本文試圖透過王安憶及王家衛的作品來說明上海與香港在不同的時間點相互凝視，以因應全球化地理重整所帶來的衝擊。上海邁向全球化城市“一年一個樣，三年大變樣”的巨變使得凝視香港成為接受當下、眺望未來的典範。而香港歷經政治經濟風暴，全球城市的地位今不如昔。此時此刻與上海“血脈相連”的歷史使得老上海順理成章地成為未來的理想投射。深究全球化情境下的港滬雙城論述，香港與上海不僅是彼此的過去，同時更是各自想像的未來，換句話說，城市連結是都會區域主體自我書寫的語言，更是全球化自我定義過程中抒發慾望及恐懼的媒介，藉以回應當代複雜多變的地緣政治。

Juxtaposing Wang Anyi’s and Wong Kar-wai’s tales of the link between Hong Kong and Shanghai as global city-regions, we find the cities' gazes at different historic moments reveal the impact of capital reorganization. The narrative strategies in a sense legitimize geopolitical changes for the city-users. Wang Anyi’s writings suggest that during Shanghai's period of drastic transformation, which began in the early 1990s, Hong Kong offers a vision of what a globalized Shanghai might look like and also gives the nod to urban development. On the other hand, going as it is through a political and economic crisis, post-1997 Hong Kong needs to assure itself of its importance as a global city like New York and London at this “restless moment.” It is at this point that the history of the Hong Kong-Shanghai link looms large, becoming the ideal mirror image of Hong Kong’s future. We could argue that what characterizes contemporary narrative of Hong Kong and Shanghai as cities “linked at birth” is that not only do they serve as one another’s past, as one another’s roots, but they also serve as the promised future in the mirror of globalization. In other words, the concepts of linkage and network provide a language in which users of global city-regions may articulate their fears and desires in the process of identity formation, in response to the geopolitical contingencies of our time.