Shanghailander

Old Shanghai NOT for beginners

Cover "a short history of Shanghai" — Cover “a short history of Shanghai”

Plenty of books are currently published about old Shanghai in the run-up to Expo 2010. “A short history of Shanghai” is surely not one of the easy ones to read. Most people think I am passionate about old Shanghai, but even I sometimes reach a limit on how much information I can absorb on the topic. Coffee table books make a great decoration with lots of nice pictures of old buildings and can be highly informative as well, the best of which is probably “Building Shanghai“. Novels based in Old Shanghai take you to a trip back in time without needing much introduction. Amongst them I like “The Master of rain“, though I still need to read the classic “Shanghai 1937” and I sometimes dream that I will also write one. Old guide books such as “all about Shanghai and its environs” are often fun to read. They are a bit more dense with information and I often think that most people will read a few pages every now and then, but only few people actually read them from the beginning to the end. A short history of Shanghai is definitely a much harder nut to crack. It is not a new book but is the reprint of a book from 1927.

Probably inspired by Earnshaw books reprints (even in the beige color cover), the state owned China Intercontinental Press has reprinted this original history of Shanghai. The paper is not as good quality as Earnshaw’s and the reprint has introduced a number of spelling mistakes but illustrations and maps have been kept in. The most amazing is that the publisher managed to publish in modern China a book that was definitely not approved or even forbidden only a few years ago. The very existence of this book shows that the perception of Old Shanghai by Chinese people is also changing. As Shanghai is reborn, it is looking again for its own history and this is a fine example of high quality academic research. Having been written in 1927, the book offer many information about the early days of Shanghai that was lost after liberation or during the Cultural Revolution. “A short history of Shanghai” is definitely not Old Shanghai for beginner, but as a source of information it is invaluable.

If you want to know everything about the history of Shanghai and the International Settlement, you have found the right book. There are so many details in it that it would be easy to get lost. Dates of the opening of various bridges on the Suzhou creek, names of the bishops of the Shanghai Cathedral, debates on the Shanghai municipal councils, various episodes of fights happening around the city, you have it all. The best is probably the very old fashion tone and sentence patterns used in it. It is easy to feel the sense of superiority that western colonials had in Shanghai. The writer was a old China hand, having been the President of Saint John University (today East China University of Political Science and Law) for half of a century. He certainly knew China well as he also published several edition of an history of China. Another of his published books was “Lessons in the Shanghai dialect”, a teach yourself method in English to learn Shanghainese, that would probably also be worth a reprint. Hopefully China Intercontinental Press will also republish it.

Haig Court, right in our face

We all have passed in front of this building many times without even noticing it. Haig Court (today Jing An Hotel) is located on 370 Avenue Haig (today 370 Hua Shan Lu), right in our face but hidden by the neighboring towers. Its central location in the western part of the old French Concession did not escape real-estate developers and it’s something of a miracle that this building and its garden have actually survived.

On one of the busiest crossroad in Shanghai, it is right behind the Hilton Hotel and the new Hua Shan Square. Although most people have probably never noticed it, it looks today just like on this old picture (from virtual Shanghai). Built in the 1930’s, like for many buildings in old Shanghai its architecture is a mix of various styles. The outside certainly looks Spanish revival, stretched to fit a 9 storey building. Some of its Art Nouveau inspired fixtures like the rough stone wall can be found in Art Nouveau meccas such as Tallin or Bucharest. It also incorporate art Deco elements in glass works, of which a few pieces in the lobby could have been original. The garden still has a little pagoda in a corner and today’s grass looks just like it did 60 years ago. Like in many Shanghai buildings, most of the balconies have been closed to created verandas, loosing some of the original harmony.

The little secret of the building is probably its top floor. Take the lift to the 9th floor early morning, and you can get to the breakfast room with a view to the garden from what was surely the main room of a huge penthouse apartment. Then, use the stairs to reach the 10th floor and you will get to the entrance to the VIP rooms with an even better view. As you can see on the picture, the 10th floor was added later, but it matches the rest of the building. Look through the window for a garden view.
The neighboring skyscrapers have now been built all around Haig Court, but not in the garden. The view from the grass ground, near the back of the garden looks just the same today as it did on the 1948 pictures (apart from overlooking neighbors).

