Tours & Talks
JANUARY 2025
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JANUARY 2025 EVENTS
NEW Wednesday January 1, 2pm (public holiday) CENTENNIAL BUILDINGS: Farewell 1924, Hello 1925! /RMB 200 members, 300 nonmembers
Begin 2025 with a little time travel, back to Shanghai a hundred years ago! On this walk, we’ll bid farewell to the buildings of 1924 and greet the ones that went up in 1925, as we discover the life and times of Shanghai a century ago through the lens of these hundred-year-old buildings.
Saturday January 4, 2pm AVENUE HAIG EAST: Taipans, Celebrities, and Pioneers on the Edge of the Badlands /RMB 200 members, 300 nonmembers
Perched on the edge of Shanghai’s notorious Badlands, Avenue Haig—today’s Huashan Road–was was one of the last areas in the Concession to be developed, at a time when there was a lot of money sloshing around.
The characters who built up this area left in their wake colonnaded mansions and Mediterranean style compounds, Art Deco apartments and modernist houses, and in the bricks and mortar they left the stories of Shanghai: tales of taipans and warlords, of discarded wives and ambitious mistresses, of big businesses and vanished dreams.
Avenue Haig is so long, and so chock-full of goodies, that this walk is divided into two parts: on the first part, we’ll see a notorious, luxurious gangster-run casino, right opposite a very proper girls’ school; Art Deco delights, a concubine’s hideaway; a stylish apartment building that became the home of the stars, a pioneering medical facility, the home and grounds of the Swire taipan, and much more.
Part 1 of a two-part tour. Part 2 will be held on January 12, 2pm. (You don’t need to do both walks~you can do just one, if you prefer).
NEW Sunday Jan 5, 2pm ART DECO, PARIS & SHANGHAI Exclusive! Curator-led tour of the Resonances Art Deco exhibition /RMB 300 members, 400 nonmembers, includes tickets & private curator-led tour
Join us for an exclusive curator-led tour of Resonances Art Deco: Paris Chic, Shanghai Moderne, a celebration of the 100-year anniversary of the birth of Art Deco in Paris.
Art Deco was a complete style, and this exhibition is a rare one that showcases its many manifestations: interior design, graphic design, fashion, consumer products, and more. The exhibition highlights the link between Paris and Shanghai’s modernism: Chinese influence on French Art Deco and European influence on Shanghai Art Deco. This remarkable exhibition brings together, for the first time, a collection of some of the finest Art Deco pieces from Shanghai and Paris, and tells the story of how this modern, progressive style forged a link between the two cities.
NEW Saturday Jan 11, 2pm HUDEC IN SHANGHAI with Virag Csjedy, Hudec’s grandniece and Hudec Legacy Project /RMB 300 members, 400 nonmembers
You know Hudec’s famous buildings – now find out about the life of the man behind the architecture! Virag Csjedy, Laszlo Hudec’s great-grandniece and a curator of the Hudec Cultural Foundation joins us for this new tour that focuses on Hudec’s life in Shanghai.
Inspired by Hudec’s letters, we’ll trace his life in Shanghai from his earliest years, through the buildings that he lived and worked in, and the Shanghai places that he wrote to his family about, as well as some of his major projects. Virag will share anecdotes gleaned from family and archival materials – a rare opportunity to get an insight into the ‘man who built Shanghai’!
Sunday January 12, 2pm AVENUE HAIG WEST: Modernism, Mosaics, and Mediterranean Style on the Edge of the Badlands
Part 2 of our Avenue Haig walk takes us westward on this tree-lined avenue that is a kaleidoscope of old Shanghai. Here, we’ll see a little-visited Mediterranean compound that once housed a dark secret, a mysterious mosaic in a collaborator’s sprawling Art Deco apartment house that served as a socialite’s party palace; the quiet, hidden legacy of an American oil company and of an educational giant, the ghost of a once-magnificent sports complex, and more.
Part 2 of a two-part tour. Part 1 of the walk is on January 4, 2pm (You don’t need to do both walks – you can do just one, if you prefer!)
Saturday Jan 18, 10am JANUARY BOOK CLUB: The Suitcase: The Life and Times of Captain X by Deborah Taussig Boehner and Lauren Housman ~ the authors will join us for the discussion /RMB 100 members, 200 nonmembers
Debbie Taussig-Boehner inherited her father’s suitcase and its contents, and then spent years piecing together his story from the letters and memorabilia within. The Suitcase is the story of Vladimir Taussig, an opportunistic Czech playboy who deftly ducked legal troubles – and the Holocaust – by moving to Shanghai. There, he fell in with high society—familiar Old Shanghai characters like Victor Sassoon and his cousin Lucien, Emily Hahn, Chester Fritz, and Edmund Toeg–until the Japanese invasion encroached on the Shanghailanders’ rollicking lifestyle.
In Shanghai, he joined the fight against the fascism, while on the other side of the world, his family’s lives began to disintegrate as Czechoslovakia was occupied and the horrors of the war reached their doorstep. It’s a tale of passion and tenacity, weakness and courage, impropriety and decency, lies and truths, exclusion and tolerance, of life and death.
Available on Kindle and in Shanghai from Earnshaw Publishing.
NEW Sunday Jan 19, 9am OUT OF THE CITY: Loutang: Cobblestone Streets and a Microcosm of Shanghai History /RMB 400 members, 500 nonmembers, includes lunch, transport via private bus, entrance tickets
Sometimes, you have to head out of the city to find the past. The quiet village of Loutang, in Shanghai’s northern Jiading district, still has its cobblestone streets, and even now, no traffic lights to mar the meandering village lanes. It looks much the same as did 150 years ago, when missionaries built the village church that still conducts Sunday services; much the same as it did in the 1930s, when the Japanese army rampaged through the town; much the same as the 1960s, when educated youth were sent here to learn from the peasants. It’s an especially nice time of year to visit, as Loutang prepares for the new year the old-fashioned way, drying sausages, fish, and pasting up auspicious new year greetings – traditions that are fast disappearing in downtown Shanghai!
Sunday January 26, 10am YEAR OF THE SNAKE: Chinese New Year Temples & Traditions /RMB 250 members, 350 nonmembers, includes entry into temples
Join us in a festive exploration of the old Chinese city as it readies for China’s most important holiday: the Lunar New Year. Amid preparations for the Year of the Snake, we’ll explore the Chinese city’s history and the ancient traditions and rituals that still survive within the old walled city. We’ll visit charming historic temples that lie off the beaten path, light some incense for new year, and find our birth year gods! We’ll see what’s become of the neighborhoods the temples once served and finish up with a peek into Yuyuan to see the New Year decorations!
COMING UP: Chinese New Year Walks!