2020 Hope Road Club held with the theme of “Hello My City —— Perspectives on the Construction of a “People's City” in the New Era”

On August 16, the Shanghai Federation of Social Science Associations and Shanghai People's Publishing House jointly hosted special event of the 2020 Hope Road Club in Shanghai Book Fair. The session was given the title of “Hello My City: Perspectives on the Construction of a People's City in the New Era.”

Focusing on the concept of “people's city,” this event brought together experts and scholars to discuss how to build a “people's city”—a city where all citizens can participate in the process of urban governance, where all citizens can achieve their dreams, enjoy high quality lives, feel the warmth of community and have a sense of belonging and identity.

Wu Jiang

Wu Jiang, Executive Vice President of Tongji University, made a speech saying that the features of a city is molded by its people; therefore any city should be inclusive, involving all its citizens in discussions about urban construction, enabling more and more of them to appreciate architectural beauty.

Sun Ganlu

According to Sun Ganlu, who is a novelist and Vice President of Shanghai Federation of Literature and Arts, writers are also architects, verbal architects. He said, “Architects work with both physical materials and their imagination. Literary creation is likewise. Besides imagination, a writer should write based on the experience.”

Tang Yalin

Tang Yalin, a professor from Fudan University, pointed out that a city needs to emit a vitality that common citizens feel related to. “Every time I see senior female citizens dancing to music in the public squares along the banks of the Suzhou Creek, see people thronging at the night market, I firmly believe that is exactly the kind of vitality.”

Chen Dongfang

Executive Chief Editor of Xiaohongshu (a Chinese social media APP), Chen Dongfang, said that internet platforms were the windows for us to observe the life-styles and consumption trends of the youth. Among the 400 million users of this APP, 70% are the post-1990 generation. Posts in this virtual community are viewed 8 billion times every day. Local writers account for 40% of all writers on this app, which therefore constitutes a good window to show a real Shanghai to the country and the world.

Since its establishment in 2014, the Hope Road Club has been organizing all kinds of activities, professional interpretation of books, book promotions, lectures, forums etc. Hundreds of good reads have been recommended. It has become a platform for high-level academic exchanges highlighting“inclusiveness, simplicity, extensiveness and profoundness”and a popular icon that encourages the public to read.