Real Old Shanghai character Archives

Meeting with Horose grand daughter

The starting point of this thread was silent movie “Love & Duty” with Old Shanghai superstar Ruan Lingyu/ 阮玲玉. It continued with the discovery of the movie original plot was from a book actually written by a Horose i.e. Stéphanie Rosen-Hoa. She was an unusual character, being a Polish lady married with famous Chinese engineer and writer Hua Nangui / 华南圭. The couple met in Paris were both were studying, but the book was written while the couple lived in Beijing in the 1920s. Then fate put me in touch with their grand daughter (Catherine Hoa / 华新民) who still lives in Beijing.

Léon Hoa, Irène and the children in Beijing. Catherine Hoa in the middle

Catherine Hoa / 华新民 was born in Beijing in 1954. Her father was Léon Hoa / 华揽洪 (1912 – 2012) who was the son of Stéphanie Rosen-Hoa and Hua Nangui / 华南圭. Léon Hoa was a French-Chinese architect who was educated in France and had a successful architecture career in France in the 1930s and 40s, then in China in the 1950s. Horose’s book “Love and duty” is dedicated to him. Catherine Hoa / 华新民 ‘s mother was Irene a French lady. The couple got married in France in the 1930s. In 1951, they decided to come back to China together to help build the new People’s Republic. They lived in the family house in Beijing that was built in 1914 by Hua Nangui / 华南圭. This is also where Catherine Hot / 华新民 grew up.

Catherine speaks perfect French as she grew up in a French family in China. “My siblings were born in France, they always felt more French. I was born in China and I feel more Chinese.” she said during our conversation. “Life in Beijing was sometimes difficult as I have blue eyes and I stood out among other Chinese people then. It’s only when I went to France that I could find real anonymity.” The family went through a lot of trouble in the 1950s and 1960s during political trouble that were targeting intellectuals. Catherine Hoa / Hua Xinmin only went first to France in 1961 when she took a trip to France with her mother and sister. The whole family moved back to France in 1976, taking the trans Siberian train through USSR.

Talking with her, I could get a lot more personal information on her grand-parents. “My grand mother and grand father spoke French together since they met in Paris. Horose spoke French and English so she wrote the English and French version of Love & Duty and other books. Her work was translated by my grand father and other people.” The tradition continued as Catherine’s mother spoke no Chinese before coming to China. “I was always called Catherine in the family, never by my Chinese name”.

My grand-mother was friend with many interesting people including André Gide who was her neighbor in France. She also befriended Alexandra David-Néel, the first foreign lady to enter Lhassa, who stayed with her in Beijing (probably in her 1937 trip to China). Moving from France to China in the 1910s was very tough. Fortunately, my grand father had an important job in Beijing, so they never had to live together with his family. At that time, China was very traditional, this would have been a great shock for her.

“My Grand-father is quite well known in China.” She actually published a collection of Hua Nangui writings a few years ago in China. “I have been searching for my Grand Mother story, but we don’t have much information about her time in Poland or how and why she came to Paris. We only know that she had several sisters and one of them moved to Israel after she returned in 1946.” She has very strong willpower and a close very link with my father Leon. She left China in 1939, and only came back to spend her last years with him in 1966. At that time, her beloved husband was already buried in Beijing. They could never meet again after he returned to China in the late 1940s.” Stéphanie Rosen-Hoa passed away in 1970. She is also buried in Beijing.

For more information about Stéphanie Rosen-Hoa and her books, please go to original post “The Story of Horose or S. Rosen-Hoa“.

Former Shanghai Belgian Consulate

After a number of years of renovation, the campus of the Shanghai musical conservatory is now open to the public again. Includes several Old Shanghai building that have been renovated.

The most iconic part of the new project is surely “The German building”. This house in Bavarian style had been hiding in plain sight for years, as its main facade was covered by a more modern building for a long time. After renovation, it is now visible from Huai Hai Lu and attracts a lot of attention.

From the outside, it is clear that a lot of care has been put into the renovation. This massive house of German / Bavarian style wasbuilt for a German merchant between 1905 and 1911. It was designed by German architect firm Becker & Baedecker, that also built the former German club on the Bund. At that time, the road was called Rue Paul Brunat and this part was outside the French Concession area. It was formally included under the French jurisdiction after the extension of the French Concession in July 1914.

