Shanghailander

Classical Buildings of Shanghai

I am always curious about new books related to old Shanghai, and this new one was no exception. Surprisingly, I found it out of my usual circle, in a small shop in Tai Kang Lu. I later checked places like Garden books, but it was not on sale there… or maybe it is already out of stock. Although I was first impressed by the printing quality and the appearance of the book, reading it led to a less enthusiastic judgement.

There are definitely good points with this book, starting with the cover. The mosaic of small pictures is an eye-catcher and printing and paper quality are very high. This definitely makes a good coffee table book. Some pictures are quite recent, with others from the 1990’s. It is actually nice to see how some buildings actually looked before some disastrous renovation (like the red house on Hen Shan Lu), or invasion of advertising (like Sincere Department store on Nanjing Dong Lu). Some of these buildings have been nicely renovated since, so the picture in the book is not as nice as today’s reality. I also have found some of those pictures used previously on various website. This book is clearly not one of original photographs from one photographer, but a collection of already existing pictures. As the book was published in China, it is both in English and in Chinese making it a great tool for show Chinese friend why we love old Shanghai building so much. Moreover, at RMB 100 it is really affordable.

Unfortunately, I also found quite a number of points that make this book miss the 100% score by far. First of all, there is no classification of the buildings, neither by period, location, style or architect firms. Yes the book has nice pictures, but a little bit of order would have helped to make style and period differences easier to understand. Moreover, the level of the description is quite inconsistent in particular in naming the buildings. Sometimes the 1930’s name is used, sometimes today’s name, sometimes… something in the middle. I am also wondering what motivated the choice of including a particular building or not. It is really surprising not to see Bund 18, Kee Club and many of the Art Deco buildings in the French area… nor Broadway Mansions. Anyway, it seems that the authors rarely venture South of Fuxing Lu, or even Huai Hai lu. The other major drawback is the English translation. Some of the parts are well written, but many are difficult to understand due to dubious translation. Furthermore, there are quite lot of omissions or inaccuracies… which also degrades the book overall quality.

At the end, this book is a nice for a coffee table. It is also great to show the beauty of old Shanghai to Chinese friends (with Chinese text) and is affordable… but don’t count on it for an in-depth study of old Shanghai architecture.

Paris Art Deco

Just like in previous post “Home sweet home“, I used my trip in France to look at French buildings from an old Shanghai point of view. The heart of Paris was mostly built in the mid XIXth century, thanks to the design work of Baron Haussman who redesigned the French capital. Paris new design with large avenues connecting train stations organized in a network gave inspiration to design of cities all over Europe (just like Budapest where I used to live and many others). It also inspired the design of American cities like Chicago in the early XXth century as well as Moscow with its huge avenues … and finally came back to Shanghai as a model for building today’s Pudong.

Built on a ad hoc basis and constantly changing in a bit of architectural anarchy, old Shanghai was never planned in such a way. Although it was called the Paris of the orient, the similarities of town planning only goes so far as Avenue Joffre (today Huai Hai lu), that is indeed far from its model. However, Paris continued to be built in the 1920’s and 30’s at the same time as old Shanghai, here are a few examples of similarities. The first one to catch my attention was the building left that is located near St Sulpice in Paris Rive Gauche area.

Although it is not a triangle building like the Normandy building in Shanghai (picture right), they have a lot of similarities with the usage of red brick over 2 floors of stones as buildin g materials. The fist floors are both using large arches and a balcony it circling the top floor.

The second one is this art deco building in Montmartre. It did not specifically remind me of Shanghai art deco, apart from one important detail at the bottom right of the picture… the entrance door. Its shape is peculiar as it is non rectangular shape, but with cut angles instead. This shape is special enough to be remembered and I have seen it before in Shanghai, in Willow Court on Route de Boissezon (today Fuxing Xi Lu). Small detail, but clear similarity miles away from each other.

