Dumbfounded by Shanghai Media City

 ■Dumbfounded by Shanghai Media City

The sound of hammering echoes.

Clang, clang.

Like a young bamboo grove, a gathering of buildings reaches toward the sky.

It grows and grows.

Is this Tokyo in 1964?

No, it’s Shanghai in 2020.

Walking around the city, I feel as though it has already surpassed Tokyo for sophisticated food, fashion, and shopping malls.

From on top looking down, the difference can be seen, but below looking up, one can’t see how large the gap is.

The city is drawing ever farther away.

However, despite developing so much already, Shanghai continues to grow.

While I was nearly falling over looking up at the group of buildings, I was led to the top floor of the building CMG plans to open next year. As I looked down at the city, I was dumbfounded.

I was looking at the International Media Port, in Xuhui District, Shanghai: a media city of 1 million square meters under construction.

Apparently, CMG is building one quarter of that, or 260,000 square meters.

CMG: China Media Group.

China’s largest media conglomerate was formed in 2018 by combining national TV broadcaster CCTV, national radio broadcaster CRI, and others.

Together with the people of Yoshimoto Kogyo, I met with the representative from Beijing and learned a little bit about Media City’s composition.

I will share some of the things which I don’t think are secrets.

“CMG is putting 8 buildings on 260,000 square meters.

Two towers will be technology facilities, two will be 5-star hotels, and one will be an enormous cinema.

The ground and basement floors will be entirely commercial facilities.”

What? You’re going to make a 260,000m2, or 500m x 500m, underground shopping center?

“Yes. It’s almost complete.”

Wow.

“Huawei is going in that skyscraper.

Xiaomi in the one behind it.

Tencent and Alibaba will have offices as well.

It will be the world’s largest media base.”

--To use Japan as an example, it would be like NHK and the 5 major broadcasters, Sony and Rakuten all gathering together.—

“We will use infrastructure to help produce complete content.

We will advance the fusion of internet and TV.

We will focus on 4K8K, VR, and 5G.

We will also create an AI laboratory.

We will also build an e-sports city.

We will also put our efforts into anime and manga.”

--That’s pretty much everything. Everything we want to do at CiP, a special pop-tech district, they’re going to do at ten times the scale.

“We tried doing project mapping art throughout the city.

A cinematic show over the entire 260,000 m2.

We want to make an art space.

We want to make it the venue for an endless media festival.”

--I’m jealous. We could never pull that off in Japan because of outdoor display regulations and rights holders regulations.—

“But we still have a long way to go. We need Japan’s cooperation.”

--What is this frightening humility?—

“We are also building a multilingual content production center.

CMG will sponsor film festivals in Shanghai, Beijing, and the South China Sea Islands, and we want to make further connections.

We are also advancing industry-academic cooperation with Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

We want to encourage exchange between our youth.

Do you have any suggestions?”

“Xuhui District is the center of Shanghai’s culture.

We will develop the culture industry.

We will also develop a media city of similar size in Shenzhen.”

--What? You’re going to build more!? I was shocked awake once again.

“Recently, President Macron of France also came to visit, and I gave him the same tour.”

--China and France have a unique relationship, yet the head of state came all the way here to see this. Does anyone in the Japanese government even know about this construction?

Gao Yunfei, director and president of Shanghai Media Group (SMG), a Shanghai media giant: “40 years after Deng Xiaoping visited Japan in 1978 and began China’s economic reform. China learned from Matsushita’s technology and developed it. At the time, engineers were truly open and highly respected. I am grateful.”

--Most Japanese people are not aware of his gratitude.

President Gao: “I graduated university around 1988. I participated in the Nakasone administration’s youth exchange program and did a homestay in Kyoto and Osaka. I am grateful. I want to visit the family I stayed with at that time.”

--The government did a good job. However, the government seems unaware that that generation has grown to become China’s core.