Shanghai foxtrot

picture of the inside of a writer's Jingzidian — picture of the inside of a writer's Tingzidian

1920’s and 1930’s was the time of money, trade and parties in Shanghai, it was also a time for an incredible development of arts. While businesses where embracing new trades and industries coming from the West and introducing them to China with great profits, artists were also feeling the western wind. Jesuits fathers created a painting in school in Xu Jia Hui which was influential in introducing western painting styles and techniques to Chinese artists. At the same time, many Chinese writers came to settle in Shanghai to benefit from the commercial opportunities, safety and freedom allowed by the foreign concessions. This mostly poor crowded was often living in a “Tingzidian”, a small room between two main floors rented out in a lane house (see picture). Mostly northward looking and of very small size, tingzidian were not the most comfortable room of the house but they allowed those artists to leave in a central location at a low price. Just like French litterature from the late 19th and early 20th century was written in the Paris cafes and the “Chambre de bonne” (rooms on the top of buildings with little comfort where many artists lived and wrote), Shanghai litterature was written in the cafes of Huai Hai Lu and the French Concession, as well as in the tingzidian. Young artists would spend hours in cafes, discussing litterature, painting and how to build a new world. This was the time when artists associations like the painters “Storm society” were formed, as well as writers magazines such as “Xiandai, Les Comptemporains”.

Progressive writers such as Mu Shiying, Shi Zecun and Le Ying Feng were among the main expressionists writers of this period. Shanghai Foxtrot from Mu Shiying is for me the best symbol of old Shanghai party life described by Chinese writers. Mu Shiying was a dandy and his stories are about dandy life, dancings, clubs and restaurant. He certainly lived the high life while in Shanghai and that makes this short story so enjoyable. The party period only last for a short time, but some of these artists certainly enjoyed it. Reading texts from the 1920’s and cruising through the night life of today’s Shanghai, one sometimes feels like an echo, a deja-vu feeling (see the post “Decadence on the Bund” for more on this).

The party lasted only for a few years, as by the middle of the 1930’s politics had taken over many artists. Most of them joined or sympathized with the communist party and art was used to carry the message to the masses. Many then entered the war or resistance against the Japanese occupation. Some other fled to Hong Kong, some collaborated with the Japanese authorities, often being assasinated because of this. The 1920’s was a the time for art and adventure, by the late 1930’s art had left the place for politics. The litterature of the time was forgotten for many years before being rediscovered in the 1990’s and being republished first in China and then abroad. I only found Shanghai Foxtrot in French and in English… and after some research in Chinese as a collection of Mu Shiying works was republished in 2004.

The words of Shanghlish

Shanghai language or Shanghainese is notoriously difficult to understand and even more to speak for non Shanghainese Mandarin speakers. It has been studied as a language and its origin have been well documented (click here to see the Wikipedia article on the topic).

The influence of foreign languages on the Shanghainese is a much less studied topic. Although there are books in Chinese on “How to learn Shanghainese”, I have not found any article in English about absorption of foreign words into Shanghainese language… but ask Shanghainese people and they will tell you. Here comes the word of Shanghlish, coined after Singapore local version of English, Singlish. Foreigners in Old Shanghai brought many symbols of modernity with them including cloths, food, cars and many more. The vocabulary to described them simply did not exit so foreign words were incorporated into Shanghainese, later on moving to Chinese. I have found a few examples about those below, but I am still looking for more:

– Sofa （沙发）: Although pronounced “Shafa” in Mandarin, it clearly first came through Shanghainese were pronounced litteraly “Sofa”. As most traditional Chinese furniture were hard wood, this kind of comfortable seat was probably such a novelty that it became a word of its own.

– Cementing （水门汀）: Technical term: “To prepare and pump cement into place in a wellbore”. In Shanghainese, these are the front of a house that is covered with concrete. This feature was clearly introduce for the foreign style house, that had a concrete (cement) entrance to avoid the damp of Shanghai soil.

