Shanghailander

M on the Bund closure

Michelle Garnaut’s place, M on the Bund, was the original Bund’s renaissance restaurant. Open in 2002, it was then the only high level independent restaurant on the Bund. A staple of Shanghai nightlife as well as one of the most Old Shanghai evocative place in the city, the restaurant has announced in closure for 15th February 2022. With its unique style mixing modernity and old colonial atmosphere, it has been one of the top spot for Old Shanghai lovers and will be sadly missed.

Located in the former NKK Building, on Bund N5 at the Cross of Canton Road (Guangdong lu) and the Bund, M on the Bund occupies the top floor, including the small but really nice terrasse. Besides the location in the heart of Old Shanghai’s Bund, the whole decor and atmosphere feels like high class dining in Old Shanghai.

Lunch at M

Furniture, accessories and decor have been carefully curated to carry the real sense of class, sophistication and timelessness that makes great places. Staff has been trained and retained for years, creating a service level that is both very effective and nearly invisible. M’s brunch is still a favorite, along with its legendary Pavlova, but M on the Bund has been far more than a restaurant.

Michel Garnaut has been instrumental to bring culture to Shanghai, a place that was so much lacking of it. M was the main organiser and location of the now defunct Shanghai Literary Festival (See 2007 post “Quelques grammes de culture dans un monde de brutes“). The Glamour Bar (see post from 2009 “An old favorite the Glamour Bar“), was the place to present books about Old Shanghai in a timeless atmosphere. Many book reviews in this blog started with such a Saturday afternoon event or a lunch presentation at the Literary festival. My most vivid memory of those times is a presentation by the three ladies of Old Shanghai, Tess Johnston, Lynn Pan and Rena Krasno, probably around 2008. Since M on the Bund will close down in mid Feb, it’s the right to pay a last visit and enjoy the unique atmosphere of this legendary place.

Unfortunately, M on the Bund was not the only foreign place to close this winter. Famous Shanghai franchise Element Fresh, French veteran Le Café des stagiaires as well as Wine bar and terrasse favorite Kartel have already closed down in the last weeks.

Rumors from Shanghai

The second half of the year has been particularly hectic, so I used the last days of December to get back into my Old Shanghai passion. I bought Amy Sommers “Rumours from Shanghai” at publication sometimes in April 2021, but I only finished it recently after a very long interruption.

The story is set up in 1940-1941, the last days of Old Shanghai as they later were called. Although the war is coming fast, nobody seems to notice and Shanghai social elite continues the life of lesasure and party it had for decades.

The book central character is Tolt Gross, an African American law graduate who speaks fluent Japanese and Chinese. He is sent to Shanghai to work along the owner’s son of a major Seattle treadmill that has opened in branch to develop the Far East. The story is that he learned Japanese and Chinese from both company staff of his childhood household, which I found really hard to believe. Having an African American sent to run a large foreign company is also very improbable at the time. Tolt Gross mentions he had little chance to find a job for his qualification in the USA, I think his chances in Old Shanghai were even thinner.

Old Shanghai was made of two parallel societies run by powerful white men on one side and powerful Chinese men on the other side. They interconnected for business, but remained separated most of the time, and both communities saw any other race as inferior. There was a number of Afro-American in Old Shanghai, mostly musicians that brought Jazz to the city (See post “Night in Shanghai” for more about this). There must have been afro-american US Navy sailors stopping with ships or stationed as troops, but they were surely not many, as they represented 2.3% of the force in 1940, mostly at mess attendants, officers’ cooks and steward, as is one of the minor characters in the book.

Rumors from Shanghai being a novel, it is the author’s choice that create the story. Amy Sommers has lived many years in Shanghai and has long been involved in Historic Shanghai researching the city’s past, so the environment she creates is historically just right. The places, experiences and electric atmosphere of 1940-1941, the are well documented and rendered without becoming an history lesson in disguise as Old Shanghai novels sometimes turn to.

From a slow start depicting elite life in Old Shanghai, action really kicks in after Tolt talks with Japanese officer Takeda, and his plans for Japan’s attack on the USA. From that point, the novel really becomes a page turner with Tolt trying to convince sceptic officials that such an attack is really going to happen. As we all know, Pearl Habor attack took place on 7th December 1941. Tolt could not stop it, but a lot events happened to him and his friends in the meantime, making “Rumors from Shanghai” a really entertaining book, once you get into the author’s world.

