Shanghailander

Stephanie Rosen-Hoa at Sorbonne University

The story of Stephanie Rosen-Hoa, aka Horose who wrote the China best seller “恋爱与义务” , later published as Love & Duty in Shanghai has been a field of my research for a while (see post “The story of Horose or S. Rosen-Hoa” to the original post on this topic). Information has been difficult to find, but a breakthrough has recently come up with some surprises.

We know that Stephanie Rosen-Hoa studied at Sorbonne University, as she published her thesis there. The thesis was about germination and anatomical structure of plantago (also called Plantin). This plant has been long used to make remeades.

The thesis is dated from 1910. At that time, Sorbonne University offered two different tracks on scientific studies. One was focused on mathematics (differential and integral calculation, mechanics and astronomy), the other one on physics (phyics, chemistry, mineralogy-geology, botanics and zoology). Stephanie Rosen-Hoa clearly attended the physics track, focusing on botanics. Her thesis director was M Louis Matruchot, a French specialist of mushrooms who was a conference master at Sorbonne University.

Although Stephanie Rosen-Hoa went to Sorbonne University a long time ago, I have asked the French national archives to extract the student records. It took a while to come, but it was worth the wait as in brought some surprises.

First of all, I only got the student record for year 1910. The name used in the record is “Madame Rosen-Hoa”, as Stephanie Rosen-Hoa was already married to Hua Nan Gui since 1908. The first surprise is that Stephanie Rosen-Hoa is noted as born in “Wielun, Russie”. This is a different city from Kalisz, where the Rosenthal family was supposed to be. Wielun is about 80 km from Kalisz, which at that time probably took one to two days. Wielun was a smaller city than Kalisz, with about 8.000 inhabitants, when Kalisz has more than 20.000 then. Both cities were located in the Russian part after the split of Poland in 1793, although Kalisz was much closer to the border with Prussia.

Both city had a substantial jewish population, with the jews making the majority of the artisans. Archives of jewish families in Wielun show 512 record for the family name Rosenthal, making it quite a common name. The family of Stephanie Rosenthal must have moved to Kalisz sometimes after her birth, as Stephanie always mentioned Kalisz as the city where she grew up.

The other important information from this record is the actual birthdate of Stephanie Rosen-Hoa. It is indicated as 21st October 1883, which is slightly different as the one from her death certificate (27th September 1883).

Stephanie Rosen-Hoa was registered as studying for the “diplôme d’étude”. This must be the “Diplôme d’étude supérieur” , a diploma requiring one year of study after the license diploma which itself took two years to complete. From that, I can assume that Stephanie Rosen-Hoa spent at least 3 years at Sorbonne University, entering the university in 1907, possibly earlier. It is probable that she actually came to France a few years before, probably around 1900-1905, but I have found no proof so far.

The other part of the records focuses on lab attendance. As Stephanie Rosen-Hoa was researching botanics, she had to do some lab work. Those experiments were not free as show by below records, counting the payments for using the “Laboratory of Mr Bonnier”, the president of the jury for Stephanie Rosen-Hoa thesis.

Thanks to Sorbonne records, I was able to get more information about the studies of Stephanie Rosen-Hoa at Sorbonne university.

Chinese politician Li Shizeng also studied in Sorbonne university around the same years. He joined Sorbonne University in 1906, also in botanics, studying the properties of soya and ended up creating the first tofu factory in Europe. With a Chinese connection on the top of the university connection, it is clear that Li Shizeng, Ha Nangui and Stephanie Rosen-Hoa knew each other during study times. Li Shizeng was also very close to Cai Yuan Pei, who wrote the foreword for the book version of Love & Duty.

The search continues for more details about the life of this fascinating lady and her French/Polish-Chinese family. For more posts on this topic, please follow this link.

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Jessfield Park

As spring has come to Shanghai, many people go to the park for a bit of fresh air. One of the city’s favorite is Zhong Shan Park, but many people don’t know it has been there for more than a century, originally under the name of Jessfield Park.

Although Shanghai has changed a lot since 1935, the above Jessfield park is still recognisable on today’s Shanghai map. Saint-John University on it’s North side is also still there. Originally used as a military field, this plot of land was turned into a park in 1914.

