On the Monday 7th April, I was invited to make a presentation for the “Société d’histoire des Français de Chine” (French in China historical society). The presentation was the closing event for the annual French language month, or “Mois de la francophonie”. It took place in the presence of the Consul General of France in Shanghai, Joan Valadou.
Stain glass in the former College municipal Français
This beautiful building was originally the French Club in Shanghai. From 1924, the French Club moved to the new location Route P`ere Robert and the building became the “Coll“ege Municipal Français”, the main French school in Old Shanghai. Children of the French community studied in there, among them Rena Kraszno and Liliane Willens. Before the presentation, we took a tour of this beautiful building.
The presentation focused on the life and work of Stéphanie Rosen-Hoa. I have written a number of articles on the topic as well as the Shanghai movie “Love and duty” that was made after one of her novel. The presentation was in French. The video recording will be available in a few months on the website of the Société d’Histoire des Français de Chine. I will share the link here when available.
Following the success of his TV series 繁花/Shanghai blossoms early 2024, Wong Kar-Wai’s movie “In the mood for love” or “花樣年華” as been re-released in China this February. 2025 marks the 25th anniversary of the movie, that is shown in restored director’s cut. This is a great opportunity for many young Chinese people to view this great movie.
The 2000 Cannes Festival Palme d’Or has not lost any of its beauty. The light and pictures are still incredibly beautiful. The tender play of actress Maggie Cheung (also staring in the movie about Ruan Lingyu “Center stage”) and actor Tony Leung is still touching the spectator.
Great lights and qipao
Set in Hong Kong in the 1960s, In the mood for love tells the story of an impossible love between both characters. Although filmed in Cantonese, the movies also includes Shanghai speaking sub characters, showing the extend of the Shanghai diaspora in Hong Kong at that time, in which director Wong Kar-Wai grew up. The movie is also famous for the 20 something qipao / 旗袍 also called Cheongsam / 长衫 in HongKong worn by Maggie Cheung. They were all made by an Old Shanghai master, underlining the link between the movie and Shanghai.
Last but not least, the amazing music from Japanese composer Shigeru Umebayashi stays with the viewer long after the end of the movie. In the mood for love is one of my favorite movie and does not seem to age even if I did not understand dialogs in Cantonese (subtitles are only in Chinese for this release in China).
French polish author Horose (aka Stéphanie Rosen-Hoa or 羅琛華) lived in Beijing with her Chinese husband Hua Nangui / 华南圭 from 1910 to 1937. The couple had a rich cultural life, both of them publishing books that became highly influential in China. While Hua Nangui published books helping develop and implement technology in China, Horose wrote numerous novel focused on observation of changes in the Chinese society at the time. (see post “The story of Horose or S. Rosen-Hoa” for more details about her story).
As a writer couple in Beijing, they had a large circle of literary friends. They were definitely supportive and involved in the nationalist and literary movement that became known as the May 4th movement and had links with some of its prime members.
Students demonstrating in Beijing on May 4th 1919
Horose main book was “Love and duty“, also known as “恋爱与义务”. The novel was written in French, and translated into Chinese by Zhao Zun Xin / 赵祖欣. Later welknown as Zhao Shaohou / 赵少侯, he graduated from the French department of Beijing University in 1919. He was a teacher and director of the Literature and Art Department of Sino-French University, a lecturer of the French Department of Peking University, and an editor of the People’s Literature Publishing House. He began to publish his works in 1932. His translation of Moli`ere’s “The Hypocrite” (Tartuffe), “The Misanthrope” (Le misanthrope) and “The Miser” (L’avare) are still authoritative today. He also was a major translator of Maupassant’s “Boule de Suif”, and “The Necklace” (La parure). As “Love and duty” was published in 1921, it was probably one of his first French book translation.
Cai Yuanpei / 蔡元培
Foreword for the book version of “Love and Duty” was written by Chinese philosopher and politician Cai YuanPei / 蔡元培. Having studied in Leipzig University until 1907, he became minister of Education in 1912 then President of Beijing University in 1917. Supporter of usage of common language or “Baihua” in litterature, he was an inspiration for the May 4th movement.
Finally, the proof reader of the book was none else than famous Shanghainese writer Hu Shih / 胡适 who was also Chinese ambassador to the US. He also advocated the usage of “Baihua” in litterature and was an inspirer for the May 4th movement.