The back of the house includes a beautiful covered terrasse, also very well restored. An information plate mention that it was the seat of the Belgian consulate, but research shows it was a different building in the same area (see below).

Getting further into the park, one will encounter the former Shanghai Jewish Club, the main building of the modern Shanghai musical conservatory until a few years ago. Having been expended over the years, it is still used although it is now less visible compared to the newly opened buildings. This building is from 1932, with some art deco elements, much later than the “German building”. It’s interior has renovated many times and has little of the original. The location is close to the compound entrance on Feng Yang lu (former Route Pichon).

Hidden in the back of the compound is another building that was the biggest surprise as I had not spotted it before as it is hidden in the trees.

Its Art Nouveau designs looks very much like Vienna style, which is very rare in China. The only other building in that style I saw was in Wuhan. Along with the rest of the compound, the building has also been recently renovated. The inside is still not open to the public. This building is mentioned in an article from 1919, stating it had already been built by Mr Gerecke for a number of years by then so it was probably built around the same time as the German house.

Mr Emil Gerecke (1862-1933) was an employee of the Deutsche-Asiatische Bank (Bank Germano-Asiatic) in the 1890s, and then made his own company. The 1909 China Directory lists E. Gerecke as a bills broker located Route Pichon, and the Shanghai Club. The firm Gerecke & Sierich, Exchange brokers is also located at this address. He was repatriated to Germany in 1919, and came back to Shanghai in 1924.

The house was sold in 1917 and was turned into Dr J B Fearn Blue bird Sanitorium, a modern healthcare facility. It was named after 1908 Maurice Maeterlink’s play “L’oiseau bleu” (or blue bird in English), that was turned into a famous movie around that that time. The Blue bird Sanitorium lasted until 1926.

From that point, the house was used as the Belgium Consulate in Shanghai. It is indicated on this 1935 map of the French Concession at 30 Route Pichon. The German house does not appear on the map, so it was not an official building then.

Position of Consulate General of Belgium

The footprint of the existing campus has also been greatly expended, now enclosing neighbouring plots that where previously off limit. This part, including the former Ezra mansion will be introduced in a further post.

Apart from the former Belgian Consulate, I have written posts about the former French Consulate, the former French Municipality and the former British Consulate. Follow the links to access them.

Letter from the French Consulate

I have always been fascinated by mail and posts. Before internet took off, I used to write many paper letters to my parents and friends, including on special super light paper for faster “air mails”. I wrote a post about a letter from old Shanghai French municipality a few years ago, this time I got an actual letter from the Shanghai French Consulate.

This envelop sender was the “Consulat Général de France à Changhai”, i.e. Shanghai French Consulate located on the French Bund, as explained in post “Shanghai former French Consulate“. This kind of document is very rare nowadays. It was sent to France, “Via Sibérie”, meaning it was carried by train to Beijing, then on the Transmanchurian railway to Moscow through Dalian and then further on to Paris. I guess that in 1938, the Japanese occupiers of China were “securing” trains on the line. Alternatively, maybe the mail was sent by ship to Dalian, before being boarded on the train as Manchuria was fully controlled by the Japanese since the Mukhden incident in 1931 and the following invasion of Manchuria by the Japanese army. There were ever only a few flights to Shanghai from abroad, and in 1938 they were surely none apart from maybe Japan. Shanghai was in the lone island period, with the French Concession and the International Settlement being surrounded by Japanese occupation.

The envelop postmark shows 22-07-38 / 19. I assume that it’s 22nd July 1938, at 19:00. Just like on the 1936 letter from the French municipality, Shanghai is written both in English and Chinese (from right to left as was the fashion of the time), although a different stamp was used. It was stamped with five 5 dollars stamps, this being a lighter letter than the French municipality letter that required two 25 stamps and was probably heavier. Currency was the Chinese Dollars. Although it’s pretty difficult to convert to today’s money, it was probably not cheap.