The park was named Jessfield Park, it was located at the end of Jessfield road (today Wan hang du lu / 万航渡路). Just like the Bund garden, it was first restricted to foreigners, but became open to all people from 1928.

Jessfield Park, Shanghai, 1932, Ephgrave Collection, Ep01-216 (thanks to Paul French)

The park was of English style with grass, trees and ponds. Regular concerts from the municipal took place in the park. Long before electric amplification, sound of the band was amplified by a bankshell, a special structure designed to amplify sound. Those were very popular in the 1920s and 1930s, before the rise of electric sound amplification. The original can be seen on the top righ corner of above picture. It is still standing today, as shown on picture below. Designed in art deco style, it probably dates from the late 1920s or early 1930s.

Few people noweadays seem realise what the original purpose of this construction was. Next to the main lawn of the park, stands of little pergola surrounded by statues.

This construction is the original that was completed in 1935. It survived turmoils of history very well.

Jessfield park pergola (picture virtual Shanghai)

As the city expanded Westward, houses where built around the park. The tallest apartment building then was West Garden apartments. The building from 1928 was designed by Russian architect Alexander Yaron.

Jessfield park with view over West Garden apartments (Shanghailander collection)

This particular building still stands today, although it is now surrounded by much taller towers.

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Union Brewery building

A recent trip to Shanghai Ecological park along the Suzhou Creek was the opportunity to go and revisit the former Union Brewery factory, a Hudec building that has mostly been forgotten.

Union Brewery / 友啤 started as German owned company in the late 19th century. It then became a Scandinavian owned company. By 1931, it was purchased by investors including ED Sassoon & Co, owner of the Cathay Hotel (today peace Hotel) and Calbeck Mc Gregor, which imported Lanson Champagne to China. A new factory was commissioned in 1935, design was given to Laszlo Hudec. It was completed in 1936.

The 28.800 sqm area also included a large streamline design building. The right part with the angle is very typical of streamline design, echoing Paris Callot building completed in 1933 (see post Paris streamline building).

Comparing the 1937 British map and today satellite, it is clear that the area was surrounded by factories, in particular cotton mills. All those factories were using the river water and dumping used water in it. The Suzhou creek was not as clean and nice as today and sometimes had weird color due to textile dying process in the factories on its sides.

Above sketch shows that only a few buildings remain. The pond on above photos is probably where the main building once stood.

The above add gives a sense on how the beer factory looked inside. Surely very modern and efficient at the time of construction. It had the production capacity for 1 m crates of beer / year, and claimed to be the largest in Asia.

Union Brewery was one of the leading beer brand in Shanghai, along with its competitor Ewoo beer, owned by Jardien & Matheson (Ewoo / 怡和 in Chinese). One of the large company of Shanghai, Union Brewery was listed on the stock exchange. It made both pilsener and brown beer. Beer was advertised as “good for health for young and old”. It was a modern and fashionable drink.

In the 2000’s, the former United Brewery building became the (now long gone) entertainment complex Pier One, with restaurant Mimosa, bar Monsoon and night club Minx. It appears to be currently unused. It is located at 130 Yichang Road / 宜昌路130号 in Putuo district.

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Shanghai coffee exhibition

Drinking coffee is an integral part of Shanghai culture. The Shanghai history museum recently hosted an exhibition about coffee and its history in the city. It closed down on 1st March 2026.

Shanghainese people have been drinking coffee since the late 19th century. First only available in high end hotels and drunk by foreigners, it was adopted by many local people by the 1920s and 1930s. Cafe were plenty, some of them has survived through the ages like Deda Cafe. The first ones were owned by foreigners, soon joined by local competitions. The most famous company supplying coffee was CPC coffee. Our friends at MOFBA have written a detailed history about CPC Coffee company.

CPC coffee, the main coffee brand in old Shanghai

From 1949, coffee became rarer to find until nearly disappearing. Coffee beans were reserved for a happy fews. In the late 1990s, the place to get a cup of coffee were still mostly foreign hotels, where it was really expensive. As western style café and restaurants opened again, coffee became more available and affordable. Nescafé also entered the market and the little read bags became a must take when travelling in China, as it was sometimes hard to find out of cities.

