If you asked me which big Chinese city is a cultural desert, then I’d say Shanghai. One hundred percent, it’s Shanghai.

Novelist Han Han:A City Built on a Heap of Money Won’t Shine [Commonwealth Magazine, Taiwan] « Wandering China

Another long Han Han article and interview. “While Han Han is not optimistic about the future development of Shanghai or China at large, his emergence as a celebrity writer also shows that there is an opportunity for change in China.”