Rue Massenet to Sinan Lu

Street names mark the lives of people and are very difficult to change in the common mind. There are numerous example of streets that reverted back to their old names after political changes, notably in Eastern Europe. As in all cities, street names in Shanghai carry the city’s history with them.

massenet

Most large streets in the old concessions were created with reference to the British and French powers of the day. Each street had a foreign name and a Chinese name that sometimes had a similar sound, sometimes not. Today’s Nanjing Xi Lu was called Bubbling Well Road, thanks to the springing fountain that was somewhere near Jing An temple. Chinese called it (very pragmatic as always) Jing An Si Lu as the road was leading to Jing An Temple.  The big change came in 1949, with the communist ideology takeover. Avenue Joffre (or Sha Fei lu in Chinese) became known as Huai Hai Lu, one of the most important communist victory of the civil war. Avenue Edouard VII / Avenue Joffre became known as Yanan Lu, the refuge of Mao Ze Dong during the 1930’s. Route des soeurs became Rui Jin Lu, the location of the first communist republic in China in the 1920’s.

It took me a while to spot the ones that did not change… and there are surely some that I am missing. The first one that I found was Route Cohen in the former French Concession. Cohen being obviously a Jewish name, the street was surely named after an important French Jewish citizen of Changhai, but until now I did not find who he was. Some suggested that it could be Morris Abraham “Two-gun” Cohen who was a famous aide-de-camp to Sun Yat Sen, but I find it very unlikely. The translation of Cohen in Chinese is GaoLan… just like Gao Lan Lu today which is the former route Cohen. Interestingly enough, Route Cohen kept its name, the Chinese name continues to be used today.

One of the forgotten pieces
One of the forgotten pieces

The most interesting so far is the story of Rue Massenet. While Route Cohen is a 1930’s street in the back of the French Concession, Sinan lu is an early street probably built around 1912. It is contemporary of the crossing Rue Vallon (today Nanchang Lu), named after the first person to fly an airplane over Shanghai sky and died in a plane crash in 1911. Vallon’s name did not survive, but Massenet’s did. Sinan in Shanghainese is pronounced “seney”, sounding very similar to (Mas)senet in French, so the Rue Massenet / Seney lu became Sinan lu in today’s Shanghai. Through the ages and name changes, Rue Massenet’s Chinese name survived and is still used today. The Massenet name has resurfaced recently, being used for the fancy “Hotel Massenet” part of renovation project “Sinan Mansions”. The survival of Massenet’s name is probably due to the personality of Jules Massenet, a very famous French music composer in late XIX and early XXth century. He reached world fame thanks to his opera, in particular Manon and Werther and died in 1912 around the time Sinan Lu was built. There are Rue Massenet in Paris and other French cities as well. His style went out of fashion soon after his death with all the changes in life and fashion that followed WWI. His name is only known today by music specialist and although his work is still played abroad, he is virtually unkown in today’s France… but his name has survived in Shanghai. Another reason for the street name never to be changed is probably that both Sun Yat Sen and Zhu En Lai lived on the street at the time of the street name change. Sometimes the wave of change just stops right before the rulers doorsteps.

11 thoughts on “Rue Massenet to Sinan Lu”

  1. When I lived in Shanghai. the Chinese pronounced the famous Avenue Joffre as Ya Fee Lu.

    Shanghainese oldtimers still remember this name

  2. Tres tres interessant to article! Superbe! A quand un article sur “rue Chu Pao San”? 🙂

  3. You are right. Since there is no spelling code for Shanghainese used anymore, it’s sounds like “sha fei lu” using current ping ying.
    This is actually one of the few streets that people will recognise and know what it is instantly, even today.
    Streets name are hard to erase.

  4. During the 1920s to 1940s, the Zengs, father (Pu) and son (Xubai) ran a bookstore and publishing house at 115 Rue Massenet. They also ran a salon in the evenings for Francophiles to speak French and discuss the literature. (Zeng Pu was an expert on Victor Hugo). Zeng Pu died relatively young, but his son threw in his lot with the KMT and lived to 100 in Taiwan, respected as a literary figure. I believe Sun Yat Sen lived at 29 Rue Massenet.

    Zeng Pu never visited France, but felt he had it, or its influence/ambience, all around him in the street names which reminded him of French authors and composers. He regarded Avenue Joffre as his own Champs Elysées.

    I have written a book on life for foreigners and Chinese during this period: Gudao, Lone Islet, obtainable from my website.(margaretblair.com) Another book comes out later this year. Mes voeux tres respectueux, Margaret Blair

  5. Rue Massenet was called Ma Si Nan Lu. The character Ma was left out after renaming. My mother lived there when she was a child in the 1930’s with my grandfather. They lived opposite to Zhou En Lai’s house.

  6. Thanks John. The pronounciation for Mandarin Ma Si Nan is very close to Massenet in Shanghainese. The current name is a direct remaining of the old French name.

  7. Does anyone know about the Boarding House, run by my wife’s grandmother, Mrs Rose (or Rosanna) Stewart, at 31 Rue Massenet. Rose died in 1928.

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