The introduction of Starbucks chain in Shanghai in 2000 was really the renaissance of coffee in the city. When I came back to China in 2004, one of the top meeting place was the Starbucks store in Xin Tian Di (now closed). Although the franchise dominated the 2000’s, by 2015 it was being really challenged by competitors. Chinese brands such as Luckin or Manner popped out, as well as many smaller independent stores.

The coffee exhibition also displayed advertising for coffee brands from old Shanghai. This included the same “Max Well” branded menu from Royal Coffee shown in post “Shanghai Coffee Culture“. The 静安咖啡馆, Jing An Coffee shop was located on 1472 Bubbling well road, that is 1472 Nanjing Xi Lu / 南京西路 nowadays. It was the coffee shop of the CPC coffee brand. Office building United plaza is now on this location. This area of Jingan has many coffee stores, including a Manner store close to this original location.

Other brands of coffee were on display, like the above one.

The exhibition also included biscuit tins and ad for Culty Diary (bottom right), that I wrote about in post “Shanghai Milkman”. After the exhibition, it was the right time for a nice cup of coffee, with some biscuits. For more info about Coffee Culture in Shanghai, see post: Shanghai Coffee Culture.

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La juive de Shanghai

Although Marek Halter’s novel “La juive de Shanghai” (The jewish girl of Shanghai) has been published since 2002, I avoided reading it because of its original cover. The publisher’s choice of putting a Vietnamese lady in Ao dai over a book about jews in Shanghai was really weird, on the border of insulting. This shows a lack of understanding about Asia, which is regrettable for a book about Shanghai. The cover has now been changed.

Despite the title, only a small part of the book takes places in Shanghai. It tells the story of a Jewish lady from Warsaw, who is becoming the star of Berlin haute couture in the 1930s. As nazis extend their anti-semitic laws and actions, she must relocate back to Warsaw. The family later goes to Kaunas in Lithuenia in 1939, where the Japanese Consul gives them the visa to be able to leave. They take the train through USSR all the way to Japan, and finally take refuge in Shanghai.

Although the story of the 18.000 Central European jews who took refuge in Shanghai during WW2 was long time unknown, there are been a number of books and movies about topic. Most came to Shanghai on ships from Genova with Llyod Triestino, some being given a visa by Chinese Consul General in Vienna, Dr Feng Shan Ho / 何鳳山. A smaller number from Poland got a visa from Japanese Consul General in Kaunas Chiune Sugihara and went on the transsiberia train through USSR. After reaching Japan, many of them were transferred to Shanghai by the Japanese government.

Thanks to Marek Halter’s background, the book is fantastic at making us revive the atmosphere and the life of Jews in Germany and in Poland before WW2. It was a way for me to understand the background of Polish jewish lady Stéphanie Rosenthal before she went to live in France and then China in the early 20th century, with her Chinese husband. It also tells the story of people trying to leave Europe at any cost to save their live. The pace of the book is fast and easy to read, while historically correct. The parts before Shanghai are highly enjoyable.

The last part of the book is focused on describing the life of Jews in the Shanghai designated area, as defined by the Japanese occupation government. Actual historical facts are used, like the role of Victor Sassoon as well as the American Jewish Joint Distribution Company (JDC) and its managers Laura Margolis and Manny Siegel. The atmosphere seems right, thought the story is less active in this part and many themes mentioned remain underused. The includes the fights between Japanese collaborators and nationalists spies, as seen in 2007 movie “Lust Caution” and many Chinese movies and TV series.

There are also number of historical and cultural mistakes, making the story less believable. With a semi tropical climate, it is extremely rare to see “roofs covered with snow” in Shanghai, even in winter. This is meant to be Beijing. Similarly, the character cannot be eating “nems” in Shanghai, they are part of Vietnamese cuisine, not Chinese. This is a very common mistake by French people, who often eat Chinese food at restaurants actually run by Vietnamese.

The action is happening in the “Concession”, but which one? The International settlement or the French concession? The difference would impact the story heavily. Street names are mostly made up, when maps of Old Shanghai are widely available, and many other details are weird or wrong. A “Sassoon cigar company” that is mentioned never existed. One of the character takes refuge in Taipei on a flight that made no sense and did no exist in 1941. With some more historical research, this part would surely have been more believable.

