Yesterday as part of the Global Business Project at ECNU I got to go to the Shanghai Bank Museum and stop by one of ICBCs management branches. The Museum itself was actually rather well put together. There were a good number of diaramas, electronics, and actual artifacts. The artifacts though might get stale if you arn't really into banknotes, which fortunately I am. The Museum did have a very modern and very Shanghai focus. They briefly mentioned the money shops of Northern China that represented the early Chinese banking system and they had one diorama of a pawn shop, perhaps the oldest and most universial form of lending. The story of the Bank Museum really starts post-Opium War with the, as the Chinese say, Unfair Treaty of Nanjing. A great deal of time was spent talking about HSBC, one of the major British banks founded in Shanghai, and the Imperial Bank of China, the first Chinese owned comerical bank, who were both based on the Bund in Shanghai. Furthermore, the also spent a good deal of time talking about the problems caused by the Nationalist's management of the financial system. I think this is an attempted dig at Taiwan, where the old Nationalist Republic of China still rules. Interesting everything post-Civil War was put into one section, both the Capatlist banking system of Deng Xiaoping and the Marxist banking system of Mao Zedong. The oddnesses of Mao's Marxist banks, or more properly bank since the People's Bank of China served as the one comercial bank, central bank, and Ministry of Finance at the time, was unmentioned even though they had a lot of artifacts form the early days of the People's Bank of China. The Museum also had a tempeory exhibit on triditional Chinese painting and calligraphy, with all the art shown having a running theme of frugality. We then walked to one of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's (ICBC) management branches. Funnly enough for a day about banking, this walk took us past the meeting place of the first Congress of the Communist Party of China. When we arrived I found that the ICBC branch was nice, the employees we talked to were happy, and the frut provided was nice, but I also found that ICBC is obviously a Party controlled institution. When you first walk in the flag you see next to the reception desk is not the flag of the Chinese Nation, it is the Party's good old red hammer and sickle (☭☭☭) flag. There were also posters from the Party bairing the hammer and sickle in plane view of the reception area. Finally, the confrence room we were taken to had a Chinese state and the Party's flag on the podium. The meeting with the ICBC staff went well and they did give me my favorate Chinese fruit to take home who's name I am still not sure of. Overall, it was an interesting day of banking and comradeship.
1 Comment
Dad
12/5/2016 08:12:00 am
Only in a sort of communist country can they have a museum dedicated to banking while the economy still runs mostly on cash.
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AuthorI am a junior at Juniata College spending a year studying abroad at East China Normal University. Please feel free to join my on my journey to China and beyond. Archives
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