Hu Shih / 胡适
Although difficult to prove, it can be assumed that Horose organized a cultural and literary salon at her home in Beijing. This kind of salon was very common in Jewish communities in Central Europe and Horose being originally from Poland surely had heard or seen some. This is somewhat similar to Hungarian Jewish Bernardine Szold Fritz , whose salon that took place in Shanghai in the 1930s (see post Bernardine’s Shanghai Salon).
Bernardine Szold Fritz also had connection with Chinese cultural and literary people, in particular with writer 胡适 / Hu Shih who did proofreading for Horose’s “Love and duty” . Maybe they met through him, maybe Horose even took part to Bernardine’s salon during one of her many trips to Shanghai (see post “Horose in Shanghai” for more details). In any case, both women were central to cultural life, one in Shanghai, the other one in Beijing.
After having looked into the Ruan Lingyu movie “Love and duty“, I discovered that the movie was made from a book also called “Love and duty” written first in French by a French-Polish author living in Beijing, and then translated into Chinese. (See post “The story of Horose or Stephanie Rosen-Hoa” for more details). While Horose was mostly living in Beijing, and sometimes Paris, this article focuses on her relationship with Shanghai.
The book “Love and duty“, by Horose or Stéphanie Rosen-Hoa was a bestseller in China. It was first published as a 8 parts series in the literary magazine of Shanghai based Commercial press 小说世界 (The World of novels) in 1921 with 羅琛華 as the author. Commercial Press then published a book version as “恋爱与义务” in 1924, which was a great success. The English version was also published by Commercial Press in 1926 (for more details, see post: “Love & duty, the book“).
During all that time, Stéphanie Rosen-Hoa was living in Beijing with her husband Hua Nangui / 华南圭 who was originally from Wuxi and her two children. Hua Nangui designed and built their house in Beijing in 1914, using a combination of Chinese and Western style.
Picture of Horose in from of her family house in Beijing, curtesy of Catherine Hoa.
Commercial Press was headquartered in Shanghai, so she must have to down South from Beijing to negotiate the publication of her books. At that time, trips from Beijing to Shanghai took either the boat from Tianjin harbour, or the Peking Express. Although there are no real traces from those travels, one can assume that Horose would come to Shanghai once or twice a year.
Below picture is an advertising for Commercial Press books, published in JB Powell’s China Weekly Review on 12th Feb 1927. One can assume that the books listed were the best sellers of Commercial Press at the time. It is amazing to see Love and Duty juste next to Lu Xun’s “The true story of Ah Q”, of which English translation was published in 1927.
Ad in the China Weekly Review – 12th Feb 1927
As mentioned by Kristine Harris in her article : “Ombres Chinoises, split screens and parallel lives in Love and Duty”, “By 1930, the novel had gained broader name recognition among urban audiences, the Commercial Press had already issued three impressions of the English version and four of the Chinese version.” Lou Mingyou, the future director of the movie, read the book and contacted the author. Horose was hired as a consultant for the movie that was released in 1931. During that time, she probably spent much more time in Shanghai, as the movie studio were located in the city. I did not find traces of contacts between Horose and the French community. Probably they were few, with the French community kept away by the language barrier from the Chinese and English literary success that was Love & Duty, as well as lack of interest into “Chinese things” from the French community in general.
The only link with the French Concession that I found is that most of the outdoor sets for the movie Love and Duty where located in the French Concession. They were all located around freshly built properties of the FONCIM (Société Foncière et Immobilière), the real estate subsidiary of the French run International Saving Society, the highly successful life insurance company headquartered in Shanghai. Although it may be random, one can also assume that Horose got somehow in touch with FONCIM management to use those locations and feature them in the movie.
As Horose fame grew in China, she started to give talks that were advertised. A few of them were mentioned in the Shanghai English press. The North China Daily news in the 10th December 1933 edition published a short article mentioning that Horose was in Shanghai on that date, presenting her new book “Double Chains” in Chinese. It also mentions that “she is later to collect material in Nanking for another book. This is expected to be called “Through the Great Wall” and will be published in Paris.” That book was actually published under the name “La muraille de Pékin `a Paris”, in 1929 in Paris.
Double Chains by Horose, Chinese edition
The last article found was published in the China Press, on 2nd June 1936. It mentions the conference given by “Mme Kuai”, further named as “Mme L Rosen-Hoa Nan Kuai” to the WCTU (Women Christian Temperance Union). Horose is introduced as “the author of He & She, Double Chains, Love & duty and book of essays. Her husband who is an engineer translates them into Chinese.”
