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Sikhs in Shanghai

The Early Shanghai Photographs of Pierre Gendron

Sometime between the 1880s and early 1900s, a Frenchman named Pierre Gendron photographed Shanghai. And miraculously, his glass stereoscopic slides, some of the earliest photographs of Shanghai in existence, have survived. As a banker based in Hué (which was then French Indochina), Pierre traveled throughout the region—to ...

Stray Birds on the Huangpu: A History of Indians in Old Shanghai

The image of the turbanned Sikh policeman, hong tou ah-san to generations of Chinese, remains the popular image of Indians in old Shanghai. But the reality that editors Mishi Saran and Dr. Zhang Ke unveil in their new bilingual anthology, Stray Birds on the Huangpu: A History of Indians in Shanghai (Shanghai People’s Fine ...

Sikhs in Shanghai

In honor of India's Republic Day – today, January 26 – guest blogger Meena Vathyam shares the story of the most visible Indians in Old Shanghai: The Sikh policeman. An Indian-born sociologist, Meena has authored several articles on the Sikhs in Shanghai, and has a Facebook page and blog dedicated to discovering one of ...