– “Modeng” （摩登）: Direct transposition from “modern” in English, with a slightly different meaning. “Modeng” is not modern, but fashionable. At the time of old Shanghai (just like today), what was fashionable was modern, so it became “Modeng”.

– “On Sale” : A typical Shanghai expression. The original discounted price in English became a (not very nice) adjective for people. Somebody “on sale” is somebody that is not reliable, that could mislead or hide truth. Could also be translated as “cheap”. It is funny how the cheap price transformed to mean “cheap person”.

– “Assai”: Supposedly coming from “High Sir”, it was used in the expression “Hong To Assai” (red head high sir, 红头阿三) which designated the sikh policemen that were brought from India by the British empire to rule the traffic in the foreign settlement. They wore a red hat… and were saying “High Sir”

Foreigners also introduced a new way to count time. It seems that using quarter of an hour to tell time like in “Qi Dian San Ke” （7点3刻）= 7 hours 3 quarter (three quarter past seven) is only used in Shanghai. “Quarter past” or “quarter to” is often used in English, but I made not sure about “three quarters” being used in English. However in French it makes perfect sense. This is probably another Shanghainese expression that came from foreign languages.

The last two one I found seems a little too good to be true, but I cannot resist mentioning it. I read somewhere that the current world for street in Shanghai (lu, 路) could be a transformation of “rue” (street in French). Although I am sceptical about it, that would explain why lu is in use mostly in Shanghai. This little French touch in old Shanghai sounds very nice, though it still seems a little far fetched to me.

If you know other examples of Shanghlish words, please write to me as I am very interested in the topic.

A tale of two churches

Various religious organizations have long been interested in expending in China. A large number of foreigners in old Shanghai came to try and convert millions of Chinese. Missionaries were crossing the country, delivering their “true” faith and building churches. Old Shanghai was the center of all this activity, counting many churches, as well as offices of many religious oriented organizations. This post is about the opposite fate of two historic Churches near the Bund.

The Union Church was built in 1885 on South Suzhou Road, just behind the Bund. This protestant Church was a prime gathering point for the community, being located close to the English Consulate and the business center of Old Shanghai. It was confiscated in the 1950’s and used as an office building.

Shanghai Union Church 2007 (picture from Shanghaiist website)

Like many other churches in Shanghai, China’s history took a heavy toll on the Union Church and the building passed its prime shape long ago (see picture from 2007 on the hand side right). Until destruction, the church tower could be seen from the motorway bridge over the Huangpu river. In 2007, the church was seriously damaged by fire. According to a well documented article from Shanghaiist at that time, the church was not used anymore and scheduled for renovation. From the picture above taken in February 2009, it seems that the renovation was canceled and demolition took place instead. I guess the fire saved cost of renovating this historical relic and in the same

Giving way to progress — Giving way to modernity

time freed some very valuable land on this part of the Bund. I’m sure there are some very good reasons to do this, but seeing the last bit an historical building being teared down in central Shanghai is never a joyfull sight. Picture left quite an ironic view with Shanghai 2010 advertising on the wall covering the destruction site.

At the same time, another church near the Bund is seeing a new life. The English Church, later called the Anglican

Cathedral, at the corner of Hankou lu and Jiangxi lu is nearly at the end of the restoration process. Apart from a fresh painting, the most visible change is surely that the Church spike is back on the tower next the the main building. The spike was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, the Xu Jia Hui Cathedral and the union Church among others were similarly damaged. Renovation is not finished yet, but it definitely seems to go in the right direction. The tower looks very much like the original that can be seen on old postcards.

A Church near the Bund disappears, while another one gets its tower back and a good renovation. We can’t have it all and both could well have been destroyed. Like the Chinese saying “you win something, you loose something”.