Horose went back to France in 1937 and only came back to China in 1966, before passing away in Beijing in 1970. For more details about her life, please go to post “The Story of Horose, or S. Rosen-Hoa“.
After 3 years in the making, the first TV series of Wong Kar-wai (王家卫) has finally been released in the first days of January 2024. 繁花 (Shanghai blossoms) in English has taken like a storm. The TV series was broadcasted every night for 15 days, with 2 episodes / night. It was simultaneously available on online platforms. Every body has watched “繁花“，and everybody has watched it and everybody is talking about it. Focused on 1990s Shanghai, it is a little far away from this blogs topic, but definitely worth a post.
Shanghai born Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai 王家卫 is mostly known outside of China for the 2000 movie “In the mood for love” 花樣年華 that was nominated for Palm d’Or at Cannes festival 2000 and for which main actor, Tony Leung, won best actor. The move is also famous for its unforgettable soundtrack. Set in Shanghai in the 1990s, this new TV series offers quite similar dark atmosphere and visuals with many night scenes and and great music.
Recreating the 90s
Taking place in Shanghai, it was filmed in Shanghainese dialect (shown with Chinese subtitle). Casting required most actors to be able to speak Shanghainese, who later dubbed a version in Mandarin that will be easier to understand by the rest of China. In a similar way to 2020 movie “B for busy” 爱情神话 (follow this link to original post about the movie), it particularly resonates with Shanghainese people. Shanghainese language has been on the decline in the last 30 years, so seeing major movie in Shanghainese language is an attraction. For more information about it, best is to read the article on English language magazine sixth tone by following this link https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1014442
A lot of energy was spent in collecting iconic objects for the 90s, including cars (mostly Volkswagen Santana), portable phone, cloths and other items, recreating a realistic Shanghai 90s picture. The story is based on a book of same name, inspired by real events from the 90s. The series really encapsulates the energy and craziness of 90s Shanghai, in a time that is not so crazy anymore. This reminds me a lot of about craziness and energy about Central Europe in the 90s, having lived both in Shanghai and Budapest in the 90s, I could see a lot of similarities. I am sure the series will be shown on tv outside of China. Watch for “Blossom Shanghai” when it comes.
Some of Shanghai blossoms main characters
Although the series was filmed in a purpose built decor in Shanghai film studio, where I went for a visit a number of years ago (see post “Shanghai cinema studio“), the story takes place in real Shanghai locations. Huang He lu, 黄河路 a former hyped street behind Park Hotel that had become totally sleepy after the 90s has become crowded with young people taking selfies.
黄河路 Huang He lu is suddenly the place to be
The English room of Peace Hotel (former Cathay Hotel) where part of the action also takes place is now booked for months in advance by people willing to recreate the experience of being there. Many restaurants now serve special “繁花” with food inspired by the series. Hopefully the hype will create interest in Shanghai history and help Shanghai preservation.
French movie “The crime is mine” is inspired by a play from the 1930s. Director Francois Ozon have turned into a movie that has many references to French cinema past and present, including many actors that are famous in France. This will probably be lost to the non French viewer. What is stunning for the 1930s and Art Deco fan are the fantastic decors and costumes.
1930s locations around Paris and further have been used, including the below bridge that is located in Bagneux, a few kilometers from Paris.
Le pont des Suisses in Bagneux
The story is focused on two ladies, one of which being accused of killing a major film producer, and the other one being her lawyer. The crime is taking place in the luxurious villa of the producer, which is actually the fabulous Villa Empain in Brussels.
The villa Empain in Brussels
Costumes were carefully modeled after the 1930s fashion, creating a real visual univers for the movie. This helps to imagine how life in part of the former French Concession looked like.
Great 1930s costumes
The whole movie has a light atmosphere. Many people seem to like it, although I tend to prefer a noir atmosphere for movied taking place in this period, just like TV series Babylon Berlin taking place in the 1930s. In any case, The crime is mine will delight Art Deco et 1930s fan.
Actress Ruan LingYu 阮玲玉 was one of the main star of Shanghai cinema in the 1930s. Shanghailander.net’s series of blog posts about her 1931 movie “Love and duty” sparked interest in the readers. One of them pointed me to the 1991 Stanley Kwan Hong Kong movie “Center Stage” or 阮玲玉 (Ruan Lingyu) in Chinese.
