Book Club Archive & Reading List

For the 2025 Book Club reading list, click here.

For recorded Book Club discussions, click here.

HISTORIC SHANGHAI’S TOP 15 BOOKS

We’re constantly asked to recommend ‘one book’ on Old Shanghai. Impossible! That’s why we started a book club! But we have narrowed it down to 15 must-reads, compiled from Book Club readings and out-of- print classics.

Architecture

A Last Look: Western Architecture in Old Shanghai by Tess Johnston and Deke Erh

Building Shanghai: The Story of China’s Gateway by Edward Denison and Guang Yu Ren

History

Shanghai: China’s Gateway to Modernity by Marie-Claire Bergere

Memoir

Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng

Tracing It Home: A Chinese Journey by Lynn Pan

Strangers Always: A Jewish Family in Wartime Shanghai by Rena Krasno

Shanghai Faithful: Betrayal and Forgiveness in a Chinese Christian Family by Jennifer Lin

Nonfiction

Old Shanghai: Gangsters in Paradise by Lynn Pan

400 Million Customers by Carl Crow

Shanghai Homes: Palimpsests of Private Lives by Jie Li

City of Devils: The Two Men Who Ruled the Underworld of Shanghai by Paul French

Fiction

French Concession: A Novel by Xiao Bai

Lust, Caution and other short stories by Eileen Chang

Empire of the Sun by JG Ballard

Song of Everlasting Sorrow by Wang Anyi

BOOK CLUB ARCHIVE

Books we’ve read, 2019-present

Nonfiction: Memoir/Biography

News Is My Job: A Correspondent in War-Torn China by Edna Lee Booker

Tea on the Great Wall: An American Girl in War-Torn China by Patricia Luce Chapman

Shanghai Lawyer: The Memoirs of America’s China Spymaster by Norwood F. Allman, annotated, Illustrated and Embellished by Douglas Clark

Shanghai Boy, Shanghai Girl: Lives in Parallel by George Wang and Betty Barr

Remembering Shanghai: A Memoir of Socialites, Scholars and Scoundrels by Isabel Sun Chao and Claire Chao (2018) For our review of the book, click here.

China to Me: A Partial Autobiography by Emily Hahn

Ten Green Bottles: The True Story of One Family’s Journey from War-torn Austria to the Ghettos of Shanghai by Vivian Jeanette Kaplan

Stateless in Shanghai by Liliane Willens

Goong-Goong: from Tuscany to Shanghai: The Story of a Chinese Patriarch Through the Eyes of His Italian Daughter-in-Law by Patrizia Chen

Witness to History: From Vienna to Shanghai: A Memoir of Escape, Survival and Resilience by Paul Hoffman and Jean Hoffman Lewanda Recording Available

Bound Feet and Western Dress: A Memoir by Natasha Pang-Mei Chang

Shanghai Saga: The Story of a City by John Pal

Chasing Hepburn: A Memoir of Shanghai, Hollywood, and a Chinese Family’s Fight for Freedom by Gus Lee

Miracles of Life: Shanghai to Shepperton, An Autobiography by JG Ballard

Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister: Three Women at the Heart of Twentieth-Century China by Jung Chang

The Soong Dynasty by Sterling Seagrave

The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties that Helped Create Modern China by Jonathan Kaufman

The Sassoons: The Great Global Merchants and the Making of an Empire by Joseph Sassoon Recording available

Shanghai Policeman by E.W. Peters

Bernardine’s Shanghai Salon: The Story of the Doyenne of Old China by Susan Blumberg-Kason Our review is here.

Nobody Said Not to Go: The Life, Loves, and Adventures of Emily Hahn by Ken Cuthbertson

Shanghai Demimondaine: From Sex Worker to Society Matron by Nick Hordern

Shanghai Acrobat: A True Story of Courage and Perseverance from Revolutionary China by Jingjing Xue

The Suitcase: The Life and Times of Captain X by Deborah Taussig-Boehner and Lauren Housman (2024)

Nonfiction

400 Million Customers by Carl Crow

City of Devils: The Two Men Who Ruled the Underworld of Old Shanghai by Paul French. Our interview with Paul French is here.

Shanghai Homes: Palimpsests of Private Lives by Jie Li. Our interview with Jie Li is here.

Champions Day: The End of Old Shanghai by James Carter

Last Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao’s Revolution by Helen Zia

Shanghai Grand: Forbidden Love, Intrigue, and Decadence in Old China by Taras Grescoe

The Peking Express: The Bandits Who Stole a Train, Stunned the West, and Broke the Republic of China by James Zimmerman

Fiction

Dreams of Joy by Lisa See

French Concession: A Novel by Xiao Bai

Night in Shanghai by Nicole Mones

Death in Shanghai (An Inspector Danilov Historical Thriller, Book 1) by MJ Lee. Our interview with MJ Lee is here.

My Shanghai: 1942-46: A Novel by Keiko Itoh

Rumors from Shanghai by Amy Sommers. Our interview with Amy Sommers is here.

Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien

Years of Red Dust by Qiu Xiaolong

Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard

When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro ~ Recording available

Little Reunions by Eileen Chang

The Lives Before Us by Juliet Conlin

Unbound: A Tale of Love and Betrayal in Shanghai by Dina Gu Brumfield

Gangsters of Shanghai: The Most Dangerous Police Beat in the World by Gerry O’ Sullivan

Love in a Fallen City and other short stories by Eileen Chang (translated by Karen Kingsbury)

The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai by Wang Anyi

The Distant Land of My Father: A Novel of Shanghai by Bo Caldwell

Lust, Caution by Eileen Chang

Fu Ping: A Novel by Wang Anyi, translated by Howard Goldblatt

Miss Jill: A Novel by Emily Hahn (1947)

Jewish Shanghai