Word: shanghaied
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...interest in China, however, and though his career brought him back to the U.S. in the mid-1990s, the lure of what was happening on the mainland proved irresistible. Two years ago he accepted an offer from U.S. hedge-fund manager James Rosenwald to set up shop in Shanghai, where Shu runs a China fund for Rosenwald's firm, Dalton Investments. He is also director of Dalton affiliate Grand River Investments, a private-equity firm that, among other things, invests in and manages high-end real estate in Shanghai, a city crawling with the new rich. Shu himself recently bought...
Everything is for sale on nanjing Road. Shanghai's version of Fifth Avenue offers diamond rings from Tiffany, halter tops from Vivienne Westwood, even fresh sea urchin flown in from northern Japan. One of the most coveted items, however, is a certificate handed out for every 150 yuan ($19) donated for the construction of an $18 million, 2,000-kg gold Buddha at Nanjing Road's Jing'an Temple. The donation certificates are flying off shelves faster than Gucci wallets. Since 2002, the temple has collected 180,700 contributions from people who want to exchange part of their newfound wealth...
...religions were allowed-Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism and Protestantism-they were tightly circumscribed and had to express fealty to the Communist state before any divine entity. During the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, believers of these watered-down religions were attacked. Red Guards razed thousands of temples, churches and mosques. Shanghai's Jing'an Temple was converted into a flour factory and portraits of the Great Helmsman replaced those of the Buddha...
...China diluted its socialist purity by embracing economic reforms, religious controls began easing as well. The skylines of Chinese towns now teem with temples, shrines and churches. In Shanghai alone, at least 25 Buddhist temples have been built or renovated since 2000. Other cities are also being transformed. In the seaside town of Quanzhou in Fujian province, where Nestorian Christians and Manicheans practiced their faiths during the Silk Road's heyday, one of the city's oldest clans, the Wangs, built a shrine in the 11th century to honor their family. But the sanctuary was converted into a stable during...
...Nevertheless, the vast majority of Chinese feel little restriction in voicing their growing faith. "My previous goal in life was to earn lots of money," says Zhou Jun, a Shanghai entrepreneur who runs a solar-heating company and converted to Tibetan Buddhism in 2004. "But now after studying Buddhism, I realize there is much more to life, and I want to share that lesson with everyone." Zhou now donates a chunk of his earnings to build new Tibetan Buddhist temples in western China, and has imparted the Buddha's teachings to his business partners. Tempering a capitalist impulse with...