Bounded by circumstances, Shanghai and Hong Kong began their fast twirl toward modernity. While the former may have set the faster tempo, the two cities swapped the lead when it came to embracing new things. The rickshaw, a Japanese invention, was introduced to Shanghai and Hong Kong in 1873 and 1874 respectively. In 1881, Hong Kong launched its first public telephone service and Shanghai followed one year later.

However, the different nature of the two societies - Hong Kong being a British colony and Shanghai, a city divided among Chinese and foreign powers - meant that things that were easily picked up by Hong Kong would usually take much longer time to be fully adopted in Shanghai.

One example is the public tram service, which, at its inception in Hong Kong in 1904, covered the entire island. In Shanghai, it first became available in the International Settlement, before being introduced to French Concession, and finally, the rest of Shanghai known as the Chinese District, in 1913.

An old Shanghai poster featuring a pipa performer. File photo

But according to Zhang Wenyong, researcher from the Shanghai History Museum, such "desynchronization" may not necessarily be a bad thing.

"It's true that different administrative zones tended to have different timetables and favor different operating companies but that also created an element of competition," he says. "Besides, there's also plenty of cooperation. For the cars to run throughout the city, the different track designs must feature the same width."

The presence of more than one foreign influence had contributed greatly to Shanghai's multi-culturalism, says Ting Sun-pao, former chief curator of the Hong Kong Museum of History. "In sharp contrast to Hong Kong, which saw itself fall unequivocally for a singular British culture, Shanghai was ultimately more internationalized and open-minded," he says.

And contrary to common belief, Shanghai, with its walled concession areas, had proven to be a more porous society than Hong Kong, where Chinese and foreigners "lived in two worlds". Ideas clashed and gave birth to such "cultural freaks" as Liu Haisu, who brought nude models into painting classes and Zhang Jingsheng, who advocated sex education.

Consequently, a glamorous, avant-garde and more "material" Shanghai emerged and dominated the HK-Shanghai dialogue for the first half of the 20th century but back then, was there any talk of superiority as there is now?

"No, because Shanghai was unquestionably better, and more desirable," says Chan, pointing to a mini comic film from that era, in which people of all ages and professions were seen thronging the train station shouting in unison "Shanghai! Shanghai!".