Archives

 Version Française I was more than pleased to read Paul French’s new historical novel “City of Devils” launched  at the Shanghai Literary Festival (Thank you for getting a dedicated copy, Matthias). As I am a fan of Shanghai 1930s I definitely appreciated this book bringing a new stone to the house of the city’s memories with focus on Japanese surrounded Shanghai period. I actually already commented the “solitary island” time, when Shanghai was blockaded within the Foreign Concessions and developed a new entertainment... [Lire la suite]

 Version Française If you guys have seen “The World of Suzie Wong”, a 1960 love movie taking place in Hong Kong, you might remember that the title character lived in a rather poor area, probably one of the slums on the hills South of Wan Chai, before the Hong Kong construction boom. In those years, Hong Kong got overwhelmed by Chinese migrants (750 000 in the 1960s, one fourth of Hong Kong population!) ), most of them coming from the South regions. As the British colony was not prepared to receive such a large number of... [Lire la suite]

 Version Française Built in 1927 by the Kadoorie family, Hong Kong Peninsula Hotel is actually not located in Hong Kong Island but in Kowloon for a good reason. It was there that most of travelers who ended there journey on land would wait for the ferries to cross the Hong Kong strait. The lavish palace was precisely facing the railway tracks of the Trans-Siberian, next to another place of memory for long distance travelers or migrants, the Kowloon YMCA. Stories of migrants are many but not everybody, by far, could afford... [Lire la suite]

Version Française A lot of things have already been said or written on Victor Sassoon, the founder of the Peace Hotel in Shanghai. Recently the wonderful book by Taras Grescoe "Shanghai Grand" gives an extensive account of his love relationship with American author Emily Hahn, a woman he had to share with Chinese dandy and poet Shao Xunmei. After reading this amazing story, I wanted to know more however, about this extravagant character and decided to travel to Dallas to dig into his personal diaries which are kept there. Elice... [Lire la suite]

Version Française Among the iconic places I still had no opportunity to visit during my years staying in Shanghai was the legendary Ezra Mansion at 1209 Huaihai Middle Road. Surprisingly this house is located right near where I live but it was never visible from the street until these a few weeks. On the occasion of the moving of the Redleaf International Hospital to Songyuan Road, the front part of the compound has recently being demolished, revealing one of the most legendary residences of Shanghai to strollers on Middle... [Lire la suite]

Version Française When I received a message from James McCabe, asking for help into tracing his family roots in Shanghai during a visit with his son Andrew, I was more than excited. James lives in Santa Fe New Mexico but his Portuguese origin family used to live in Shanghai from the 1880s to 1949. Of course, I knew that many Portuguese migrants had settled in Hongkew at the end of the 19th century, following the opening of Shanghai treaty port. There might have been some 1300 "Macanese", as the Macao originated Portuguese were then... [Lire la suite]

Version Française When I was young, as  Internet simply did not exist, there was no such thing like fast search engine or knowledge sharing sites like Google or Wikipedia. The best way for me to learn about the rest of the world was a Larousse dictionary. Apart from the common names section, it included a short illustrated encyclopedia telling about countries, famous people and cities. At that time, the Cold War between the West  and the Soviet Block was officially over but the Eastern part of Europe was still separated... [Lire la suite]

Version Française As I was flipping in the pages of "Chin chin" (青青电影), a Shanghai late 1930s cinema magazine, I was attracted by the many pictures of movie stars photographed at the swimming pool. I have already written the story of Yang Xiuqiong, the famous Chinese mermaid, who won swimming competitions during the 1930s. I did not realize, however, how much swimming was in style in those years. Actually almost every life and culture magazine had a section dedicated to pool activities, portraying young beautiful ladies in swimming... [Lire la suite]

Version Française As I was having xiaolongbao, a Shanghai type of dumpling, in a tea house called Lao Shanghai on East Fangbang Road, my attention was caught by an exhibited 1930s Art Deco magazine cover. It showed a young lady wearing a bikini-type swimming suit. This outfit is not  common on Shanghai magazines as ladies often wear qipaos. However, swimming was quite fashionable, representing modernity in the 1930s. So I thought that this cover was just another way to attract the readers attention with the new type of healthy... [Lire la suite]

Version Française When I first came to Shanghai in 2010 for the World Expo, I remember being impressed by the remastering of the Huangpu banks from a messy industrial area into a modern and clean designed visitors park. At some point, I crossed to the West side  D zone to see pavilions dedicated to technology. Then I walked on an elevated pathway overlooking a plaza containing three longs dry docks. I could not imagine at that time that those were the last traces of one of China's earliest shipyards.  History of the... [Lire la suite]