Memories of Chinese New Year in Old Shanghai
新年快乐！Xin Nian Kuai Le! As we welcome the Year of the Dragon in a world of WeChat hongbaos and electronic firecrackers, we wondered: what was Chinese New Year like in old Shanghai? So we went to the experts: the men and women who grew up here. Here are their memories of Shanghai Chinese New Years past, from the ...
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Paul French on “City of Devils”
In May, the Historic Shanghai Book Club read City of Devils: A Shanghai Noir, so ahead of our talk, we sat down with author Paul French to find out more about interwar underworld Shanghai, rumor and gossip, old Shanghai's soundscape, and lots more. Historic Shanghai: What drew you to tell the tale of Jack Riley and ...
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Bookshelf: Death in Shanghai
MJ Lee’s Death in Shanghai is a delicious crime novel set in old Shanghai. Terrific plot, great characters, superb writing – and oh, the historical detail! It truly brings old Shanghai to life, infusing the characters, and even the crime. We wanted to know more, and author Martin Lee obliged us with an ...
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The Interview: Katya Knyazeva on Shanghai’s Old Town
The original Shanghai – the “old town” – is hidden in plain sight, in center of China’s wealthiest city. Yet it is but a shadow, unexplored territory for both foreigners and locals. And it's vanishing quickly. Journalist, photographer, tour guide, and blogger Katya Knyazeva has spent six years painstakingly ...
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In Conversation: Patricia Luce Chapman – An American Girl in Wartime Shanghai
Patricia Luce Chapman, the author of Tea on the Great Wall: An American Girl in War-Torn China was born in Shanghai in 1926 to a journalist mother and businessman father, and grew up here during a time that was both glamorous and difficult. She lived on Columbia Circle in a house designed by Hudec, went to ...
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The Interview: “Shanghai Homes: Palimpsests of Private Lives” with Jie Li
Jie Li, author of Shanghai Homes: Palimpsests of Private Life, (our June 2020 Book Club selection) has a unique insight into the lives within Shanghai's lane neighborhoods: this is where her parents and grandparents lived, and where she spent her childhood. And she's an anthropologist. In December 2014, she spoke to Historic ...
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The Interview: Researching Old Shanghai with Greg Leck
Greg Leck is the author of Captives of Empire, an exhaustive volume on the Japanese internment camps in Shanghai. Dr. Leck, a veterinarian who lives in Pennsylvania, answered a few of our questions about his books, his research and his inspiration. Captives of Empire is the authoritative book on the Japanese ...
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