It though the French Consul General at the time was Marcel Baudez, reading that he was Consul General from 1936 to 1939. However, Paul French’s China rhyming blog mentioned that he was Consul General from January 1935 to February 1938 and then from November 1938 to April 1940, thus being out of the post at the time when this mail was sent. In any case I do not think that this letter was an official letter from the Consulate. There was not was seal on the back of the letter and he did not go through diplomatic post. As it was send to France by the normal post, it was not an important or confidential official document.

The peculiar address also attracted by attention as it indicates “Adomenil, par Lunéville”. It turns out that Adomenil is a castle, located in the area of Lunéville, a small town in North-East France. The castle was the property of the “de Ravinel” family, a French nobel family starting from the middle of the 15th century. It has been turned into a luxury hotel after the family sold it in 1978.

Baron Charles de Ravinel (1839-1905), the heir of French nobel family from the 16th century was a French politician in the late 19th century. He was also an administrator of famous companies from the area, including the Faiencerie de Lunéville (Lunéville Chinaware company), the Cristallerie de Saint-Louis (Saint-Louis Crystal factory) and Vittel Spring water, that all still exist today.

Baron Charles son was Baron André de Ravinel (1868 1942), who had several children including a daughter called Marie-Françoise de Ravinel born on 6th January 1904 in Lunéville and deceased 20th January 1988 in the same city. She is probably Mlle M. F. de Ravinel, to whom this letter was sent. In 1936, she was 32 years old and was probably unmarried as being named “Mademoiselle”, the then title for unmarried woman in France. From what I could find, she never got married.

Parc de Ravinel (Source Virtual Shanghai)

Today’s Xiangyang park on HuaiHai Zhong Lu, used to called the parc de Ravinel on Avenue Joffre. This particular plot was earmarked to become the location of the new Municipality of the French Concession, designed by Leonard & Vesseyre. The planned building was never built, so a park was created on this plot in 1942. It was named “Square Yves de Ravinel”, after a young employee of the French Consulate who was born in 1911 and based in the Shanghai from 1938 to 1939. He died during WW2 fights in France in 1940 and was remembered in Shanghai through this park. A plate showing his name was also installed then. Yves de Ravinel was the youngest sibling of Marie-Françoise de Ravinel.

So this letter was probably a personal letter from Yves de Ravinel to his older sister, using stationary from the French Consulate. At the time of writing, the Shanghai French Concession and international settlement were pretty lonely, being surrounded by the Japanese army and both areas were overcrowded with refugees. Unfortunately, the letter did not come with this envelop but it certainly mentioned it.

For more research about mails sent from Shanghai French Concession authorities, please see post “Shanghai French Municipality letter“.

The story of Horose or S. Rosen-Hoa (Part 2)

The post is the second part focused on author Horose or Stéphanie Rosen-Hoa. To access Part 1, follow this link.

Stéphanie Rosen-Hoa, also known as Horose or 羅琛華, settled back in Paris in 1926 with her two children, Leon and Simone Hoa. During her stay, her first book in French “La muraille de Pékin à Paris” (The Beijing Great Wall in Paris) in 1929 by Argo, a small publishing house. She managed to get noticed by several newspapers. An article from local paper “l’Avenir de la Touraine” from 11 November 1929 explains that author is a French/Polish lady who married a Chinese and went to live in China. It adds that the book offers a true and interesting picture of the real China including many anecdotes. A few lines with similar comments were also published in in the “Le Bien Public” (Dijon daily), on first Octobre 1929, as well as in “Les dimanches de la femme” (Women Sundays) on 23rd feb 1930.

She returned to China in 1928, leaving her children to be educated in France. In the same year, she published novel “Him and her” in Chinese.

“La symphonie des ombres chinoises” is the French version of Love and Duty. (see “Love and Duty, the book” for more details about the various editions and translation of this particular book). It was published by edition de la Madeleine in 1932, 11 rue Tronchet, a different publishing house from the previous book. I found a copy in an olnine bookstore.

The book forewords end with “Written in Beijing, reviewed in Paris and finished in Geneva” 1932. S Rosen-Hoa definitely took a trip back to Europe in 1932, publishing an article about “Chinese women” in June 1932 in the montly magazine”L’ Egyptienne” and giving a conference about the condition of women in China at the same period at the Lyceum theater in Paris. She is mentioned by the magazine as “famous novelist Horose”. She also was still in Paris on 16th February 1933 as she was a speaker in a conference about China and Japan.