All in all, this is a good book, but the title is somewhat misleading and the part happening in Shanghai does not feel as interesting as the rest. Other novels about the Shanghai jewish refugees have been published, such as French book “Shanghai la juive“. There are also many movies and biographies that tells this story in a more accurate way.

The book was published in French. Publisher’s website indicates an English version but I am not sure if it has been published yet.

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好东西 / Her story

I saw the movie 好东西 / Her story by random on an airplane. It’s only after watching it that I realised that director 邵艺辉 / Shao Yihui also made the movie 爱情神话 / “B for Busy” that I wrote about in 2022.

Both movies have a lot in common. They study the life of a few characters and their relationships over a short period of time. They are very intimate and make me feel like watching some French movies. Both movies are filmed around the streets of Shanghai former French concession. The city, its 1920s and 1930s buildings and its streets lined with pane trees are the main characters of the movies. Some of the indoor scene shows the details and charm of those old buildings, along with the (minor) drawback of living in those.

One of the main difference between both movies is the kind of people involved. B for busy’s characters were mostly talking in Shanghainese dialect, describing the live of a group of local Shanghainese people. This made it very popular in the city when it was out in 2022. Her story is about people who live in Shanghai but are not originally from the city.

Shanghai dialect is notoriously difficult to understand for non Shanghainese. Although they can grasp it after years living in the city, few non native speakers will ever master it. This is a real difference between local Shanghainese people and those that come to live in the city later in their live. when B for busy was the story of Shanghainese people, her story is the tale of non Shanghainese people who made the city their own. In real life, both worlds live next to each other and are intertwined, but they are still somewhat distant even today.

The director clearly is in love with Shanghai and its historical buildings. I was not surprised to find out that she actually lives in Shanghai, probably around those areas. I must admit that I spent a good part of the movie looking for clues about filming locations.

The main story is focused on a single mother and young singer that happen to become neighbours. They both live in the same old lane house and unexpectedly end up being good friend. The movie is the story of this friendship and of their privates lifes. It’s a light romantic comedy with a strong feministic focus. I found it really enjoyable to watch besides the Shanghai angle. Just like B for Busy, it’s great movie about life in Shanghai.

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1933 Michelin advertising car

Shanghai has constantly chased modernity. In Old Shanghai, inventions such as tramways, and electricity were introduced in their early days. This was also the case for automobiles. By the 1920s, Shanghai already had many cars and streets were often blocked by traffic jams. Along with cars came tires, as shown by the model of a car used for advertising Michelin tires in Shanghai.

The above car is part of a series of Michelin advertising cars models, distributed in France a few years ago. This model was used in Shanghai, in the early 1930s.

Michelin brand in Chinese in Old Shanghai was 咪吃兰胎 , which is different from Michelin modern Chinese translation, i.e. 米其林. The brand in Chinese is displayed at the front and the back on the roof. MICHELIN is displayed on both sides of the car.

The address for the advertising for Michelin’s tire demonstration is, “Rue Bourgeat”, “Corner of French Club”. This is located at the corner of Changle Lu 长乐路 / Rue Bourgeat and Maoming lu 茂名北路 / Route Cardinal Mercier. It is opposite the former Cercle sportif Français (today the Okura Garden Hotel) with Cathay mansions (Today Old Jinjiang hotel) on the opposite corner. The fourth corner is occupied by Lyceum Theater. In the early 30s. this was one of the main spot of the French concession.

The back of the model car with the advertising in Chinese characters is well reproduced, with characters easily readable (in traditionnal characters as they were used then). The meaning is the same as the English text including location near the French Club. The car had 2 license plates, one for the French Concession (that was also valid for the International Settlement) and one for the Chinese territory.

This car is a Morris Cowley Flatnose, produced between 1926 and 1931 at the Cowley plant of Morris Motors Limited near Oxford. The advertising support was probably added in Shanghai and removable.

