantage is that women can get much sense of safety because Shaanxi men tend to be more masculine than Shanghai men. The reason is very simple. Shaanxi is in the Loess Plateau of the northwestern area in China.
The comparison can make us know farther and deeper about little Shanghai men.Even though Shanghai men are called as “Little Shanghai men”, they are full of great ambitions. Some of them are totally aspiring. The famous previous NBA star Yao Ming, for instance, is a Shanghai man with ambition. He is not only famous in China, but also other parts of the world. He, at the sports field, proves that Chinese people now are getting powerful. He gives the world a good shot. What’s more, Liu Xiang, who was born in Shanghai, is a famous Chinese hurdler. He won a gold medal in the Olympic games. Although he got injured when he was going to the racecourse and, as a consequence, quit the game, his spirit still motivates many people. What’s more, Wang Jiawei, a romantic movie director, has made many impressive movies, which convey beautiful emotion of people’s relationship between each other. His movies propelled many stars, such as Zhang Guorong. He has made a classical character of Shanghai men in the movie Mood for Love.
To sum up, Shanghai “Little men”, as far as I am concerned, isn’t an ironic word. To some extent, it can be a compliment which shows the good personalities of Shanghai men.
Shanghai people 