On the Bund

Shanghai Artist David B has managed to catch my passion for Old Shanghai and make a great portrait of it. People say it would be a great cover for an Old Shanghai novel… I just have to write it now.

Hugh Martin, back from the dead

In a previous post “Hugh Martin’s grave in Shanghai“, I shared my discovery of the tumb stone of Hugh Martin, in the foreign cemetery of Old Shanghai. This grave stone attracted my attention as my name “Hugues Martin” is very similar. It turned out that the story is more complicated that it seemed at first. Here are a few discoveries that I made, including him surviving Old Shanghai and moving back to the UK.

Like many men of the Empire, Hugh Martin was not actually English, but Scottish. He was born in Edinburgh on 9th April 1888. As it was common with British, he was a sport man, having played for the Scottish rugby team between 1908 and 1909. He must have reached Shanghai in 1910 as he first played rugby in Shanghai team in December of that year. He played many games in Shanghai and other treaty ports, being the team Captain in the 1913-1914 season (Thanks www.treatyportsport.com for those details).

Shanghai vs Tianjin, 1913. Hugh Martin is bottom row middle right with a mustache. (picture www.treatyportsport.com )

Hugh Martin also took part in World War 1, coming to Europe in September 1914 to fight for England. The story of those European men that left Shanghai for the WW1 front in 1914 is told in Robert Bickers Pinguin book, “Getting stuck in for Shanghai”, although Martin is not namely mentioned in it. Martin was slightly injured on the front in 1915 and so quite a lot of action particularly in Belgium. From the European front, he wrote a letter published in the North China Daily news, where he mentioned meeting one of his Old Shanghai mate, “Quite like old time, except that there were no cocktail floating abut. This is the simple life and I could do with a Race Club cocktail any night“. He finished the same letter by saying: “This is just a line to tell you I often think about old Shanghai days and old Shanghai pals.” He was promoted from Lieutenant to Captain in July 1916. He returned to Shanghai after the war, where he joined back Noel, Murray and Co Ltd (瑞和洋行 in Chinese).

He must have lived in the French Concession after coming back to Shanghai, as on 12 January 1921, he was elected among the three foreign members of the Shanghai French Concession Municipality, “foreign Other people elected included R Fano (GM of the International Saving Society which financed a lot of real estate in Old Shanghai), and Michel Speeman (a prominent Dutch business in Shanghai who was later strongly involved helping Jewish refugees in the late 1930s). He was elected for 2 years only. As mentioned in post “Hugh Martin’s grave in Shanghai“, in 1925 he was living in 89 Peking Road, in the international settlement.

His entry in 1927 Who’s who lists him member as various club including the prestigious Shanghai Club, the Country Club, The Race Club, Le Cercle Sportif Français (the French Club). 1928 was probably the year when is social stature increased even more as he became the manager of Noel, Murray and Co Ltd (瑞和洋行 in Chinese). As mentioned in previous post, in 1931 he was a tenant of fashionable Cathay Mansion, opposite de French Club on Route Cardinal Mercier (today Maoming Nan Lu).

The Cathay Mansion, one of the high end place of the time

Hugh Martin was definitely a socialite involved in many causes. For example he signed with other people a letter against the return of the International Settlement to the Shanghai Chinese city in June 1930. It must have been a heated question at the time, as on the same year South African judge Richard Feetham was charged to write a report on the same topic, the famous Feetham report. In May 1931, Hugh Martin was reelected managing director of the Shanghai International Greyhounds Ltd, and organized its liquidation after the Shanghai Municipal Council prohibited dog racing in 1930. In February 1937, he became the president of the British and American United Association, which main purpose was to find employment for British and American people in Shanghai.

The most surprising part of all this research was the last sentence of the profile on treatyportsport.com “He died in England on 6th January 1970 aged 81”. I am not sure how and why a grave was made with his name in the Shanghai SongQingLing memorial… but Hugh Martin seems to have escaped Shanghai at the end and gone back home.

More information about Hugh Martin came a few months later. It is exposed in the next post about this character: “More news about Hugh Martin“.

