Modern Shanghai is a separate administrative unit of China and concurrently one of the largest trading cities not only in China, but throughout the world. In fact, Shanghai is a state within a state and a kind of embodiment of the Chinese dream, where everyone has a chance to make a fortune literally from scratch, having achieved universal respect and respect. So the inhabitants of this dynamic and rapidly developing city are practically a separate people. Today, official Shanghai bears common banners with the PRC, and many do not even realize that there is also its own coat of arms of Shanghai.
History and description of the coat of arms
In its current form, the coat of arms of Shanghai was approved relatively recently - only in 1990. This desire of the city authorities was due to the fact that Shanghai has long become one of the key financial centers of the country and, in their opinion, it is quite worthy to have its own coat of arms. Official Beijing did not raise any objections, so the draft coat of arms was soon adopted.
The image of the coat of arms contains the following compositional elements: a magnolia flower; junk; propeller. In general, we can say that the coat of arms is made in the traditional Chinese manner, so the result is an interesting fusion of ancient traditions and modernity.
- Propeller - in this case, it symbolizes the development of the city and its movement into the future. The screw takes up the most space on the coat of arms and is the background for other elements, and with this the authors of the composition deliberately focused their attention on how important modern technologies are for the country.
- Jonka is, on the contrary, a reference to ancient China. Its presence on the coat of arms is very important, because it was from these boats that the history of navigation in China began. Jonka was used both on river and coastal routes, as well as for long sea crossings, so it is a kind of symbol of China's maritime power. In addition, small river junks are still actively used to transport goods along river arteries, so it is a symbol of both ancient and modern China.
- The magnolia flower is a rather curious element borrowed from the Japanese heraldic tradition. It has the name "Hagi-mon" and is the personification of soft perseverance and nobility of deeds and thoughts. So in this case it fits quite organically into the composition of the coat of arms.