London of the East

Old Shanghai was often called “Paris of the orient” or “Paris of the East”. I have read or heard the later used for several cities inspired by the French capital including Budapest (with its Andrassy ut looking like Champs Elysees), Bucharest (because of boulevards and buildings French inspired), Saigon and Hanoi (with obvious French architecture) along with Shanghai. Wellknown characteristics of old Shanghai people, in particular their high interest in fashion, dresses as well and cafes and restaurants have been well documented and clearly have links with Paris lifestyle in the same period. It is still true of today’s Shanghai as the particular city’s culture re-emerge after so many years.

Some houses in the old French Concession are the very same style as some of the Paris suburbs build in the 1920’s. That is very understandable since they were build by French architects. Parts of Huaihai lu used to look like a Paris boulevard, although most of it has been destroyed since. The French Concession’s atmosphere with its streets lined with trees, shops and cafes maybe had a similar atmosphere to Paris but in terms of architecture most of Old Shanghai looks much closer to London.

I already wrote about the Court of Westminster on Maryleborne Road (Click here to read post “London recalling”) that definitely looks like building’s on the Shanghai Bund. In my last trip to London, I stayed in a different part of the city, next to High Street Kensington. The mix of building in this area and in particular above High Street Kensington’s tube station is for me very similar to the streets of Shanghai just behind the Bund, in particular JiangXi Lu. It obviously starts with Queen Anne style building’s that were fashionable in the late XIXth Century and the early 1900 years. There are many of those in the Kensington area, and there were many in Shanghai as well. They were mostly the work of Atkinson & Dallas, a British architecture firm very active in the early year of Shanghai construction boom.

Similarities do not stop there, as both cities added Art Deco buildings in the late 1920’s and 1930’s. The inspiration was clearly the same, as the decorations on the buildings are strikingly similar. The same iron works in the windows and doors were used. Symbols used also had similar mythical inspiration.What is probably unique of Shanghai and this area of London is the mix of both in the same area and a similar spatial arrangement. In architecture, many Shanghai buildings are a reminder of the London ones… or maybe I love Shanghai so much that I see it everywhere.

Love in a fallen city

The recent movie “Lust, Caution” made the headlines because of the sex scenes that were cut off in the Mainland China version. “Lust, Caution” is based a novel from late author Zhang Ailing (or Eileen Chang as it is spelled in English). I had heard about “the Chinese writer who used to live on Changde Lu”, but it’s only after having seen the movie that I put the pieces together. Born in Shanghai in 1920, Zhang Ailing is probably the most famous icon of this period in Chinese literature. A women of her time, she was (and still is) an icon of modernity. She was born in one of old and powerful families of Shanghai (she was related to Li Hong Zhang) but her family was not the ideal one. Her mother was a “sophisticated woman of cosmopolitan taste” (as introduced in her biography), partly

educated in England. Her father became an opium addict and locked her up in her room for nearly half a year when she was 18. Zhang Ailing studied litterature at the University of HongKong due to the war in China and had to come back to Shanghai after 1941 Japanese invasion of Hong Kong. She became a real star Shanghai literature in 1943, when she published her first novellas and short stories and left China for Taiwan in 1949, before moving to the US.

Zhang Ailing lived in the Eddington House on Hart Road (now Changde lu). Built in the 1930’s it is a fine example of art deco apartment building. Traffic on Hart Road was surely less noisy and polluted than on today’s Changde lu, so living in this building was probably the mark of high social status. Eddington House still has a lof of class. Its back is glass covered, now hidden by the brand new Swissotel Jing An. It’s interesting that the proximity of Zhang Ailing’s old apartement to the hotel is used as a marketing to zhangailing003 ol by the hotel company. A bookstors-cafe has just opened at the bottom of the building with 30’s theme… the perfect place to revive old Shanghai with a coffee.

Some of Zhang Ailing’s most significant short stories have been republished by Pinguin in 2007, taking advantage of the success of “Lust, Caution”. I bought this book in Shanghai and read it a few days ago. The short stories take place in Shanghai or in HongKong during war time. “Love in a fallen city” giving its title to the book is the central novella, taking place in HongKong during the Japanese invasion. Zhang Ailing style is precise and touchy, immersing us in this troubled period. The book is both a very enjoyable and essential read for anybody interested in old SHanghai. I particularly liked “Red rose white rose” for its melancholic tone. Ailing Chang was a modern women in old Shanghai, but a number of issues she mentions are still very relevant in today’s Shanghai. Although little known in the West, she is very famous in Taiwan and China. Some of her novels have been turned into movies or theater plays. Just ask any cultivated Chinese person, he or she will probably have read her books.

