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.
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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