Money as God

“Money as God” names the prologue’s central metaphor: the new towers of Pudong appear as sacred monuments to wealth, and the American arriving to celebrate a Sino-American partnership recognizes himself among those who worship there. The image turns a landscape of modern construction into a scene of belief—and makes his satisfaction a quiet acknowledgment of complicity.

Standing Stones and New Towers

The metaphor begins with the American’s memory of a remote Scottish island, where stones reach skyward in circular arrangements raised in worship to an unknown god. Against that remembered landscape, the steel-and-glass towers emerging through Pudong’s mist take on the same monumental, enigmatic quality. Their scale and strangeness make the comparison more than a visual resemblance: the modern city seems to have built its own standing stones.

The contrast is sharpened by Pudong’s recent transformation. Once desolate marshland, it has filled with tower blocks after gaining special economic zone status. Across the river, the Shanghainese watch in wonder, imagining what might come next. The towers thus register both a dramatic change in the landscape and the uncertain expectations accompanying it.

The Object of Worship

The American identifies the god behind the new monuments as money. His recognition connects the towers’ rise to the economic ambition that has reshaped Pudong, while the language of worship gives that ambition a religious charge. The image does not depend on a formal temple: steel and glass, rising from former marshland, serve as the visible signs of devotion.

His response completes the metaphor. He smiles with satisfaction because he, too, worships at the same altar. The moment makes the idea personal rather than merely an observation about the city or its builders: the American’s participation in a powerful East-West union does not place him outside the culture of money he sees embodied in the towers. His self-recognition gives the prologue’s image its irony, joining celebration of economic partnership to an admission of shared allegiance.