Home sweet home

After spending so much time in studying the old villas of the French Concession in Shanghai, I definitely got some acquired taste for this period and its architecture. Just like earlier trips to the UK (see post “London of the East” and “London Recalling“), I have used my trip to France to make pictures of building that remind me of old Shanghai. This is in no way a systematic study, I just stopped along the road to take a few snapshots of houses that caught my attention.

First is this 1920’s house in a small town. Although smaller, the style of this building is quite similar to the houses mentioned in recent posts “portrait of an old neighbour“. The shape of the roof and the frame of doors and windows are really specific of French houses in this period and style. The round windows on each side are also a type that I have seen on many houses in old Shanghai, though often on older buildings like the large brick mansions from the international settlement.

I have passed by the row of houses (picture left) many times before. Again, these are houses from the 1920’s, probably built as middle management housing for the (then booming) coal and iron industry in this small city. The general shape of the houses, round shapes of the door and usage of fake ‘half-timber” on the facade is very similar to some of the fake tudor houses in Shanghai. The row of houses always reminded me of the row of houses located on 1292 Avenue Joffre (today HuaiHai Lu) near the corner with Xinhua lu (picture left)

These are houses of a style prior to art deco that is now so famous in Shanghai. This post of like a return to the French origin, like finding the missing link between France and the French Concession of Shanghai. A bit like today, expatriates of the time did all they could to recreate the universe where they came from. Similarly, companies created for the foreign expatriates, houses that were a little part of their country right in Shanghai. Just like the buildings on the Bund in the International Settlement look like buildings in London, some of the houses in the French Concession were similar to houses in France or in Europe. The mix of the various style and influence made Shanghai a unique city in Asia and the world. It is still visible today.

From Russia with love

Old Shanghai was the safe haven for many people, in particular many Russians. They came to Shanghai after the Russian revolution and defeat of the white Russians in 1922 in Vladivostok. Russian nobility fled the country to escape from the Soviet troops, first in Russian influenced Manchuria, then moving down to Shanghai. As the community increased, Russians institutions settled down. Most Russians nobles were very religious and churches were used as a gathering point for the community.

Two Russian Orthodox churches are still standing Shanghai. (I have found picture of a third one, but I think it was destroyed long ago.) Both churches had various fates since China’s liberation, being used as storage and badly damaged during cultural revolution, just like other religious buildings. They were both turned into bar and restaurant, that have been closed since several year now. Both churches are not far from each other, neither from the statue of Puskin on Tao Jiang Lu. In the same area, numerous Russian bakers and restaurants were established (see post on Russian bakeries in the area). This part of the French Concession was often referred as “Little Russia” because of the large Russian community established there. Rena Krasno, a Russian lady who spent her childhood in Shanghai also lived in the area.

The most visible one is at the corner of Xin Le lu and Xiang Yang Lu (used to be Route Paul Henry and Route Lorton ). The Mission Church as it was called, was built in 1934. A part of the action of the novel “The Master of Rain” is taking place there. The outside has been renovated two years ago and given a fresh face. Unfortunately, the next door housing of the priest is still occupied by a restaurant. The Church has now been opened again to the public. No service is taking place as the building is not used as a Church, but as an art gallery. The first exhibition is now open of… Russian painting. The link with Russia is very clearly and I would not be surprised if the actual renovation was paid with Russian money. It is quite ridiculous that the exhibition is only open on Friday’s from 10:00 to 16:30, but at least I got the opportunity to see it.

Unfortunately, the wall paintings have been lost through ages and most of the walls are now painted white. The Church still has an atmosphere though and the biggest surprise is not on ground level… but on the ceiling. Miraculously, the paintings inside the dome have been uncovered and they seem to have survived pretty well. Although they could definitely do with a restoration, the icons betweens the windos and the large dome picture are still clearly visible. The fate of White Russians in Shanghai has often been seen as one of misery, it is nice to find back some Russian beauty in old Shanghai.

