Looking for Old Shanghai style places, I ended up by invitation in Old Shanghai themed restaurant 人和館 / Renheguan.
Although it is located in a modern building (and not in an old house unfortunately), the owner has managed to recreate a great old Shanghai atmosphere. I went on a day when it was packed, and the whole place was bustling and Shanghainese language was all over the place… as it should be.
The restaurant is located on Zhao Jia Bang Lu, formerly the Zhaojia creek / 肇嘉浜, that used to be the separation between the French Concession and the South part of the Chinese city, called 南市. Old houses are located in the area, that was quite upscale in the 1930s so it’s a good place from a historical point of view.
Since the restaurant has 1 start Michelin, the food was excellent, well executed and delicious. This really felt like a short trip to Old Shanghai, reminding me of the now closed Xian Qiang Fang.
人和館 / Renheguan can be found at 407 Zhaojiabang Road / 肇嘉浜路407号.
French people love “associations” or clubs around a specific topic. Incorporating a non-profit corporation (“association loi 1901” in French) is easy to create a legal framework for a sport club, a cultural society or a charity. As soon as a number of French people gather together, they form an “association”.
The oldest one representing French people abroad is UFE (Union des Français de l’étranger), founded in Paris in 1927. It was recreated in Shanghai around 2002. Its role is mostly to foster the social life of French people, organizing parties, talks and social events. I did not find traces of a representation in Old Shanghai, but maybe there was. However French people had many places to gather, such as the high end Cercle Sportif Français, and the more affordable Cercle Français.
A revival of those clubs was the Cercle Francophone de Shanghai (1991), now renamed as Shanghai Accueil. Another noticeable one is Solidarité Shanghai, which cares for French people in distress in Shanghai. I am sure something like that existed in Old Shanghai, at least informally, but I did not find traces either.
Along those national associations, there are also many that gather French people from a particular region of France. Bretons, Alsatians, Marseille and Lyon people are probably the biggest ones along with smaller ones like the ones of people from Bourgogne-Franche Comté, that I founded. I was amazed to find out that those kind of associations existed in Old Shanghai, as shown in below article from “Le Journal de Shanghai” 21st March 1928.
Here is a translation of the article: “By the way… In Shanghai, we have a consul general from Auvergne and a general from Brittany. I’m not even entirely sure that we don’t have, among the representatives of France’s friends and allies, a minister plenipotentiary from Provence and an ambassador from Champagne. In any case, there is probably no other place in the world where French regionalism takes on such a distinctly separatist character as it does here.”
As the article shows, French people in modern Shanghai have only restarted what already existed in Old Shanghai. Funny enough I have recently been appointed as an ambassador for the city of Dijon, contributing to this even more. Apart from this article, I only found actual traces of a Breton association called “Ar mor” that was created in December 1935, as shown by a small article in the Journal de Shanghai.
France is a centralized country and not a federation like Germany or Italy. Centralization and suppression of regional identity in France was particularly strong in the 19th and first half of the 20th century. Regional languages were suppressed, particularly after the introduction of free compulsory education in the late 19th century. It is then quite impressive to see this kind of regionalism in Old Shanghai, probably amplified by the distance with the home country.
Old Shanghai postcards from the 1930s are common to find in auctions on the internet. What is much rarer are postcards from before WW1. Here is a fine example from 1907 sent from Old Shanghai to France.
Postcards were invented in the late 19th century, originally one side for the address and one side for the message. The real modern postcard is called “divided back”, still in use today. It was officially adopted in the UK in 1902, France in 1903 and by the Universal Postal Union in 1907. This postcard from 1907 must have been one of the early ones.
The card is stamped 20th jun 07. China only joined the Universal Postal Union in March 1914. Before that, major countries had their own post office in Shanghai, including the German post office on Guangdong Lu. The French post office where this postcard was posted was probably on Rue Montauban (today Sichuan Nan lu / 四川南路) close to Rue du Consulat (Jinling Lu / 金陵路) as seen on the below map of the French Concession in 1900.
As this was posted in a French Post Office, this stamp is also French. It shows “République Française” on the top and “Chine” on the bottom. So this was truly posted at a French post office in China. It is stamped “Shang-hai / Chine”.
