Second World War

The Second World War is invoked as a boundary between two images of Shanghai rather than depicted as an event. In a conversation with Li Yan, Nien Mei-Ling uses the prewar period to recall the city’s reputation in the West and set it against the ambitions of the contemporary metropolis.

Reference in the Conversation

While driving with Li Yan, Nien Mei-Ling points out the Pearl TV Tower across the Huangpu River in Pudong. She explains that before the Second World War, Shanghai was known in the West as “The Paris of the East”; she adds that the city’s residents now like to think they have their own Eiffel Tower. Her remark makes the war a chronological marker in a brief comparison, not the subject of a historical account.

A Change in Shanghai’s Image

The contrast links an earlier reputation, recalled through a Western nickname, with a present-day symbol of urban ambition. Li Yan calls the tower ugly, giving the exchange a lightly skeptical note: the modern landmark may claim the grandeur of an Eiffel Tower without winning his admiration. The passage does not describe how the war affected Shanghai or establish the details of the city’s earlier history; it presents the prewar label as Nien Mei-Ling’s conversational recollection.

Narrative Function

The reference lets the novel place the city’s modern skyline against a compressed sense of its past. As the car proceeds toward the tunnel beneath the Huangpu River, the discussion moves from Shanghai’s public image back to the investigation of the bodies. The Second World War remains offstage, serving as a point of comparison before the narrative returns to its present-day case.