Morris Motors cars were imported by Auto Palace Company Ltd. (利威汽车行, Liwei Automobile Co.) Auto Palace company was also the importer of Michelin tires, as show on above 1920 ad (Thanks to chinacarhistory.com). It makes sense that Auto Palace company used it’s own products for promotion.

The Michelin Supercomfort tires entered the market in France in 1932, so this adversitising car is probably from 1933. Moreover, French concession plates had 4 digits only in the 1920s, and 5 digits in the 1930. This car is plated 15552, so it’s clearly from the 1930s.

A friend forwarded the above ad for Yellow Taxicabs and Michelin Supercomfort. published in the China Press on 6th December 1933. The ad is explaining that thanks for the Michelin Supercomfort tires, Yellow Cab will have a smoother and more comfortable ride for the passengers. This looks very much like a cross advertising and must be from a similar time or later than the Michelin advertising car. This confirms the car is from 1933.

The level of details on this model is amazing. Some pictures must have been kept in the Michelin archives and used by the publisher for recreating the model series. No pictures of this vehicle are publicly available. In any case, this a really interesting piece of Old Shanghai and a great addition to my collection.

Below is a video IA created from a picture of the model picture, showing the car driving in old Shanghai.

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British Prime minister tasting 蝴蝶酥

On his January 2026 visit to China, British Prime minister Keir Starmer had a special taste of Old Shanghai. He had the opportunity to buy and taste the Shanghai pastry, butterfly cake or hudiesu / 蝴蝶酥.

Butterfly cakes have been around in Shanghai since the early 20th century, probably introduced by French bakers as they are directly related to French palmiers cakes. They survived through all the changes in China and are still a Shanghai delicacy, as shown in 2010 post “Tasting old Shanghai“.

Effort to promote Shanghai culture by local authorities have changed this local delicacy into a Shanghai icon. Tourists from all over China and the World are now tasting it while visiting Shanghai. With Keir Starmer visit, it gets new attention.

French luxury brand Longchamp has recently made a new special edition Shanghai edition of its pliage bag with a giant 蝴蝶酥 on it.

Another revisited symbol of Shanghai is the iconic former Normandy building by Laszlo Hudec, today name Wukangdalou / 武康大楼 where thousands of people get their photo taken nowadays. I used to live in this area 10 years ago and not many people paid attention then. It was recently the focus of a VR exhibition attracting many tourists (see post Normandy building VR exhibition) in the WuKang Lu tourist information center.

Taking pictures in front of the Normandy building

Both are items of western culture that have been appropriated by Shanghai. They both are true symbol of the mixed culture of the city, the Shanghai style or Haipai / 海派.

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Cité Bourgogne, Shanghai

As a long term Shanghai resident originally from Burgundy I have been asked and puzzled about Shanghai Cité Bourgogne. Here is the story of this icon of Old Shanghai.

Like many people, I first got to know about Cité Bourgogne when I walked the streets of Shanghai, specifically the corner of Shaanxi lu (Avenue du Roi Albert) and Jian Guo Lu (Route Frelupt). Although not far Avenue Joffre (today Huai Hai lu Zhong lu), the main road of the former French Concession, this area was considered out of the city center in the early 1930s.

Aerial view of central Shanghai in the 1930s

Shanghai is famous of its rows of back alleys lined by brick houses. These alleys are called “Lane” in English, “Li Long” 里弄 in Chinese and “Passage” in French. They form a maze of tranquility and coziness away from the noise and activity of Shanghai streets. Houses lining the alleys are mostly Shi Ku Men 石库门, named after the stone door frame closing the courtyard and facing the alley. Housing style evolved with time and wealth, from tiny houses to small mansions. As seen on above picture, most of old Shanghai used to be covered with lanes, the most common accommodation for Shanghainese in the 1930s, as shown on above picture. Cité Bourgogne is mostly noticeable because of its name.

Cité Bourgogne entrance on Shaanxi Nan Lu

If most Lilong had entrances marking the name of the `lilong in Chinese, this one is really special. Designed in Chinese revival style, it indicates the year of completion of Cité Bourgogne, 1930. Below it is the name “CITÉ BOURGOGNE” and the Chinese name 步高里 / Bù Gāo Lǐ. This is different from the original layout shown below, where only the Chinese name was written. The (fake) yellow stone and new indication was probably more recently, during a renovation. The good thing is that it attracts attention.

