A Virtual America: Americans and ‘American’ Spaces in New Shanghai

Expatriate spaces on the outskirts ofNew Shanghai constitute a new trans- national social ~pace inhabited by many different nationalities. Yet these areas are ojien understood as 'American' spaces,jilled with virtualities ofeve1)'day Americana, and IVith franchises to cater to the transnational elites such as KFC, Diner'.~, Papa John '.~ Piu.a, etc. What meanings does the old 'New World' retain in the context ofthis hyper-modernizing Chinese megacity, with ambitions to become a world center? And how do Americans negotiate and appropriate these ~paces? This article is based on three stints offieldwork among Americans in Shanghai in 2007 and 2009, IVith a par- ricular(ocus on white.female, corporate tramjer expalriates living on Forest Manor, Rancho Santa Fe and the Racquet Club. Pitting these spaces against some ofthe most important theorizations ofthe virtual bearing on them, I propose that in order to ana- lyze the humanface ofglobal mobility we need to move beyond postmodern notions ofthe simulacrum where people are stripped ofagency. Through the voices ofthose who reside on 'Disneyland' I stress the sense of lived virtuality 011 the compounds, inclusive not only ofthe rhyrhms ofthe eve1)'day in these virrual spaces, bur also of rhe possible getaway from them.