This card is multi-views postcard, those were the luxury type of postcards according to Thomas Brandt’s “China in those days'”, the reference book on the topic. The illustration looks like two photos that seems to have pinned on the main card, along with some “Chinese” elements including a triangular yellow flag, pane tree leaves and Chinese lanterns. The caption “Souvenir from Shanghai” is on a banner. Picture left is of Hongkou market, captioned “Central market”. The Central Market or Hong Kou market was located on Woosung Rd / 吴淞路.
Picture right is “Broadway” the main street of the Hongkou side of the concession, that used to be the American concession until 1863, today Damin Lu / 大名路. Although it is captioned souvenir from Shanghai, it is only made of two views from Hong Kou district, so it is more like “Souvenir from Hongkou”. A specific shop is represented on the left side of the picture, “Japanese Art Curios and Leather Goods”. Its title is noticeably clear compared to other shops. Funny enough, on can clearly see postcards on sale in the front windows. The card probably bought in a store just like this one.
The card was sent from Shanghai to maritime military base in Brest, France. The receiver was Jean Gaget, an officer on the French navy ship Dupetit-Thouard, an armored cruiser. Since the card was sent from a friend to a navy soldier, it was probably sent by a mariner on a stopover in Shanghai.
Rue Lafayette (today Fuxing lu, 复兴路）was going through most of the French Concession. The Western part was a high class neighborhood dotted with upscale residences, as seen in movie “Love and duty“. The middle part was more urban and popular. This is where Lafayette Cinema was located.
Built in 1933 following a design from Laszlo Hudec, the Lafayette Cinema is a classic streamline design. It was build of steel and concrete, with a long horizontal front, contrasting with a vertical line that was also used as a beacon for the location. The style is very similar to Laszlo Hudec other streamline design cinema, the Grand Theater on people square, that also opened in 1933. The beacon was visible from far, attracting the attention of passer-bys.
Located on 323 Route Lafayette, the Lafayette Cinema was single screen, with 850 seats. As opposed to the Grand Theater which was one of the top movie houses in Shanghai, the Lafayette Cinema was catering for a more popular audience. It was a second-class theater that was showing movies a few weeks after premiering, for a cheaper price. It was very popular with a Chinese audience. The owner was Mateo Beharas, a French Jewish businessman from Marseille who was mostly known for importing Tissot watches in China. The family also owned the Zekiang Cinema (today Zhejiang Cinema), on 123 Zhejiang lu, that was also designed by Laszlo Hudec and built in 1930.
Lafayette Cinema façade in 2014
Having survived all those years, the Lafayette cinema saw a nice restauration of its façade in the 2000s. It even survived an exit of metro line 10 being built within the building. The building was then turned into a cultural center and the façade was quite similar to the original one.
Unfortunately, it has been renovated again recently and heritage protection was surely not on the scope of the new owner as shown on picture above. Hopefully not too much damage was done on the façade and the overlay can be removed later on.
It seems that historic official plaques are no protection against bad taste. This reminded me of another ruinovation a few months ago (See post Crime scene on Rue Henry).
The 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs is seen as the spring box of the Art Deco style, from which it spread all over the World. At that time, it was mostly called modern style and evolved in various sub-branch. One of the later one is called “streamline design” in English, or “Style paquebot” (i.e. sealiner style) in French. I recently got an opportunity to visit a very specific paquebot style building in Paris, thanks to Paris Art Deco Society.
Located at 1 Rue Jacques-Callot, in Saint-Germain des Prés, the Callot building was designed by Roger-Henry Expert and completed in 1933. In the same year, Roger-Henry Expert also designed the passenger deck of the SS Normandie steamship, an Art Deco showcase. The Callot building was originally housing the architecture department of the nearby “Ecole des beaux-arts”. It is now one of the campuses of the architecture school ENSA-Paris Malaquais, thus it was an architecture school since conception until today.
It was extremely avant-garde at the time, and probably influenced many of the architecture students who then helped spreading the style all over the World. The ground floor space is an exhibition hall. The best spot of the building is probably the 5th floor offers a fantastic view over many Paris historical buildings.
View from the top floor
The metal structure supporting the glass roof looks quite similar to the structure of the Normandy building over the 1st class deck. Both were designed by the same architect. Tiling similar to the SS Normandie tiling style can also be found in Shanghai, see post “Déjà vu from Paris to Shanghai“.