Her son being educated in France came back to China for a visit in 1934. She published the novel “Double practice” in Chinese in the same year.

In 1937, as Japan was invading part of China including Beijing, S. Rosen-Hoa went back to France, probably to escape the war. Hua Anjin followed her in 1939. We have very little information about their life in occupied France, but the refuge from the war that they were probably seeking did not last long. Jews in France were also persecuted and many died in Nazis concentration camp, but S. Rosen-Hoa seemed to have escaped it.

She was still living in Paris in 1947, as she wrote a congratulations letter to novelist André Gide who had just received the Nobel price for literature. It is clearly stated that she was living in the same building as André Gide, 1Bis Rus Vaneau in Paris 7th district, near Invalides.

Her husband Hua Nangui returned to China after the war, along with her son Leon who was an architect and his French wife. S. Rosen-Hoa published one last book in France, “Nos sangs mélés” in 1957. Hua Nangui passed away in 1961.

S. Rosen-Hoa went back to Beijing in 1966 to a China very different from the one she had left nearly 30 years earlier, as the communist party had taken power in 1949 and applied many changes to society. She passed away in Beijing in 1970. Her grand daughter 华新民, still lives in Beijing.

The story of Horose, or S. Rosen-Hoa

Famous Old Shanghai movie “Love and Duty” was based on French novel “La symphonie des ombres Chinoises” by S. Rosen-Hoa also called Horose. Very little has been written about Horose, but putting together current academic articles and own research, I now have quite a clear picture of who she was and about her unusual life.

Stéphanie Rosenthal was born in Kalisz, Central Poland, in 1883 in a jewish family. She moved to Paris around the turn of the Century. In the 19th century many Polish artists, aristocrats and intellectual came to France, and many spoke French. Stéphanie Rosenthal and her family likely already spoke French when they came to France, allowing her to join the French schooling system. She then studied at the Sorbonne University, where she graduated in botany, with a thesis on germination of Plantago in 1910, aged 27.

Graduation thesis for Stéphanie Rosen-Hoa at Paris Sorbonne, 1910

She met her future husband during her studies, both of them being keen learners and practitioners of Esperanto. Hua Nangui / 华南圭 (1876-1961) was a native from Wuxi, Jiangsu province, China. He arrived in France in 1904 to study at the Public Work High School (ESTP Paris) where he was the first Chinese student graduating from the School in 1908. They got married in 1908, after which he worked for “Les Chemins de fer du Nord” (Great Northern Railway). After the wedding, Stéphanie added the name of her husband to her surname, being now called Stéphanie Rosen-Hoa. They always communicated in French as witnessed by relatives. They moved to China in 1910.

Hua Nangui / 华南圭 worked for the Beijing-Hankou railway until 1913 when he took an official post in the Ministry of Transports and Communication of the new Chinese republic. From that point he was involved in promoting of modern technologies, education and railways in China, publishing the first Chinese Railway engineering textbook in 1916.

The first child of the family was born in 1912, Léon Hoa / 華攬洪. The French edition of Love and duty (La Symphonie des ombres Chinoises, 1932) is dedicated to him. The family bought a plot of land in Beijing 量大人胡同(Liangdaren Hutong), built a house and moved in 1914. Horose first novel was published in Chinese by Shanghai based Commercial Press in 1915, under the name of 羅琛華. The topic is centered on a women doctor who got educated in France and returned to China. It is likely that the novel was written in French and translated in Chinese, probably by Hua Nangui / 华南圭. The topic of Chinese students returning from studies abroad and having to adapt back to China was a quite a key topic amongst Chinese returnees in the 2000s, but it was clearly a revival, having been already discussed in the 1910s. It is likely that the circle of friend of Stéphanie Rosen-Hoa included many returning students from Western countries, and maybe Japan that was also very popular for studies at the time. Her daughter Simone was born in 1916 in Beijing.