No flight to Shanghai

While preparing for a trip to Europe next week, I found this interview of the stewart of the first Air France Paris-Hong Kong flight in 1938. Altough the short movie is in French it is worth looking for non French speakers. This 92 years old gentleman was originally from Vietnam. He was hired in Hanoi in 1938 as the “barman” of the plane because he weighted less than 50 kg. He flew on the new Air France line from Paris to Hong Kong, a trip that took seven days to complete. The plane was a French Dewoittine 338 that took 4 crew members and 12 passengers. The short movie includes a few pictures of the first flight, as well as the inside of the plane with passengers enjoying their time while traveling. As said in the short movie, “air travel at that time was not so safe”, and passengers were not always sure they would actually reach destination.

In today’s jet age flight duration can still be quite a few hours, but it’s really difficult to imagine anybody needing one full week to travel from one major city to reach another one. Air France flight to Hong Kong included stops at many cities along the way including Alexandria, Karachi and Saigon, as shown on the map. Travel duration varied from 10 days to 2 weeks depending on the weather. The flight was branching out in Hanoi, with one leg going to Hong Kong, while the other was going to Yunnan Fu (Kunming nowadays) that could also be reached by train (see the post “Gare du Sud, Kunming for more information).

Eurasia airline flight route Air France flight to China was not the first international attempt for regular flights from Europe to China. Lufthansa organized a pioneer flight from Berlin to Beijing in 1926 flying over Siberia. The first attempt was never transformed into regular flights to due to the civil war in China and fights in Manchuria. However, Lufthansa and the Chinese State created an airline for national flights in China. Sikorsky S42 Started in 1930, Eurasia airline was flying around China. Operation were stopped in 1939.

In the same period, the British Imperial Airways extended its network from London to Cape Town, Singapore and Australia but never flew to Hong Kong, even less Shanghai. Panam flew San Francisco to Manila in the 1930’s the legendary giant sea planes, such as the China Clipper with Sikorsky S42 airplane (picture right). As Manila was the most important location for Americans in Asia, they never extended the network to Shanghai either.

Although Shanghai was the most important city of Asia at the time, I have never found any traces of direct flight from Europe or USA. The Japanese invasion in 1937 and civil war in China probably stopped it to happen, taking place just when these flight were technically possible. I have seen a plane resembling a Sikorsky S42 in a famous drawing of a view of old Shanghai… but it was probably a one-off flight or a imagination from the artist.

A few years after writing the original article, I read about a Paris-Beijing Air France line that was going through Shanghai. It is mentioned in “Les Français de Shanghai” as starting in 1936 until 1940’s interruption by the war. It seems in contradiction with the 1938 opening of flights to HongKong, as it was probably the same line extended to Beijing, that was not the capital of China at that time anymore and already invaded by the Japanese armies. In any case, if an Air France from Paris to Shanghai existed, it did not run for long as flights from Europe were canceled after 1940.

The revival of Gulangyu

Our third trip to the Gulangyu Island near Xiamen is making it a bit of a yearly pilgrimage. Xiamen is about 800 km south from Shanghai and the 1 hour flight is enough to transport from Shanghai winter to Xiamen spring. Just like Shanghai, Xiamen was one of the treaty port open by the Treaty of Nanjing from 1842, although maritime trade in the area was taking place centuries before that. Although it did not turn into a metropolis, it became an important trade city in particular thanks to South-East Asia Chinese returning to Fujian in the 1920s and 1930s. A number of old buildings are still visible on the shore front, including the Art Deco “Lujian Harbour View Hotel” (that was completed in the early 50s). As our taxi driver proudly pointed out, “these buildings are as old as the ones on the Bund in Shanghai”. Like in Shanghai, they are being rediscovered and transformed into tourist attractions.