5th floor of Callot buildingNormandie steamship 1st class deck
Streamline design buildings were also built in Shanghai, the most visible being the former empire Mansion at the corner of Huai Hai lu / 淮海路 (the former Avenue Joffre) and Changshu Lu / 常熟路 (the former Route de Say-Zoong). Up the same street stands another steamship style building, not far from the former location of the “Jardin Français“. Another example was the Lafayette cinema that has recently disappeared (See post “Goodbye to Lafayette Cinema“).
Side of Empire MansionAnother beauty up the street
Long after the end of streamline design in the late 1940s, the style was still popular in Shanghai. Many buildings form 1990s Shanghai still show remains of streamline design, as shown in post “Frankenstein Art Deco“, where the link with the original Callot building is still clearly visible.
The ground floor of the Callot building has an newly refurbished exhibition space that would be just right for a Art Deco exhibition. Hopefully such exhibition will happen soon.
In the 1920s and 30s, the French economic presence in Shanghai was marked by a small group of large, influential companies. They made a major contribution to the development of the French Concession and supported France’s influence in China.
Messageries Maritimes: a vital link with France Founded in 1862, Messageries Maritimes played a key role in transporting goods and passengers between France, Indochina and China. Based on the Bund, it enjoyed a virtual monopoly on the transport of tea and silk to Europe. Great figures such as Étienne Sigaut and Jean Cochet have marked the history of this company, which has also experienced tragedies, such as the sinking of the Georges Philippar in 1932, in which the famous reporter Albert Londres perished. Messageries maritimes helped form the CMA-CGM group, France’s leading shipping company. (For more information on the MM, see post : “2 months in rationnaire”).
Compagnie Française de Tramways et d’Éclairage Électrique: Essential Infrastructure Created in 1906 with the support of the Banque de l’Indochine, this company managed the tramway network and electricity supply for the French Concession. It experienced tensions with local authorities, particularly in the 1920s and 1930s, and had to deal with several strikes. Despite these challenges, it became one of the largest French industrial companies in the Far East. Listed on the Paris stock exchange and regarded as a “Père de famille” stock, it had to cease trading abruptly in the 1950s.
Banque de l’Indochine: a financial pillar in Shanghai Founded in 1875, Banque de l’Indochine quickly established itself as a major player in Shanghai’s commerce and finance. In 1898, it opened a branch in the Jardine Matheson building, offering financial services crucial to the opium, cotton and silk trades. In the 1930s, 93.5% of its profits in Shanghai came from foreign exchange and trading operations. Banque de l’Indochine merged with Banque de Suez to create Banque Indosuez.
The International Savings Society: A French success story in Shanghai Founded in 1912 by René Fano and Jean Beudin, this savings and lottery society expanded rapidly. By 1930, it had 130,000 subscribers and diversified into insurance through Assurance Franco-Asiatique. Personalities such as Étienne Sigaut and Michel Speelman were instrumental in the company’s growth. Faced with major difficulties, ISS disappeared in the 1950s.
The Gascogne apartments built by FONCIM
FONCIM: Shanghai’s architectural heritage A subsidiary of ISS, FONCIM left an indelible architectural mark on Shanghai. Drawing on the talents of renowned architects such as Léonard, Vesseyre and Laszlo Hudec, it contributed to the rapid urbanization of the French Concession, particularly after the 1917 expansion. Financed by ISS profits, FONCIM was one of the main landowners. FONCIM houses and apartments were often leased to other French companies to house their staff. One example is the CFTEE leasing houses from FONCIM.
The Bouvier Empire: a dominant figure in Shanghai Félix Bouvier, an accountant turned influential entrepreneur, left his mark on Shanghai with his investments in Grand Garage Français and Union Mobilière. He was most famous for creating the Champs de Course Français (also called “Le Canidrome”), a betting center for greyhound racing. Nicknamed “the uncrowned king of the French of Shanghai”, he had close ties with Du Yue Cheng, an influential and sulphureous figure in the Chinese business world.
Import-export companies: a flourishing trade Several French companies played a central role in the import-export of a variety of products: Olivier Chine was a major exporter of tea and silk. Racine & Cie, and Egal & Cie dominated the wine and food trade. In 1934, France exported 31,000 liters of champagne, 25,000 liters of bottled wine and 762,000 liters of bulk wine to Shanghai, illustrating the importance of this trade. For more information this topic, see article “French wines in Old Shanghai”.