400 million customers

This is another Earnshaw reprint of a classic book about Old Shanghai. “The unexpurgated story of a Shanghai baby“, “All about Shanghai and its environs” and “Tael lights” were fun to read but were mostly of interests for people in love with old Shanghai. 400 million customers is definitely of a different class, this book is a true masterpiece.

I already wrote about Carl Crow in a review of his biography by Paul French last year. Carl Crow had many years of experience in Shanghai, going all around China for his own interest as well as the development of his advertising agency. He actually invented and developed the poster calendar that are now one of the symbols of old Shanghai. He was famous supporter of China, trying to show to the international community the real intentions of Japan invading China. He spoke fluent Chinese and his pro-Chinese positions did not always please the foreign community either. He was certainly had a correct opinion as history often proved him right.

400 million customer is not just any book about China, it is a book about doing business in China published in the 1930’s. Besides being a great read, the most amazing part is that most of the points are still valid today. Some of the article seem to be straight out of a contemporary management on his country. The first chapter is about the specificity of the Chinese consumer in knowing exactly what they want (I love the story of the needles) as well not liking any change in the brands they are used to (see the part on the Hamburg horse shoes). I had a conversation with a friend selling B2B goods in today’s China who just had exactly the same experience. If they make any change to the packaging, customers complain as they are not sure if this is truly the original or not. Furthermore, it is common place today to find items in the market that are very close imitations, sometimes even just copies. “When we start to exploit a new product in China, we can always be certain of one thing, and that is that if it is possible to do so some Chinese or Japanese manufacture will start making a similar article and selling it at a cheaper price.” Similarly, the whole chapter “fortunes through profitless sales” is just as true today as it was then.

Management in China receives one full chapter with “Tremble and obey”, and once again Carl Crow’s experience is not far from today. Giving more quotations would just take too much space, but parts about avoidance of responsibility and how to get any decisions made are just hilarious. 400 million customers is definitely a must for anyone interested to work in China. Not bad for a book that is more than 70 years old.

Meet the twin sister

I was writing about an old villa in recent post “Portrait of an old neighbour”. Like many cases in Shanghai 1920’s and 1930’s, the developer did not built one house… but two next to each other. This house has a twin sister, actually located on 132 Route Kaufman, next to the original one at 130 Route Kaufman. I was mentioning in my original post that the building was of high quality and would make a great renovation. As it turns out that the sister house has been fully renovated and is in fact a well known bar, Cotton’s, located in the next house on the street.

Since both houses were nearly identical at origin, comparing pictures taken in both houses gives great ideas on how this old neighbor could be revived into today’s standard. At the same time, it also shows the extend of renovation and transformation that has been done to N132, the house that is now the bar. Most of the renovation was not done by the current house tenant, but a few years before.

The house porch has been little modified except with the addition of an external door. The front steps have also been changed for something shiny and new. Concrete floor (with probably the same circle shape) has been covered with wood floor.

The double wooden shutters have been replaced by a single one, that was probably easier to build than the original one. This also probably means that all windows frames have also been replaced.

renovated inside doors — Original Kitchen doors

Wood floors on all floors have been changed for new. Although the replacement is nice, is does not have the look nor the quality of the original inlay. As seen on picture left, the inside doors and door frames have old been for new and shiny. Looking at the state of the original ones in the non-renovated version it seems that a good cleaning and a nice wood varnishing would have allowed to keep the original doors that have sustained 80 years of mistreatment. In any case, the replacement fit more or less the original profile though they had a classical touch to a building that is definitely not classical style.

Addition of a classical touch was also done on the inside balcony. The original one was probably the same as next door… but surely not the current one. It’s interesting how the banister has been transformed by adding under it small colons that were not needed since they did not exist in the original staircase.

