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.
The 2020 Shanghai Art Deco Architecture Wall Calendar – Limited Edition!
Paper Tiger’s gorgeous, gorgeous wall calendar features a collection of sumptuous Art Deco design elements found in lane houses and villas throughout the city. If you’ve been on our walks, you’ve seen these beauties, and this beautiful rendition captures them so you can see them all year long. Limited edition, comes in its own box.
[Scroll down to see Paper Tiger’s stunning new Paramount Deco gift paper – our signature 2019 paper!]
RMB 240, available at Madame Mao’s Dowry or WeChat @papertigershang to order
Madame Mao’s Revolutionary Ornaments
Each year, Madame comes up with a selection of fabulous Christmas ornaments based on its fine collection of propaganda posters. This year, they’ve outdone themselves with a selection that includes a papercut image from the Revolutionary ballet Red Detachment of Women; a row of Cultural Revolution-era workers; and a ship against sunrays with the slogan from this year’s 70th anniversary’s “new era”. Packaged in a revolutionary-red velvet box.
RMB 100-150, available at Madame Mao’s Dowry 207 Fumin Lu/Julu Lu
Shanghai Heritage-inspired Jewelry by Fernanda Sung
Jewelry designer Fernanda Sung’s stunning “Golden Years” collection is inspired by Shanghai’s golden age, and the women who made it – from the Art Deco design of the Eddington, home of writer Zhang Ai Ling/Eileen Chang, to pieces inspired by silent film idol Ruan Lingyu, movie star Butterfly Hu, and Shanghai’s Golden Voice, Zhou Xuan.
Vintage Shanghai Watch
The Shanghai Watch Factory started making these classic beauties in 1955, and over the years they’ve graced the wrists of some of China’s most famous personalities – Zhou En Lai’s was removed from his wrist only upon death. Neobiao reconditions these vintage Chinese mechanical watches, each one unique.
To order, click here.
1937 Shanghai Skyline Cushion
This cozy cushion improves any interior décor! Based on a 1937 photograph published in The London Illustrated News, Beijing Postcards’ cushion allows you to study the photograph in detail (while lying on the couch …). Note the Bank of China under construction, and the consulates over in Hongkou!
To order, visit Beijing Postcards online store, here.
China Vintage: Enamelware, Ceramics
Madame Mao’s delightful collection of original 1950s-70s enamelware and ceramics brightens up any table with the iconic imagery and slogans of the period. Our favourites, of course, are the ones featuring Shanghai buildings, but there are plenty of other fantastic choices.
Vintage ceramics bowls, sauce dishes, spoons, jars, RMB 120-1800 / Vintage enamelware, from cups to basins, RMB 30-1200, at Madame Mao’s Dowry, 207 Fumin Lu/Julu Lu.
Shanghai Vintage: Glassware, a la Mondrian
These 1970s glassware gems, clearly inspired by the art of Piet Mondrian, say Shanghai in English on one side and Chinese on the other. The perfect antidote to gloomy winter days!
RMB 80 each, Madame Mao’s Dowry, 207 Fumin Lu/Julu Lu
The New Map of Shanghai 1932
Maps capture moments of history, and the New Map of Shanghai captures a particularly significant one in the Shanghai story: the city following the January 28 Incident, also known as the Shanghai War of 1932, when Japanese aircraft bombed the Shanghai north railway station and Hongkou – the first terror bombing of a civilian population.
To order, visit Beijing Postcards online store, here.
Vintage Shaving Products
For that old school, Jazz Age shave, you must have vintage shaving products: Straight Up Razors to the rescue. The Shanghai-based company offers a line of exquisitely handmade and packaged premium shaving items, from complete shaving kits to safety razors – and they’ll gift-wrap with Paper Tiger paper for Christmas, too! Plus these look just right in a Shanghai 1930s bathroom …
Vintage Shanghai Travel Bag
For the traveller in your life: an original 1970s-era travel bag with a sketch of the Nanjing Road skyline, “Shanghai” in Chinese and English.
RMB 200, Madame Mao’s Dowry, 207 Fumin Lu/Julu Lu
Madame Mao’s Aprons
Fantastic socialist-realist imagery of exercising workers and soldiers reading little Red Books on a trio of aprons.
RMB 180 each, Madame Mao’s Dowry, 207 Fumin Lu/Julu Lu
A Year of Historic Shanghai
The gift that keeps on giving! Membership gives you a whole year of discovering Shanghai’s endlessly fascinating heritage – the architecture, the history, and the people – through walks, talks, films, and nearby weekend explorations.
RMB 500 single membership, RMB 900 couples. To purchase, click here.
If you’d like us to send a personalized card from Historic Shanghai telling your recipient about their gift, e-mail us with the recipient’s name & address at info@historic-shanghai.com
AND WRAP IT ALL UP WITH…”Paramount Deco” gift paper!
Paper Tiger’s “Paramount Deco” gift paper, this year’s yummiest, most gorgeous paper, inspired by the Paramount Dance Hall. The pattern comes from the purses used by the Paramount “taxi dancers” – the women who were hired, like a taxi, for a spin around the dance floor. The purses held the tickets guests purchased to dance with them, which were later exchanged for cash.
Available at Madame Mao’s Dowry, 207 Fumin Lu/Julu Lu or WeChat @papertigershang to order