Center stage 阮玲玉 / Movie poster
Center Stage is focused on the life of actress Rang Lingyu, from the time she became an actress for the Lian Hua studio in 1930.
Stanley Kwan Hong Kong movie mixes biopic like scenes with cuts from the two remaining original movies (The Godess 1934 and New women 1935). It also adds interviews from people who actually knew Ruan Lingyu, and of some of the movie cast. Maggie Cheung is fantastic at interpreting Ruan Lingyu’s sensibility.
Maggie Cheung playing Ruan Lingyu
One of stunning feature of the movie is that various actors speak different Chinese dialects to each other. Ruan Lingyu, as many people of the Lian Hua studio speak cantonese. Other characters speak mandarin or Shanghai dialect, but they all seem to understand each other somehow.
A number of surviving pictures have been studied to recreate the original scenes. Enormous work has been done on the architecture, art, fabrics and objects of the time. The art deco mansion occupied by the Lian Hua studio feels like a Shanghai villa, just like the dance club is clearly inspired by Shanghai’s paramount.
Great decors creating the atmosphere
Although not so well known in the West, the movie was well received by critics, with Maggie Chueng earning a Silver price for acting in Berlin festival in 1992. It is definitely a must see for Old Shanghai lovers. Too bad “Love and Duty” was only found and restored after “Center Stage” was made, that would have been a great match.
The 1931 movie “Love and Duty” （恋爱与义务）was a great success in 1930s Shanghai. It was the first big movie with actress Ruang Linguy who would become the superstar of Shanghai cinema, until her suicide in 1935. I have written several posts about some of the location where the movie was made in Shanghai (see post “Love and Duty” for more details). This post is showing the video that was made of the location search.
You will find more information about Ruan Lingyu, the movie “Love and Duty” and film locations in posts “Love and Duty” Part 1 and 2.
This post is the second one focused on the 1931 Ruan Lingyu movie, Love and Duty (恋爱与义务) “Love and Duty (part 1)” was focused on showing modernity and westernisation in 1930s Shanghai through some scenes of the movie. This part is focused on searching for actual film locations in today’s Shanghai.
The first part of the movie is taking place in a upper class neighborhood called “Kiangwan”. Jiangwan (today spelling of Kiangwan) was then a far suburb of Shanghai, chosen by the nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek to create a new city center away from the foreign concessions (See post “Ordinary metropolis” for more details). This was supposed to be the incarnation of modern upper class neighborhood in Shanghai. The movie “Love and Duty” was released in 1931. At that time, the plan for Jiangwan was already made, but the first building, the Jiangwan civic center, was still under construction, finished in 1`932. To illustrate this modernity and high level, the director used the streets of the French Concession as film location.
19312023
The first minutes of the movie shows view of the surroundings. Despite the changes, the above picture is the same as the right and below picture. The house is located on Route Delastre (today TaiYuan lu) and Route Remy (Today Yongkang lu). Design and marking on the front wall is very unique.
19312023
Even more unique are the arcs of this residence in the Yongkang road, shown a few minutes later. Although the structure of the buildings has been altered an little, it is easy to recognise, on former Route Rémy (today Yong Kang Lu). This location is a few meters from the above one on Taiyuan Lu.
Above corner street corner is of Yongkang lu and Taiyuan lu. It has changed since 1931 and a small building on the right has been turned down but the location is still easy to recognise. The CMF stones have been covered or removed but the iconic door on the left side is still here. In 1931, this part of the city was recently built and urbanised. Like many buildings in this area, this settlement was owned by the “Société Fonci`ere et immobili`ère” also called Foncim, one of the major real estate company in the French Concession.
Later on in the movie, the main character goes to look for jobs in the business district. This is clearly filmed in the area behind the Bund, but exact locations are difficult to identify apart from one. In Old Shanghai, the French Concession was a residential area, and the International Settlement’s district behind the Bund was the location for finance and trading houses.
In front of Park Hotel
During his job search, the character walks up the street shown above. One ca recognise the famous furniture store “Arts and Crafts” that was located on the corner of Bubbling Well Road and Park Road (today Nanjing Xi Lu and HuangHe Lu). This particular building does not exist anymore and was replaced by a higher corner building. The space of the HS Honisberger building, is now occupied by Park Hotel (built in 1934). The scene was filmed in front of the Foreign YMCA (today Sport Museum), on the side of the horse race course (today people square). Just like the early scenes were filmed in the most modern residential district, this was filmed in the most modern business district of the city.