All in all, the renovation of 132 Route Kaufmann is not really museum class, as the material used do not really match the quality of the original. A different (and out of place) style has been introduced, putting pieces of classical castle style to a 20’s house. It seems the renovation was more following the fantasy of the owner than the original building. However, most of the original design has been kept, keeping the general feeling of the house intact and giving real atmosphere to the bar. One of the rare places with real firewood in Shanghai, Cotton’s was still one of my favorite hangout until it closed down in 2023.

While researching these two houses, I realized that there are about 10 similar houses in the neighborhood. They were all designed by French architecture firm Léonard & Veysseyre, built by the International Saving Society (ISS) and rented out by companies to house their managers. The house on 132 Route Kaufmann was inhabited by Carlos Lubeck, a director of the French Tram and Electricity company (CFTEE) (see post about the Lubeck family for more details).

The house on 130 Route Kaufmann was rumored to have been the house of Ma Ying-chi / 马英驰, the minister of Justice of Republican China (see post “Portrait of an Old Neighbour” for more details)

Portrait of an old neighbour

Living on Route Kaufmann (today Anting Lu), I have spent a lot of time looking around the neighboring old buildings. This street is a short one, a side street from Route Herve de Seyes (Yong Jia Lu) and Route Joseph Frelupt (Jiang Guo lu). It is located in the Western part of the French Concession, that was really developed in the mid-late 1930’s. The name in French on the 1927’s map is Route (and not Rue) indicating that they were rather country roads than urban streets. This is similar to Bubbling Well Road (Today Nanjing Xi Lu) in the International Settlement. As this area was not really urbanized, developers could buy large properties and build large garden villas.

Many wealthy foreigners and Chinese families lived in this quiet and relaxed neighborhood. Since most of these villas had garages, people living in the area had surely cars, and the streets were probably filled with 1930’s Cadillac and other Ford and Renault imported from Europe and the US. The atmosphere then with the streets lined up with walls masking great brand new villas must have been quite similar to today’s HongQiao area with the Villa’s compounds.

Most of those villas are now closed to the public with iron gates stopping the occasional visitor to come in. As I live in the neighborhood and spend a lot of time around with my camera, I am becoming well known by the old people mostly living in the villas. A little bit of Shanghainese language often does the trick and allows me to take pictures without disturbing anybody. I recently got a chance to get into the house on 130 Route Kaufman and take some pictures.

This house is very similar to houses of the same period built in France. It was designed by Vesseyre & Leonard, along with 2 other houses on each side that are of similar style. The entrance has seen better days but still keeps up appearances. I particularly enjoy the covered front that is creating an outside entrance hall. Like similar houses in France, shutters were installed on ground floor windows. It is quite rare to still see them in today’s Shanghai.

I then moved to the inside, while talking with a lady living there. The picture left is the actual entrance door, still in place. The round part on the top was probably a glass and metal ornament. The glass must have been smashed at some point and replaced by the cheaper piece of wood. It is typical from Leonard & Veysseyre style.

Original inside doors are still in the building, matching the pattern of the entrance door. The far door leads to the what is the kitchen today and I think was the main kitchen in the old time. It has a back door, so that domestics could come into the kitchen without using the main entrance door, using the back service entrance instead. The nearest door leads to the bathroom… with appliances from the 1930’s still in use without have been cleaned for a long time.

Moving up through the stair case, it is easy to realize the money and time spent into creating this house. After years of over use and neglect, the staircase still looks great, including the small inside balcony. The house does not seem to have structural damages apart from water leaking over the main entrance. It is always amazing to see how these houses have survived decades of overuse and neglect and are still standing. People living in this houses mostly have no idea of the value and craft that was put into building them. Then often pay very little if anything at all to live here, so why bother taking care of a building that is just (in their mind) an old ruin? Similar houses in France that have been well maintained still looks grand and those in Shanghai could be turned back to the same grandeur.

