Introduction

Abstract

It was blustery on the evening that we arrived at the Jin Mao Building in the Pudong New Area of Shanghai.¹ In the company of ten Westerners of Swedish and Irish origins, I headed for the 54th floor to celebrate the eve of the millennium at the Grand Hyatt Café. To say the least, we were all hyped up about Y2K, and equally hyped up about spending the evening in Shanghai’s (at the time) tallest building.² For those present, the new millennium beginning in Shanghai seemed to portend a new world order in the wake of the rise of Asia. Some of us were tourists, on a shorter visit, and others were “cosmopolitans” or expatriate connoisseurs of the city.