The Hidden Social Divide in Shanghai: Locals, Migrants and Identity

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]In the west, discrimination is often reported in the media and sometimes the conversation even escalates into discussions about racism. But does this kind of discrimination exist in Shanghai? Do Chinese people discriminate against each other? Today I want to talk about this sensitive topic.

[00:00:23]Like New York and London, Shanghai is a city of migrants. It attracts people from all over China who come here with dreams of living in a major city. At the same time, many Chinese people who once settled overseas have also chosen to return to Shanghai. For them, Shanghai offers a mix of western style trends and culture while still allowing them to live in a way that feels familiar and eastern. In that sense, Shanghai can be seen as a spiritual home for Chinese people around the world.

[00:00:58]So, who actually lives in Shanghai?

[00:01:01]First, there are Shanghai people. People often use the term local people to describe them. But interestingly, in Shanghai, the idea of Shanghai includes two different groups. People from the urban areas of Shanghai and the local people from the suburban areas.

[00:01:21]The word Shanghai is used to refer to the first group. Many of their ancestors migrated to Shanghai from nearby provinces and cities around 100 years ago. For example, many came from Ningbo, the same hometown region as Chai.

[00:01:41]My family belongs to this group.

[00:01:44]The second group we called local people refers to the descendants of farmers who lived for generations in Shanghai suburban areas and own the land there.

[00:01:55]The biggest difference between these two group is language. Apart from Mandarin, urban Shanghai people have their own representative dialect Shanghai or the Shanghai dialect.

[00:02:11]Some international known figures such as Daniel Wu, Jackson Wong, and Jimmy O.

[00:02:17]Yang can speak it. Meanwhile, suburban local people have their own local dialects. In fact, each suburban district has different dialect and the differences can be so huge that people may not understand each other at all.

[00:02:35]Because of this, when visitors come to Shanghai and meet different kinds of local people, they may notice that customs and uh culture backgrounds can vary a lot.

[00:02:49]20 or 30 years ago, and I don't mean this offensively, the living standards of farmers were generally low. It was true that city people often look down on them and call them country bumpkins.

[00:03:04]This still happens in many places, but in today's Shanghai, this has almost disappeared.

[00:03:12]Many farmers financial situations have improved significantly, especially after land acquisition and the composition.

[00:03:20]Some even became wealthy and city people begin to envy them.

[00:03:26]Whether someone is from urban Shanghai or suburban Shanghai, their Chinese ID number starts with 310. For a long time, this became a kind of group marker. New migrants who register in Shanghai couldn't change the number on their original ID cards. Only their children, if born in Shanghai, could receive a 310 ID number.

[00:03:53]Over the past decade, also nearly 40,000 new migrants have been granted Shanghai household registration every year.

[00:04:04]As a result, in the future or perhaps already today, there will be many 310 Shahines people from different cultural backgrounds who don't speak the local dialect. This symbol is gradually losing its meaning.

[00:04:20]Today, the definition of being Shanghai is shifting. It's less about an ID number and more about how well someone understands local culture, local history, and local events, as well as how fluent they are in the Shanghai dialect.

[00:04:37]Sadly, under the influence of the internet era, even the children of authentic Shanghai families are losing their connection to local culture. Many of them can no longer speak a single sentence of Shanghai.

[00:04:53]schools and the government haven't provided enough local support or protection for the language.

[00:05:00]When I see how important the gay league is in Ireland, I feel sad that speaking Shanahan in Shanghai has somehow become a non- mainstream scene.

[00:05:12]Although we are third generation migrants, the cultural similarity and the positive atmosphere of integration that existed in the past are no longer the same. The unique urban civilization that once belonged to Shanghai may slowly be disappearing.

[00:05:32]This trend is not unusual in migrant cities. With tens of millions of non-local residents moving into Shanghai and becoming a major source of the city's workforce, you can see another group in almost every industry, people from other parts of China. As a visitor, if you only follow the usual tourists around, many of the people you interact with, especially those providing services, may actually be non-local residents. China has a serious problem with aging and the low birth rates.

[00:06:08]Retailed people no longer work, and the birth rate of 0.72 is far below the warning line of 1.5. There are fewer and fewer young Shahanese people. So naturally visitors are less likely to meet them. In international affairs, immigration is always a controversial issue. From the government's perspective, more people are needed to work, produce, and pay taxes. From the perspective of local residents, however, it can mean fewer job opportunities and stronger competition. Shanghai is no different.

[00:06:49]30 years ago when large numbers of non-local people first began moving into Shanghai apart from a small number of university graduates most of them worked in lowkilled jobs their income was low and the crime rate was relatively high as a result they were given negative labors by local residents I don't want to hide the truth for a long period of time people did have strong opinions about non-local residents today. This would be called discrimination.

[00:07:24]The reason in my view was mainly the huge gap in living standards caused by uneven economic development.

[00:07:33]People from different backgrounds had a completely different viewers on many social issues. 30 years later, many non-local residents are also well educated and have high income jobs. But conflicts still exist. For example, some non-local residents hope to recreate their hometown lifestyle in Shanghai, even replacing Shanghai's traditional habits. This makes some Shan people complain that if they prefer their old way of life so much, they might as well go back and live that way in their hometowns. Another example is that Shanghai people tend to care a lot about rur and the boundaries while some non-local residents may not always know where those boundaries are. Sometimes they may even cross legal lines without realizing it. At the same time, non-local residents may feel unhappy about what they see as the natural sense of superiority among Shahanese people. But Chinese people often deny that they have ever acted as if they were above anyone else.

[00:08:44]Conflicts like this haven't faded with time. They may only become less visible as the number of Shahanese people continues to decline. So we can see that even when there are no differences in race, skin color, or religion, people can still come into conflict because of differences in wealth, culture, habits, and lifestyle.

[00:09:07]Perhaps this is a flaw in human nature.

[00:09:10]People always seem to need an enemy to fight against and that enemy is usually someone who is different from themselves.

[00:09:19]There is a Chinese saying where there are people there is a world of human relationships, rivalry, conflict and the power struggles.

[00:09:31]Maybe we should stop focusing so much on the reasons people give for conflict because those reasons are often just excuse we used to convince ourselves.

[00:09:42]Even when there is no external enemy, people still find ways to fight internally.

[00:09:48]Perhaps what we need to fix it not the difference between people but this flaw within ourselves.

[00:09:57]What do you think about this? Have you ever experienced cultural differences or discrimination within the same country?

[00:10:04]Not because of race or religion, but because of region, language, lifestyle, or social background, let me know in the comments.

[00:10:13]If you enjoyed this video and want to hear more honest stories about Shanghai Chinese culture and the life between East and the West, please like, subscribe, and stay tuned. In the next video, I will talk about how Shan people view foreigners.