The former Normandy building, now Wukang da lou / 武康大楼
What remains today? The Messageries Maritimes building still stands on the Bund. Streetcars disappeared from Shanghai in the 70s, but some trolley-bus lines still follow the same route. French companies, especially FONCIM, left their mark on Shanghai’s architecture. Most of the Art Deco buildings in the former French Concession are attributed to them, including Le Gascogne, the Normandie (now called WuKang Da Lou / 武康大楼) and the Cité Bourgogne.
Located in the heart of the Old city, walking distance from Yuyuan Garden and the City God temple, Xiaotaoyuan mosque / 小桃园清真寺 is the largest mosque in Shanghai.
Although a first building was erected in 1917, the current building dates from 1925. The date of 1343 is actually written over one of the entrances, equivalent islamic equivalent to year 1925 in christian calendar. The name of the mosque is written in both Chinese and Arabic at the front of the main building.
Outside façade
The building on the street is hidden by the trees of a park.
Façade of the main building
The main building actually reflects its time of construction. The façade shows similarities with the one of the Shanghai Club on the Bund that dates from 1911. This is particularly true for the columns at the entrance and the windows of the windows on the top of each side wings.
Floors of the buildings are nicely decorated in a way that is very similar to other Old Shanghai buildings from the same period. The prayer hall is very spacious, but does not offer much details in terms of decor.
The mosque has 4 towers and one minaret. They are only really visible from the neighboring foot bridge over the main roads. The women mosque is located a few meters away, a smaller pink building that was built in 1920.
Xiaotaoyuan mosque is located on 52 Xiaotiaoyuan lu, 52 小桃园路。It’s easy to access by subway, from Laoximen station.
In more than 20 years in Shanghai (and counting), I spent many years in the former French concession but one location in particular remains a clear favorite. This was on Route Kaufmann (today Anting lu / 安亭路), where I spent 10 years. Living at the back a small lane really felt like living in Old Shanghai, and many post of this blog were inspired by the area.
Named after a former Yunnan Postal Service officer who was killed during WW1, Route Kaufmann was a wealthy and eclectic area. It was also very international as confirmed by a friend whose Chinese professor in the US once lived on Route Kaufman before 1949. This was still a fantastic place to live around 2010, and it took a real effort to move out as explained in post “Leaving Route Kaufmann“.
Location of Route Kaufmann 1913 (red dot)
As shown as above map from 1913, this area was the countryside when the French Concession was officially extended in 1914. As Route Kaufmann is on the western side of the French Concession, it was probably divided in plots and occupied from the mid 1920s. This area of the French Concession was divided in blocks that were sold to developers.
French style house on 130 Route Kaufmann, designed by LVK
The FONCIM plot probably also included Route Cohen (Gao An Lu / 高安路), that runs parallel to Route Kaufmann on the Western side. The West side of Route Cohen also counts many buildings developed by FONCIM with design from LVK, mostly apartment buildings.
FONCIM buildings on Route Cohen, designed by LVK
On the East side of route Kaufmann, a large share was sold to Asia Realty Company (ARCO), an American real estate company that flourished in Shanghai at that time. The East side is also the location of the King’s Lynn Apartments where Chester Fritz and Bernardine Szold Fritz, lived for a while. The cadastre shows this plot as property of ARCO, although I have not seen ARCO sign like on Brooklyn Court, another ARCO property.
King’s Lynn apartments
On the East side, ARCO commissioned Hungarian architect Laszlo Hudec to create houses on the plot between Route Kaufmann and Route Dufour (today Wulumuqi Lu /乌鲁木齐南路）, with some on the Eastern side of Route Dufour.
Hudec buildings West of Route Dufour
The list of inhabitants of rue Kaufmann in 1933 shows that many people lived on 9 Rue Kaufmann, which is the above mentioned King’s Lynn apartment. Chester Fritz had already left the building on that year. The Lubeck family, of one of the director of the CFTEE, Carlos Lubeck is also mentioned at number 132. I was also told that Ma Ying-chi / 马英驰, the minister of Justice of Republican China lived in 130 at some point, but in 1933 this was the home of the reverend F. Rawlison.
