Shanghai Umbrellas for the Plum Rains
There are some things in life you can absolutely count on. Death, taxes … and the plum rains. And after a few plum rain seasons, it becomes clear that there’s just no avoiding it. Absolutely no getting around it. So you might as well embrace it—and the best way we know how is with an Old Shanghai ...
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Half of a Lifelong Friendship
By Susan Blumberg-Kason // The world knew him as C.T. Hsia, the man who brought Chinese literature--and Eileen Chang--to the West. But to my dad, Avrom Blumberg, he was his old friend, Jonathan. In 1949, at the age of 21, my dad started graduate school at Yale. He quickly befriended another ...
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Alexandre Léonard: The Man. The Art Deco. The Mystery.
You can't talk about Art Deco in Shanghai without talking about the immensely talented Alexandre Léonard. One of the city's leading French architects during the Art Deco age, Léonard designed villas, apartment houses, and civic buildings that would become landmarks of the former French Concession and ...
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Bookshelf: Bernardine’s Shanghai Salon: The Story of the Doyenne of Old China
When we first meet Bernardine Szold, it’s 1929, and she’s on a train heading for Dairen (Dalian) to marry her fourth husband, suffering dreadful pre-wedding jitters (or perhaps it’s simply a premonition?). Chester Fritz, that fourth husband, did turn out be a mistake, but he had one thing going ...
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St. Theresa’s Church: A Shanghai Story
The story of St. Theresa’s Church is the story of Shanghai. From the 1927 White Terror to French Jesuit missionaries, a 19th century saint, 20th century radios, and a 21st century reimagining. St Theresa’s was completed in 1931, and from the beginning was truly a church of this cosmopolitan ...
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Thanksgiving in Old Shanghai
A service of Thanksgiving. A big turkey dinner, with all the trimmings. A hotly contested football classic. It all sounds very traditional, very American, and so it was: it was Thanksgiving in 1930s Shanghai. Thanksgiving Service at Holy Trinity Left: Holy Trinity Cathedral, where ...
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The Kidnapping of Wei Tingrong
By Dan Stein // On July 24, 1929, Wei Tingrong’s chauffeur picked him up at the prestigious Sino-French Bank, where he was the boss. The sophisticated, dapper French-speaking Wei was near the apex of Shanghai Chinese society, with wealth and influence unimaginable for most of his countrymen. Wei ...
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