Shanghai Street Names as Means of Creating City Image: History and Modernity

Abstract

This article focuses on street names of Shanghai. Street names are considered in linguo-cultural aspect (as a means of representation of the history of the city and its cultural characteristics), as well as in the key of image-making (as a way of creating the image of the city in the minds of speakers of particular language and culture). Appeal to street names of Shanghai is due to their particular historical and cultural context that includes the period of European colonization, as reflected in the onomastic identity of the city. General comments on the tradition of studying street names and various approaches to their study are provided. Semantic classification of traditional street names of Shanghai, complementing their structural classification existing in scientific literature is given. Unique Shanghai street names relating to the period of Western colonization are described. Some features of the modern category of the streets are discussed. It is proved that Shanghai street names are setting for the formation of semantic microsystems, as well as a system, connecting street name with the space in which it is inscribed. Shanghai street names form the image of the city as strongly associated with the cultural tradition, but at the same time open to the cultural dialogue and interaction.