Visiting Prada Rong Mansion

The Rong Mansion on 186 Shaanxi Bei lu is one of those places that Old Shanghai lover wants to visit. I had a chance to be part of a full tour of the house thanks to Historic Shanghai and I am happy to share pictures and impressions about one of the greatest Old Shanghai property in the city.

The original house at this location was built around 1909-1910 by a German Jewish family. The garden was much larger than today, going all the way down to Weihai Lu. Bubbling Well Road (today the busy and upscale Nanjing Xi Lu) was a road to the countryside with large residential domains on each side. The house was in the neighborhood of Silas Hardoon’s Aili’s Garden (completed in 1909) and Mc Bain building that later became the Majestic Hotel.

The mansion was purchased in 1918 by the Rong family, as the original owner did not come back to Germany after WWI. The Rong family was one of the richest Chinese family in Shanghai. Although the house was remodeled and expanded several times there are definitely parts dating back from the construction time. This particularly true on the ground floor, where the smaller reception room is located, as well as the rooms above it, that formed the core of the original building. Tiles in this room is one of the few Art Nouveau details that can still be seen in Shanghai. Similar tiling can also be seen on third floor above. David star is also displayed in both places, probably thanks to the original Jewish owners.

Glass work has been amazingly preserved through Shanghai history and magnified by the beautiful restoration by Italian designer Roberto Baciocchi. The villa has one of the the largest collections of original Art Nouveau stained glass Windows in Shanghai. Only comparable to former College Français on Rue Vallon or the CMLI building on Guangdong Lu.

Great care has been put into cleaning, restoring or recreating the original materials. Besides glass work, this included tiles, wood floors and wood wall panels. The most iconic piece of the house is surely the stained glass ceiling of the main reception room. The only similar piece in Shanghai is the stained glass ceiling at the former Cercle Sportif Français, today’s Okura Garden Hotel.

Famous stained glass ceiling in the Rong Mansion

It’s difficult to say whether this was part of the original design or added later. I would think that it was added in the 1920s or 1930s with such a strong geometrical Art Deco center… but the outside (see picture below right) is much more Art Nouveau. It still feels like the original ceiling was more a traditional Central European style which part is still visible today (picture down left), and that the stained glass ceiling was added later.

Going through the Rong Mansion is like a trip to Old Shanghai, until realizing that it is in the heart of bustling Jing An District when getting in the garden.

The house can be viewed when exhibition take place there, but often parts are covered or off limit for visitors. We had the chance to get the full viewing!

Noir on the Bund

Candid black & white shot of Old Shanghai waterfront and most prominent location. Feeling like in an Old Shanghai movie.

Meanwhile in Berlin

Summer time is perfect for book reading. Crime novels have been one my long term favorite and I have read a number of them taking place in Old Shanghai (see https://shanghailander.net/tag/crime-novel/ for more details). A few years ago, I wrote about the parallels between Old Shanghai and early 1940s LA in James Ellroy’s “Perfidia” as well as Roman Polanski’s movie “Chinatown” . This time, the trip is to 1929 Berlin, with Volker Kutscher’s “Der nasse Fisch”.

End of 1920s Berlin was definitely a rough and happening place. The consequence of WW1 defeat and a weak government overwhelmed by powerful militias on both side of the political spectrum created instability but also a kind of free for all atmosphere that was really special. Like in other European countries, the 1920s were crazy years where everything was possible, but Germany definitely had a much darker version. This clearly resonate with Old Shanghai feeling of lawlessness created by the 3 sectors, International Settlement, French Concession and Chinese city, with gangsters being able to easily escape the law from the one to the other. In Berlin, like in Shanghai, the police was often less busy running after gangsters than chasing political opponents, in particular communists.

Like Shanghai, cabarets and dancing halls were plenty

This created a background where life was to be enjoyed today as none really believed in tomorrow. Late 1920s Germany was time of new thoughts and new arts, at the same time that Haipai style developed in Shanghai (one of the main current was Bauhaus that later influenced Shanghai architecture). Young people were eager to turn the page of the previous generation and jumped into new Western or American culture. Movies where widely popular and movie industry both developed in Shanghai and in Berlin (Fritz Lang Metropolis is a great exemple). Both Shanghai and Berlin’s scene were taken over by Jazz music, dancings clubs and cabarets (called Varieté in German). Those with money could party like no tomorrow in these new king of places. This also had a dark side in both cities, with rampant drug use, prostitution and criminal organizations.