We have walked the streets of GuLanYu many times before, but this year’s visit was a little bit of a surprise. Since the closure of our beloved Night Lilly guest house in 2006, accommodation on the island was quite limited. Choice was basically between a few state owned hotels (with the delights of the Karaokes and low quality Chinese breakfast) and small chinese hostels that can be really friendly, but not that comfortable like the Boat House hotel where we stayed last year.

We were really excited to find out that a real private hotel has opened on the island. Lee Garden hotel (www.leeinn.cn) is located in an old mansion on 38 Zhangzhou lu. The building has been ruinovated, meaning that only the walls were kept and all original fixtures have been removed. The interior is very modern with fancy bathrooms and LCD TV screens in each room. Like in many Chinese hotels, the beds are hard and the noise insulation is not the greatest point but it makes a comfortable stay. The hotel also has a coffee bar and restaurant, a great place to sit and relax with a glass of wine. It is located in side street off Zong Hua lu, the main walk through the island, making it quiet but of short distance away from many interesting places to visit like the Catholic church, the Huai Jiu Gulangyu museum, High Heaven complex and the beach.

The other interesting place we discovered was the Reminiscence hotel, behind the Huai Jiu Gulangyu Museum on 38 Huangyan lu (tel: 0592-2065000). It is probably less comfortable and modern than the Leeinn, but all furniture are antics and the renovation has left most of the inside fixtures in place creating a really nice atmosphere. This is a great place for history lovers like us and we will surely try it next year.

The most visible change from last year was the opening of many coffee shops on the island. Until last year, the only places to get descent coffee on a terrace after walking around the island was Naya hotel and Cafe, in the former German consulate (12 Lujiao Road, near the harbor), and slowly Cafe (An Hai lu 36). Coffee shops have sprung up around the island, particularly around Zhong Hua lu. Gulanyu is quickly transforming into a new version of Yangshuo or LiJiang with backpackers hotels and small “western restaurants” everywhere. Quite a number of houses are under renovation, showing that more of these places will open soon. Tourists were also in a much higher number than the year before. The quite little island is transforming to become a mass tourism destination. It definitely makes a stay there more comfortable… but a little less private and exclusive. It’s probably best to enjoy it as soon as possible, before the nice and quiet feeling disappears under the coming wave of KTV and tourist masses.

Next post about Gulangyu is “Night on Gulangyu“.

Plaza 353 ruinovation

Watching the renovation of the “Dong Hai building” on Nanjing Dong Lu was a mixed joy and disappointment… just like the final result. The Continental department store building from 1933 is a fine piece of Shanghai architecture. Although not as extravagant as other Shanghai building from this period, it had an interesting “zig zag” façade representative of the geometrical motives used in Art Deco.
Seeing this building surrounded by scaffoldings was scary as always in Shanghai. One is never sure whether the next step will be destruction or renovation. The prime location on Nanjing Lu and previous demolition of neighboring buildings did not give much hope … but it survived. The facades have been well preserved, even if the ground floor is just not the same as it was before. At least, it keeps a consistent look with the building’s style and keeps the atmosphere around this part of Nanjing Lu… the less nice part of the story is the inside.
The building had an inside courtyard that has been covered to create indoor space inside. I have seen this feature many times in Central and Eastern Europe and it’s a great way to develop such a construction. Having seen many early 20th century buildings being carefully restored and transformed into office buildings or high class shopping malls… I was expecting more. As in most “ruinovation” in Shanghai, nothing remains from the original interior. Some (like Central Plaza on Huai Hai Lu) managed to keep use the original volume, giving a special feeling to their store… but this was not the aim of the developer of Plaza 353. The inside looks and feels like a cheap copy of CITIC Square and could be just in any concrete building in any suburb of Shanghai… not a high class shopping center on the busiest shopping street of Shanghai. Best advice for old Shanghai lovers… enjoy it from the outside but don’t get inside. At least the facades were preserved, that is already not so bad.