With flashy screens across Shanghai reminding residents that there are only a hundred days to go before World Expo 2010 in Shanghai makes its debut, millions of issues remain to be resolved. For one, are Shanghainese really mentally prepared to be polite hosts, ready to embrace guests from the rest of China and the world?
During a recent live broadcast of a morning music program, two DJs were chitchatting in Shanghai dialect in between songs. That was when a listener sent a short message to the studio hot line, which read "Please stop speaking Shanghai dialect! I hate you Shanghainese!"
One male DJ chose to deliver that message and intoned, "I'd like you, the listener, to curl up in a fetal position and leave the city you loathe in a slow, soft and rolling manner."
This is a cultivated figure of speech without any coarse language. Yet its overtones in Putonghua are pretty self-evident, "Gunchu Shanghai" ("Scram! Get out of Shanghai!")
Later, on the blog, the pissed-off DJ referred to the listeners and those like him as "those non-Shanghainese who on one hand hog our land, while on the other go all out to vilify the city, its culture and local people, in an attempt to stymie the development of Shanghai and its construction of a harmonious society!"
I don't think dialect should be a total taboo in local media programs. In fact it's a smart way to get closer to native listeners or viewers.
But what baffles me is that the DJ obviously struck a chord with many Shanghainese with his barbed words which sent a ripple of collective applause racing through Internet forums patronized by Shanghai locals.
They appear to be righteously furious. Some asserted that Shanghai should only welcome those outsiders who can help it, not ungrateful or unscrupulous underdogs that soak up the benefits of the city yet bark out curses against it.
Some others assumed an innocent pose, saying, "I don't quite get why these non-natives are still in Shanghai if they hate it. Why don't they go back to their hometowns?"
A huge number of migrant workers and others, of course, are in Shanghai to make money for their families, even if they hate the city.
Shanghainese have long been criticized for their cocky attitude toward people from other parts of China. Actually this sense of superiority is deeply entrenched in the local character, although most Shanghainese would never admit it.
About two decades ago, Shanghai locals did not mask their lordly posturing toward the city's newcomers at all.
Conductors on buses yelled in high-pitched voices at passengers that carried huge bags, had clothes stained by travel, and most important of all, did not speak the Shanghai dialect. Instead of "dear passengers," the local ticket sellers called them Xiang'o'ning (hicks in Shanghaiese).
However, an increasing number of people surged toward Shanghai as it opened more to the outside world, and the locals' overt contempt seems to be waning.
But alas, non-natives are still more likely, as anecdotal evidence shows, to be ripped off by taxi drivers going out of their way to take long detours, or be sniffed at by 40-something aunties gossiping under the roofs of their shanty towns.
It goes without saying that living in one of the most glamorous cities in China, Shanghaiese feel spontaneous certain pride. But why they feel so good about themselves is still questionable.
In actuality, the nowadays bulk of so-called Shanghainese are descendents of their grandparents who migrated from other parts of China back in the pre-1949 period. It is these non-locals that have made Shanghai what it is today: the country's financial hub, a tourist haunt, a premier center of cultural activities, and the host city of 2010 World Expo, a far cry from the run-down fishing county it was before it opened the port.
Several local people feel a deep sense of insecurity as talent from outside Shanghai flood into it. Deep down, they blame these outlanders for grabbing jobs, crowding the city streets, and ap-parently edging locals out.
Some self-aggrandizing Shanghainese, despite their own deprived livelihoods, are happy to still refer to non-locals as hicks to make up for their own bruised egos.
The Expo is supposed to be about opening up to the world. I just hope Shanghainese will open up to the rest of China.
The author is a Shanghai-based freelance writer. 