In both cities, this short period did not last long, as the rise of Hitler in 1933 put a brutal close to it in Berlin, while in Shanghai, the party was shut down by 1937 Japanese invasion. When WWII was over, both Shanghai and Berlin could never go back to these golden ages as the World had totally changed. Destruction of large parts of the city by bombings and partition into East and West meant that Berlin was never the same. The short but intense period created a myth around both cities at the time, that still remains until today, inspiring generations of authors including myself.

Der Nasse Fisch is a great novel capturing the atmosphere of the area, while keeping the reader turning page after page. Main character Gereon Rath moving to Berlin in early 1929 to join the Berlin criminal police. The story is very well documented and has many twists and a very enjoyable read. It has translated in many languages and has been turned into successful TV series “Babylon Berlin”, which also the title of the book in English. Reading Der Nasse Fisch also helped me to do something I did not do for more than 25 years, namely read again a full novel in the original German version.

For a read of this level taking place in Old Shanghai, best recommendation is inspector Danilov series by MJ Lee, or Martin Petersen’s City of lost souls.

15 years blogging Old Shanghai

88,000 users, 185,000 page viewed and 308 articles, the Shanghailander blog is turning 15 years old today. Read on to discover the blog origin, history and evolution along those years.

The Shanghailander blog started as a way to collect information that I found about Old Shanghai. When I reached Shanghai in 2004, little was available on the topic and few people seemed to wonder why and how all those foreign buildings ended up in a Chinese city. To be honest, most of the old houses were in a very bad condition, and it took some effort to see the beauty in them. My interest came from a mix of Europe nostalgia as well as the experience of seeing cities in similar derelict state springing back to life and modernity in Eastern Europe.

Long before social media, blogging was the fashion of the time. The Shanghailander blog started in 2006 after reading a few books and cruising antic markets. Old Shanghai artefacts where not in fashion and prices where cheap. New items called for more research and reading more books. One of the great motivation was creating a tour company giving tours of (Old) Shanghai in a side car from 2008 to 2011, the now defunct Shanghai Sideways.

Blogging about Old Shanghai has been a great way to meet other people fascinated by the topic. The high point was the 2015 World Congress on Art Deco in Shanghai, when most of us joined to share information. This event bound our small community together, mostly online now as many experts such as Tess Johnston, Peter Hibbard, Paul French, Spencer Dodington, Katya Kniazeva, Dvir Bar-Gal and Didier Pujol have now left Shanghai.

If Old Shanghai was an obscure topic 15 years ago, knowledge and publication about the topic has increased tremendously since then. Numerous books, movies and TV series have been produced on the topic. Apart from Brits, French and Americans, other communities have led researches in their presence in Old Shanghai, and the findings have been amazing. Russians in Old Shanghai were numerous Old Shanghai in the late 1920s and 30s, the life and fate of many of them is being search in-depth by Katya Kniazeva’s life journal. Spanish architect’s Abelardo Lafuente live and work has been revealed by Spanish architect Alvaro Leonardo Perez. Belgians rediscovered their major role behind railway construction in China. In the last few years, Hungarians have joined the club, with Livia Szentmartoni finding a lot of information about the abundant Hungarian community in Old Shanghai, including architect CH Gonda, and Matrai Béla besides already famous Laszlo Hudec.

The biggest change of all has been the new strong interest of Shanghai people in the history of their own city. Old Shanghai was pretty much a taboo topic 17 years ago, but a lot has changed on this front. Destruction of Old Shanghai building was the priority, when protection of the few remaining is now official policy. A major museum about Shanghai history was created in the former race club building. As Old Shanghai gets more and more popular, Hudec’s Normandy building (Wukang Da Lou in Chinese) is now the background for hundreds of photographs daily, having become one of the symbols of old architecture in Shanghai.

With drastic reduction of travel and more time at home, 2020 helped spark renewed interest in Shanghai history. Historic Shanghai has substantially increased the number of tours and events it offered. French always being different have started their very own Société d’Histoire des Français de Chine, that has sparked a host of research on the topic in the French speaking community. This period has also given me time to write more often on this blog and to keep on after 15 years.