The lilong or lane in English has 78 houses, each of which were originally occupied by one family. As the house were quite large, it was clearly an upmarket residence. The houses were later subdivided and about 450 families now live in Cité Bourgogne. The location at the corner of Avenue du Roy Albert (today Shaanxi Nan lu / 陕西南路）and Route Frelupt (Jianguo Xi Lu / 建国西路) was on the edge of the urban area of the former French Concession, away from the city center. On the other side of Route Frelupt (Jianguo Xi Lu / 建国西路) was located the French shooting range, where Luwan stadium now stands. At that time, it was the South edge of the built area of the French Concession. A block further down was the Zhoajiabang creek, 肇嘉浜, the administrative border of the French Concession.

Cité Bourgogne Entrance on Jiang Guo Xi Lu

Cité Bourgogne was the property of real estate developper “Foncière et Immobilière de Chine” or FONCIM. This company was the real estate arm of ISS, an insurance company and one of the major French company in Shanghai then. It is mostly famous for its Art Deco building designed by LVK, including the Dauphiné, the Gascogne and many more. However, FONCIM also had a number of lilong including Cité Bourgogne, and 建业里 / Jian Ye Li that is now the Capella Hotel further on Jian Guo Xi Lu.

Although FONCIM used LVK for many of its buildings, it is not clear that they used them for Cité Bourgogne. It was clearly not the case for its other lilongs. Cité Bourgogne modern Shikumen style could fit LVK style, but the project is not mentioned in the 1934 14th July double page ad in Le Journal de Shanghai, showcasing the work of the firm over the period. I have seen secondary sources mentioning LVK as the designer, but no proof so far.

This lilong differs from many other with its archway towering the alleys, making is really memorable.

FONCIM had the habit of naming its buildings after French regions. Its buildings were named Le Béarn, le Dauphin´´e, Le Normandie, Le Picardie, Le Gascogne. Thus us is not surprising to have an another property called Cité Bourgogne.

I could not find a real link with the actual region of Bourgogne in France. nor with its wine that were sold in Shanghai at the time. However, since the name is so visible, people from Burgundy regularly ask about a possible link with the region. I even had the privilege to take the most famous Burgundy winemaker, Mr Aubert de Villaine, owner of the Word famous Romanée-Conti, for a tour to Cité Bourgogne. As a true Burgundian, I also made some research about Burgundy wines in Old Shanghai a few years ago, but not link came out between Cité Bourgogne and Bourgogne wine either.

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1925-2025 One hundred years of Art Deco

1925 was the year of the “exposition internationale des arts décoratifs”, showcasing the style that was later named as “Art Deco”. The exhibition lasted from 28th April 1925 until end October 1925. The 100 years anniversary is the opportunities for many events and exhibition to Art Deco all over the World.

The center of the action is obviously Paris, where many exhibitions and events take place. In October, the World Congress on Art Deco in Paris was organized by my friends at Paris Art Deco society. The main official exhibition is at Museum of decorative art in Paris. Named “1925-2025 One hundred years of Art Deco”, it is located in the same location that hosted the “Spirit of Bauhaus” exhibition in 2016-2017, an artistic movement closed related to Art Deco.

The exhibition mostly focuses on Art Deco for interior decoration, starting with posters of the 1925 exhibition.

Many items are shown including furniture, tapestry and glassware from the collections of the Museum.

A large part of the exhibition is focused the “French Embassy” project, that was showcased at the 1925 exhibition.

Dressing tables and fans like in below picture are also often in Shanghai Art Deco.

It also included printed textiles and a copy of the bear statue of François Pompon, a famous sculptor from Dijon.

The exhibition also includes clothings, somehow echoing the Resonance Art Deco Paris Shanghai 2024 exhibition.

This is a great exhibition for all Art Deco lovers. Parallels with Shanghai Art Deco are very visible during the visit. This a great window into a style that would soon spread to the rest of the World, and strongly influence Shanghai.

The exhibition will be shown until 26th April 2026. The same location also hosts an exhibition about the Orient Express train from the same period and style.

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