Follow this link for the next post from this thread, “Love and duty, the book“, focusing on the book used as a base for the movie. The movie “Love and Duty” can be viewed on the Chinese video platform bilibili.com (use this link to access it). A video about the search for “Love and Duty” locations has been published in post “Looking for Love and Duty“. For more analysis of the movie “Love and Duty” and the modernity of Shanghai life seen in the movie, please go to post “Love and Duty (Part 1)“.
Ruan Lingyu (阮玲玉) was one of the stars of Old Shanghai movies. Acting in silent movies her career brutaly stopped when she committed suicide in 1935.
Ryan Lingyu in « Love and duty »
One of her main movies, “Love and Duty”（恋爱与义务）1931, was supposed to be lost until a full copy was found in Uruguay in the early 1990s. After restoration, the film was shown at Shanghai Film festival in 2014.
Love and Duty, movie title
Love and Duty is a melodramatic movie about the terrible choice of a lady between her high school sweetheart and her husband and family. It is a silent movie, with all intertitles both in English and in Chinese as it was often the case then in Shanghai. The first part of the movie is taking place in the high level neighborhood. It gives a great look into the life of upper class Chinese people in Old Shanghai. I have read many books about it (including ‘Remembering Shanghai“), or seen modern movies (see post “Shanghai the movie“) as well as tv series taking place in Old Shanghai. However, seeing a real movie from the area depicting the real life of people is amazing.
Eating in a 1930s western restaurant in Shanghai
The restaurant scene in the movie is stunning. This is taking place in the early 1930’s. A couple in love goes for a date in a western restaurant, eating with fork and knife, drinking (imported) red wine (a few images before), while listening to Jazz music with Art Deco back ground. When I came to Shanghai about 20 years, this kind of scene was not so common in the city and very rare out of Shanghai. A place like legendary M on the Bund, opened only in 2002. It was really difficult to imagine that 1930s Shanghai was already so modern and westernised.
Just like today, imported drinks were readily available and consumed.
The former French Concession was clearly then one of the desired place to live. Above image is newspaper article read in the movie (first in Chinese, then in English), clearly mentionning Rue Lafayette (today Fuxing Lu) as a place of living for “a local wealthy resident”.
On the top of intertitles in Chinese and English, signage shown in the background is always bilingual, as it was surely usual in Shanghai then. A large part of the movie takes place in Shanghai city. Although it is not mentionned, it is either in the International Settlement or in the French Concession. I am working on a specific post will be dedicated to film locations.
Bilingual No parking allowed sign in English and Chinese
Cars were a luxury items but private cars and taxis were readily available for the upper part of the society. Old movies from the 1920 or 1930’s Shanghai ( see Old Shanghai short movie) often shows the busy streets of the international settlements. Some of the scenes are filmed along plane tree planted road that were surely located in the former French Concession. I have never seen this kind of pictures before. There are a few scenes of 1920s modernity with cars, including one with road work (!) as seen below.
Driving along the plane trees
The last piece that I thought really showed that Shanghai was a very modern city is the hero scene. The main male characters reads a novel, called the hero. Then he dreams that he is saving his beloved after a pirate style sword fight.
This scene is very strongly inspired by some Hollywood movie scene from the period. Sword fight movies, also called swashnucklers, were really fashionnable at that time. The Hollywood start of the genre was Douglas Fairbanks, with movies including “The mark of Zorro” (1920) and “The three musketers” (1921). “The black pirate”(1926) clearly influenced the movie as seen in this sword fight scene. Hollywood movies were very popular in Shanghai. Douglas Fairbanks arctually visited Shanghai and stayed at the Majestic Hotel. The success of Hollywood moviedhelped to make the Spanish colonial revial architectural style popular in Shanghai (See post “Spanish revival architecture” for more details) as well as Art Deco. Hollywood movies also strongly inspired the local production, turning Shanghai into a little Hollywood in Asia.
For a look into actual film location of the movie “Love and Duty”, please go to post “Love and Duty (part 2)“. Before being a successful movie, “Love and Duty” was first a book written by mysterious author Horose. For more details, please follow the link “Love and duty, the book“.