This house on 130 Route Kaufman is rumored to have been the house of Ma Ying-chi / 马英驰, the minister of Justice of Republican China. This is highly possible as the area was inhabited by Kuomingtang heads, including Chiang Kai-Shek, TV Soong, HH Kung & Soong Ailing and Kuomintang Chief Spy Dai Li / 戴笠. The clone house on 132 Route Kaufman was the house of one of the directors of the French Tramway and Electricity company (CFTEE).

General Post Office, Sichuan Bei Lu

It must come from having sent many letters, or from having a father who worked many years for the French post. In any case, postal services always interested me. I already wrote a post about addresses (or lack of) in the 1890’s Shanghai (click here to see post “Hotel des Colonies”), this post is about postal services when Shanghai really became a metropolis.

In the late 19th century each country of the international settlement had its own postal services, postmen and its own post office. Each of country was creating its own stamps for sending letters to the home country or dependencies. The most well known national post office is probably the German one, that is today LAN Club on Gangdong Lu (picture right).

As China was not member of the international postal system, stamps from the foreign post offices where not valid for traffic within the country. China entered the General Postal Union treaty in 1914 becoming part of the world postal systems. Although many wars and events disturbed the traffic, it became possible to send a letter from abroad to somewhere in China relatively simply. National post offices were dismantled and the Main post office for Shanghai opened on #9 Beijing Road in 1919 (this building has now disappeared).

As postal traffic constantly increased, it became necessary to open a new a larger postal center for Shanghai. Ideal location was between the central business district of the Bund and the North Railway station with easy access to the Hangpu where big ships arrived as international letters where mostly transported by boat. Land was acquired in the cheaper HongKow district along the Suzhou river, at the corner of Sichuan Bei Lu. The area was an industrial and warehouse zone with a few of these buildings remaining today and the general hospital a little further down the river. The postal administration and main postal sorting center remained in this building until 2003, before moving to a modern location in Pudong. The building still hosts a working post office and the China postal museum.

post office sculpture — post office tower with Greek Gods sculptures

The postal museum building was designed by architect firm Stewardson & Spence in beaux arts style, being built in 1924. It is often surprising for visitors that a Chinese administration building was designed in a western fashion. Although this was a Chinese administration, it was run by foreigners just like the customs. French man Auguste Chapelain was the long serving manager do the Chinese post office until 1943. He was also a notable member of the Breton community in Shanghai.

Furthermore, classical style at that time was the symbol of modernity and the building was surely designed to compete with the foreign banks on the Bund. Like buildings of that time the flat roof is ornamented by a tower, with statues of Greek God Hermes (Messenger god, thus patron of the postal services) surrounded by Eros and Aphrodite, Greek God and Goddess of love. The top picture is probably from 1930-31 as one can see the side of the Embankment building under construction (the Embankment building was opened in 1932). The landscape has changed a lot since with many towers built around, but the post office itself has not changed much since, apart from an extension along the Suzhou river. Behind the general post office now stands the New Asia Hotel opened in 1934.

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Tian Shan Apartments

One of the most rewarding part of my passion for old Shanghai is to find locations and information that are little known or have been overlooked when they should be easy to see. Just like in the post “Haig Court, right in our face” this post is about a building on a street that every knows but only few people have noticed. Showing the city to visitors on a sidecar is challenging and pushes me to learn more and more about the city, so more posts like this are to be expected.

The entrance of Tian Shan apartment is located on Huai Hai Zhong lu, on one of most busy shopping stretch. The apartment complex is made of six buildings of 4 floors. Architecture and facades are typical of art deco, using vertical and horizontal lines to enhance the shape of the buildings. These 6 buildings are U-shaped with the opening turned south to catch as much light as possible for each apartment. They would not be really noticeable without the art deco fixtures on the roof. As you can see on the picture below, the buildings are linked with concrete cross-beams that are hanging on the whole with this very geometric design hanger. I am not sure what was it useful for, probably for pipes or cables.