Her most well known is probably “Love and Duty” which first published in Chinese in 1923 then in English in 1926. With its modernity theme focusing on the opposition between traditional and modern values, in particular about arranged marriage and women’s education, it clearly resonnated with the popular Chinese literature movement at the time, the May 4th movement. This lead for the book to be made into the movie “Love and Duty” that kickstarted the popularity of Lian Hua movie production company (also called UPC) as well as being the first main role for upcoming Chinese superstar Ran Lingyu. The book credited for the 1931 movie is called in French “La symphonie des ombres”, although it was already published in Chinese as “恋爱与义务” from 1921 and in English as “Love and duty” from 1926. As mentioned earlier, it shows that the original novel was probably written in French, although only published in France much later.

Hua Nanhui, S Rosen-Hoa and their two children (about 1920-22)

China in the 1920s was far from politically stable with the Beiyang government being very weak and the country being mostly controlled by warlords, fighting war against each other for territory control. One of the many examples of the lack of safety at that time was the attack of the Peking Express train in 1922 (see post “The Peking Express” for more details). This is probably one of the main reason why she took a trip back to France in 1926 along with her two children. The second part of her life including travels between China and France will be covered in post “The story of Horose or S. Rosen-Hoa (Part 2)“.

For more details about publication of the Chinese, English and French versions of the “Love and duty” please go to post “Love and duty, the book“. For more details about the movie “Love and duty”, please got to post “Love and duty“.

Love and duty, the book

Ruan Yinglu movie “Love and Duty” has been the theme of several posts on this blog, focusing on the movie itself, but also on film locations (To read the thread from start, go to post “Love and duty (part 1)“). The 1931 movie was produced by United Photoplay Service, or a 联华影业公司 in Chinese for the Chinese market. It briefly mentions a foreign novel in the opening session, which attracted my attention.

Although it is only shown for a short while, it is very clearly written “Adapted from Madame S. Rosen Hoa’s Novel << La symphonie des ombres >>”. This is very strange as the text is in English, but the name of the novel is in French. What is even more surprising is that Lian Hua film company was close to Chinese patriotic ideas of the time, but based one of its most famous movie on a foreign novel.

Love and duty was first released in 恋爱与义务, that can be translated as “Love & Obligations” or “Love and Duty”, as a 8 parts series in literary magazine 小说世界 (The World of novels) in 1921. The author was indicated as 羅琛華. The book was then published by famous Shanghai based Chinese publisher Commercial Press in 1924.

The book was a great success and it was then published in English as “Love and Duty” by commercial Press in 1926. The author was written then as Ho-Rose. The book in English was also a great success and was reprinted several times, at least in 1927 and 1929. In 1931 the book was turned to movie “Love and duty”, with the success that we know. The theme of the book with its rejection of traditional values definitely matched the spirit of the UPC and the May 4th movement.

“La Symphonie des ombres Chinoises” (symphony of Chinese shadows) was published in 1932 , by Editions de la Madeleine, 11 Rue Tronchet, Paris under the name of S. Horose.

Although there is no reference in this book about the Chinese or English edition, nor the movie adapted from it, he story is very similar to the movie, characters has similar names and the author mentions that she had a successful writing career in China. There is no doubt that this is mostly the same book, with maybe some minor changes.

Interestingly, the French title has little to do with the original English or Chinese title. It is also slightly different from the one displayed in the movie credit as it did not include the “Chinoises” word. It was definitely added at the time of publication in France, emphasizing the China theme of the book and probably trying to capitalise on her previous book published in France which was focused on the cultural differences between the West and China. (See post “The Story of Horose or S. Rosen-Hoa part 2″ for more details”).

The introduction to the book includes a long part where the author complains that French people or the French authorities have no idea about China. She also complains about stories written by French authors and journalists about China that are often inaccurate or sometimes totally false. Although written in the early 1930s, such comments are unfortunately still valid today.

The book was mentioned in several newspaper article, including in Art review “Septimanie” in the 1st June 1933 issue and in daily “L’home libre” from 12th July 1933. She also was invited for a few conference about China at the same time, but the book did not reach by far the success it had in China.

For more details about the movie “Love & duty”, please go to post “Love and duty (Part 1)“. The life Horose / S. Rosen-Hoa is explored in post “The story of Horose / S. Rosen-Hoa“.