The Royal Asiatic Society Building: The Museum on Museum Road
I first saw the old building in the summer of 2000, coming out of a lane on Huqiu Lu. It stood there, in all its modernist majesty, still glorious despite half a century of neglect. We asked the residents at the lane entrance just opposite the building about it. One middle-aged man, shirt doffed in the stifling Shanghai ...
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Vintage Shanghai Comedy: “Da Li, Xiao Li & Lao Li 大李，小李和老李“
There are so many reasons to love this 1962 screwball comedy, our Historic Shanghai Film Club selection for February – let us count the ways: Scenes of 1960s Shanghai. You think images of 1930s Shanghai are rare? Try 1962, the year the Great Leap Forward ended. This is a rare film documentation of the period, ...
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Sweet Old Shanghai: Heritage Bakeries
February is sweet season (you know - sweethearts, sweet delights...) so just in time for Valentine’s Day, we take a look at Shanghai’s surviving heritage bakeries and legacy of Western pastry classics. A selection of Shanghai heritage pastry classics from Kaisiling - Left, clockwise from top: Napoleon, chestnut ...
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Tess Johnston: Shanghai’s Preservation Pioneer
The cult of Old Shanghai is flourishing: WeChat groups, walking tours, Instagram, books; everywhere you turn, someone’s leveraging Shanghai history. It’s a “booming cottage industry,” says historian Jeffrey Wasserstrom. For all this, we owe a great deal to Tess Johnston, Historic Shanghai’s co-founder, who ...
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The ’20s Gala: Farewell, 2020, Hello, 1920s!
It was a 1930s photo of a grand soirée in the ballroom of the Cercle Sportif Français that inspired the “Farewell 2020, Hello, 1920s” Gala. Hu Ping, the founder of the Shanghai Culture Society, showed us the photo, and the rest … is Gala history. Left: The inspiration. Right: The '20s Gala. Same ballroom, same ...
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Historic Shanghai Year in Review 2019
In our 21st year, we spent more time than we would have liked racing to see neighborhoods before they vanish. Laoximen, Xiaonanmen, Jinling Road, Hongkou, Siwen Li – the list goes on. The Laoximen neighborhood is slated for redevelopment, and although most residents have moved out, it remains our most popular ...
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The Ultimate Historic Shanghai Gift Guide 2019
‘Tis the season – the shopping season, that is – so it’s time for our annual guide of the very best gifts that celebrate Shanghai’s unique heritage. Pro tip: for one-stop Shanghai heritage shopping, Madame Mao's Dowry is the best place in town, hands down. 207 Fumin Lu/Julu Lu, and tell 'em we sent you. ...
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