Decoration on Tian Shan Apts This definitely increase the art deco feeling of this compound a lot, as well as the decoration on the roof of the central part (see picture right up). This compound is now mostly inhabited by employees of the nearby university and still gives the impression of peace and quiet, a few meters away from the busy street. The recent painting also helps a lot. The purpose built cable carrier did not stop the electricity company to install some ugly cables in the middle (see right), but they did not manage to destroy the harmony of this 1928 piece of art. This charming small compound was located in the heart of the urban part of the French concession, not far from Brooklyn Court, Russian bakeries and restaurants, and Cathay Apartments. With entrance on famous Avenue Joffre (the old name of Huai Hai Zhong Lu), it was certainly one of the nice adresses to live in and rental were surely very high. Tian Shan apartment can now be found at 622 Avenue Joffre (today 622 Huai Hai Zhong Lu).

Tael Lights: party like no tomorrow

This guide about old Shanghai newly re-published by Earnshaw books is surely not politically correct. “Shanghai high lights, low lights, tael lights” is was not really a guide about Shanghai like “All about Shanghai“. Instead, it is an insight into the life of two Westerners living the high life of drinking and partying like no tomorrow. As they write it, they “know very little about [Shanghai], but know a hell a lot about that very little”. They clearly lived in a very small part of Shanghai and clearly had a kind of high life.The book is short, opinionated and quite funny in its description of the city.

“Shanghai is a grand town, not an atmospheric background for Oriental melodrama, but a grand place to live, to work and enjoy life”. Just like in other guides, the author surely makes fun of the foreigners and tourists coming to Shanghai looking for their imaginary China with pagoda’s, temples, obscure old monks holding eternal secrets and all the “magic of the orient”. They have no interest in tourist spots of the day (and still of today) like “Lung Wha Pagoda” and the “Willow Pattern Tea House” (Yu Yuan garden area): “As a matter of fact, all of these and others of their type, are a distinct bore”. What they point to instead are modern places where Chinese gather for entertainment, such as the “Great World Amusement Company” (on Xi Zhang lu, currently under re-construction), Wing On, Sincere and the other department stores on Nanking Road (today Nanjing Dong Lu). They also spend many pages on street life, vendors and other common sights that are not far from today’s Shanghai.

Since they spent a lot of time going out and enjoying nightlife, this is the main focus of the book. The leading spots of the time were “the tower, atop the very gilt-edge Cathay hotel” (today Peace hotel is under renovation, but surely another bar will open on the top of it. This just a few meters from today’s Bund 18). “the Sky Terrace, atop Park Hotel and the Paramount Ballroom“. The author then moves onto Chinese cabarets (somewhat equivalent to today’s Chinese night clubs). After parties locations like the infamous “Venus Cafe” in Hong Kou district gets a few pages, reminding me of my last visit to Dragon Club in after party… 3 or 4 years ago. My preferred part is surely the one explaining the “three ways of making whoopee in Shanghai”, i.e. three ways to party. “Number one is by sending the boy out for three quarts and some ice, and telephoning Clara and Dick to come over and lift a few. This is known as ‘going to town while remaining at home’. Then there’s the business of gathering the clan and making the spots, St Georges, Del Montes,etc and is known in some quarters as ‘going to the dogs’. Can be expensive. And last, there are those who in case themselves in silk and white linen and sally forth to places of the cover charge type, the only real difference between this and the last class being that it takes them longer and more money to feel their liquor. This is known, (by people in the second class) as ‘going highbrow’ and can be extremely expensive financially, coming under the heading of ‘major appropriations’.”

Although the guide was written more than 70 years ago, the life of its writers was not very different from a number of people I know in Hong Kong who rarely live Central or the South part of the Island and party just the same way… or people I know in Shanghai who live work and party in an area which is just slightly bigger than the one described in the book. The modern version of this book would be an un-expurgated compilation of smartshanghai.com forum focusing on only on Shanghai’s nightlife for singles. In Shanghai, some things never really change.