There is a large gap between #4 and #126. Although the cadastre shows that the land between these number was already divided, many of the buildings on the streets were not built yet. For example, the large Art Deco House located on 46 Anting lu now part of the Anting Villa Hotel, was not built yet. Similarly, on the odd side, nothing much seem to exist besides #9.
Another missing part then was today’s Anting Lu 81, the lane were I used to live in. While living there, I realized that our small lane had its own name on French Concession maps. It was called Rue d’Adina, Route d’Adina, or sometimes “Route privée d’Adina”, Chinese name was 安地那路. This was very unusual for Shanghai street name, so I started to research it. This will be the topic of further posts.
Art Deco has been on the rise in the last 10 years, since I wrote post Art Deco in France. It has been the center of several major exhibition like “1925 When Art Deco dazzle the World” in Paris in 2014. Art Deco in China has also gained a lot of attention particular through Laszlo Hudec work as well as 2015 Word Congress on Art Deco in Shanghai. The link between Art Deco in France and China was shown in the small but beautiful “Art Deco, The French China connection” in Hong Kong in 2019. Now a new exhibition of showcasing Art Deco in Paris and Shanghai has opened in Shanghai. Showing many rare pieces, it is definitely worth a visit.
Located in the former British Consulate on the Bund, it matches this is a great location. The main theme of the exhibition is the strong link between art and craft in the 1920s and the 1930s, the art deco era. The tour de force was to bring pieces from Paris museum and show it along rarely seen pieces of Shanghai art deco. Art deco was a global style of art and craft, but it also had it own local variations.
Paris art deco wind screen, influenced by China
The exhibition also highlights the way art and craft in 1920s and 1930s influenced each other. Modern Shanghai was used a lot of western references, but Art deco in Europe was also heavily influenced by Asia and China. The exhibition success is to make this visible.
The exhibition tour de force is to show numerous Shanghai art deco pieces, furniture, lights, cloths and advertising posters. It is very diverse, showing the width and variety of Shanghai art deco production. It also shows rarely scene pieces including real old Shanghai Qipaos and wonderful dragon carpets reminding of the cover of Tintin’s Blue Lotus. It also adds movies including the ones of Ruan Lingyu / 阮玲玉 and literature including 1930s Shanghai author like Mu ShiYing / 穆時英 and Shi Zhecun / 施蛰存.
The exhibition is located at Bund 33 and will last until February 16th 2025. Tickets are 150 RMB for person, 200 RMB for 2 people. It is a must go for anybody interested in Shanghai history and art deco lovers.
Shanghai district of Jiading, located miles away from Old Shanghai in what used to be faraway farm land, is an unlikely visit for an Old Shanghai lover. However, it is worth the trip, showing interesting pieces of old automotive and documents about Shanghai history and its relationship with cars.
Old Shanghai was a super modern city, new inventions like electric lighting, tramways and skyscrapers were introduced soon after they became available. This was the case for cars, with the first automobiles introduced in Shanghai in 1901. By the 1920s cars were everywhere in Shanghai. They were a status symbol as well as used by various institutions and administrations. Cars in Shanghai were imported from abroad, mostly US, UK, France and Japan. Cars from the period are long gone in Shanghai, but the museum displays a number of collection car imported from abroad that are a match for the time.
1927 Cadillac Lasalle
1930 Ford Auburn
This reminded me that a few years ago, a classic car show was taking place in Shanghai. Unfortunately, none of those cars are allowed to ride on Shanghai streets. That would be a great sight to have some of them driving the streets of the former French Concession. The only substitute for a while was driving a sidecar, although this is also not allowed anymore either.
The museum also displays a number of documents and old ads about cars from the 1920s and 1930s. This is only a small part of the museum, but I spent quite a while there, finding out that I have some pieces that could very well fit into this section.
What was probably missing was more pictures of those cars in Old Shanghai, just to show that those cars were in Shanghai, and not only in America and Europe. A good example is above picture of super star actress Hudie. Another small section could have been devoted to car dealership and petrol statinos in Old Shanghai. That would also have shown a stronger links between those beauties and Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s. In any case, it was definitely worth the trip.
The Shanghai Auto Museum is located a 7565 Boyuan Rd, Jiading District, Shanghai, China, 215332. It is located in the same area as the Shanghai Formula 1 race track.
