Shànghǎi⁺ (Shàng·hǎi Upon · {the Sea} → [Shanghai] 上海) 👈🏼 Tap/click to show/hide the “flashcard”

Shanghai is well-known as an exceptionally populous and prosperous city in China. Of at least some interest to Mandarin field language learners, Wikipedia reports that Shanghainese is the prestige variety or prestige dialect of the Wu Chinese language branch, and that there are estimated to be about 16 million speakers of Shanghainese, out of the approximately 83 million speakers of some variety of Wu Chinese.

This reminds me that one of the things I realized soon after I went from the Cantonese field to the Mandarin field is that there are actually many different peoples in the world who are called “Chinese”, peoples who have different cultures and who speak different languages, including Shanghainese. Indeed, as the MEotW post on “Yuèyǔ (Yuè·yǔ Yue · Language [→ [Cantonese]] 粤语 粵語)” says:

While the central government of China wants everyone to just think of China as one monolithic political entity that should be governed by them, the central government, modern China actually is made up of many different parts. If it wasn’t for Qín Shǐhuáng ((Qín {Qin (dynasty)} 秦) (Shǐ·huáng Beginning · Emperor 始皇) (the founder of the Qín dynasty and the first emperor of China)) (Wikipedia article), who (rather forcefully) united several warring states and became the first emperor of China, China could have ended up like modern Europe, with its several independent nations.

These different parts of modern China, that in an alternate timeline could have become independent nations, each have their own history, including their own linguistic history—just like modern France, Spain, Germany, etc. have historically had their own mutually unintelligible languages, modern Guǎngdōng (Guǎng·dōng Wide · East → [Guangdong (Canton) Province] 广东 廣東), Shànghǎi (Shàng·hǎi Upon · {the Sea} → [Shanghai] 上海), Fújiàn (Fú·jiàn {Blessing (abbr. for the city name Fúzhōu)} · {Established (abbr. for the city name Jiànzhōu)} → [Fujian (Province)] 福建), etc. also have historically had their own mutually unintelligible languages, even if China’s central government would like everyone to just (erroneously) call them dialects of “Chinese”.

A Gold Rush Leads to Shanghaiing

Not as well known as Shanghai’s current prosperous and respected status is why “shanghai” is used in English to mean “to kidnap (a man) for compulsory service aboard a ship, especially after drugging him”, or “to induce or compel (someone) to do something, especially by fraud or force.” Recently, I came across an article on the website The World of Chinese entitled “ ‘Shanghai’ Beyond the Map: The Story of an English Verb”, which provides some background on this:

But the answer to how “shanghai” became an action rather than merely a destination lies in the American West during the turbulent mid-19th century.

The California Gold Rush transformed sleepy Pacific ports like San Francisco into booming maritime hubs virtually overnight. More than a thousand merchant vessels sailed into San Francisco Bay, many of them promptly abandoned by their crews, who jumped ship to seek fortunes in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Ship captains found themselves stranded with hulls full of cargo and few hands to man the sails.

Because long-distance voyages in the 19th century were extremely hazardous and physically punishing, few ordinary men were willing to volunteer for the sea. Compounding the situation was strict federal legislation dating back to 1790, which made it a punishable crime for a sailor to leave a ship before the end of his contracted voyage. Although originally intended to maintain order in the merchant marine, the law effectively created an inescapable trap. Once a sailor signed a ship’s register, he was legally bound to the vessel under pain of imprisonment, regardless of how his signature had been obtained. Desperate sea captains, in urgent need of crews, were prompted to secure men by any means necessary—even if it meant resorting to outright kidnapping through brute force, liquor, or drugs.

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As Merriam-Webster notes, this unscrupulous practice became inextricably linked with one particular Chinese port: Shanghai, newly opened to foreign trade after the Opium War of 1840, was a far-flung and dangerous destination for American shipping, and an unpopular one among seamen because of the difficulty of securing return passage. Because of the scarcity of willing men for these voyages, many kidnapped sailors ended up on ships bound for China, and “shanghaiing” became the universal name for the act itself regardless of the destination.

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“Shanghai” occupies a special category as a true toponymic verb—a word born directly from a geographic location. It captures a universal human experience: the sudden realization that one has been tricked or forced into something they never intended.

Don’t Let Yourself Get Shanghaied in the Mandarin Field

We Mandarin field language learners should be in the Mandarin field to glorify Jehovah and to share Bible truth with Mandarin-speaking people. Let us not allow ourselves to be shanghaied or manipulated into glorifying worldly Chinese culture by those who love this merely human culture for its own sake, or by those who are irrationally attached to the Chinese cultural traditions related to Chinese characters!