Shanghai to New York Via the Panama Canal in an Amazing 34 Days!!

Barber Wilhelmsen was one of the smaller shipping lines sailing out of Shanghai in the 1930s and early 1940s. The Norwegian company dates back to the nineteenth century (there’s a company history here). The company was primarily a tanker operator through to the 1960s. The company still exists as Wilhelmsen Ship Management. Anyway, here they are in 1940 offering Shanghai to New York in an amazing 34 days (via the Panama Canal) – actually quicker I think to jump of at LA and catch a cross country train to New York I think. But hey, who’s rushing!

Sam Sanzetti, Shanghai photographer – courtesy of The Shanghailander

Thanks to The Shanghailander blog’s Hughes Martin for posting a short biography and details on Sam Sanzetti the White Russian Jewish photographer who captured so many great imagines of Shanghai and assorted Shanghailanders. The post also contains a link to the Israeli Consulate in Shanghai’s postings of some works by Sanzetti here.

Egal & Cie – 1940 ads

I’ve talked about the great Roderick Egal before – the leader of Shanghai’s Free French during the Second World War (click here to see my post on French journalist Veronique Saunier’s articles on Egal and Egal’s grave in Hong Kong here). Egal was the nucleus of those French citizens in Shanghai who rallied to De Gaulle’s cause – sadly most of the rest were rampant Vichyites and collaborators. Anyway, Egal was also Frenchtown’s number 1 vintner with a branch in the International Settlement too. What is amazing about the three ads below was that they all ran in the North-China Daily News in June 1940, the month of the occupation of Paris and the Fall of France, a period of especial anguish to a great French patriot like Egal.

Shanghai’s Best Barber Shops (1930s)

Now many of you will know that a classic red and white barber shop pole can mean any number of things in modern day Shanghai. You may get a haircut but then you may get something else entirely!! Gentlemen in need of a trim and a crop in the 1930s had two excellent barber shops to choose from downtown, either at the Cathay Hotel (now the not brilliantly restored Peace Hotel) or the Metropole round the corner (still there of course as the Metropole Hotel on Jiangxi Road). Pushing yourself as both hygienic and offering ‘moderate charges’ appeals to me.

An Unfinished Republic – Leading by Word and Deed in Modern China

Found this most interesting – An Unfinished Republic by David Strand. As usual details below plus an online chapter worth reading here.

In this cogent and insightful reading of China’s twentieth-century political culture, David Strand argues that the Chinese Revolution of 1911 engendered a new political life—one that began to free men and women from the inequality and hierarchy that formed the spine of China’s social and cultural order. Chinese citizens confronted their leaders and each other face-to-face in a stance familiar to republics worldwide. This shift in political posture was accompanied by considerable trepidation as well as excitement. Profiling three prominent political actors of the time—suffragist Tang Qunying, diplomat Lu Zhengxiang, and revolutionary Sun Yatsen—Strand demonstrates how a sea change in political performance left leaders dependent on popular support and citizens enmeshed in a political process productive of both authority and dissent.

Chinese Servants – Recommended – “Knows English Cooking”

Where exactly did Shanghailanders get there servants from? Well, classified ads in the North-China Daily News were one way. Of course there were agencies such as the General and the Central (and if anyone can identify where Linda Terrace was in Shanghai I’d love to know as I didn’t come across that one when researching my Old Shanghai A-Z??). The other way was for servants to advertise themselves – “Experienced Cook” – not sure “knows English cooking” is a great recommendation!!

Canidrome To-Day 5.30PM Rain or Shine

May 1940 – Though the Japanese were threateningly surrounding the International Settlement and Paris was about to fall and the French Concession to come under the control of the collaborationist Vichy regime nobody could stop Shanghailanders going to watch dogs run round a track…and bet on them obviously! Even the weather couldn’t stop the dogs at the Canidrome. Why they hyphenated To-Day though I have no idea.

The Warlord and the Engineer Goes to Suzhou

RAS Suzhou is also hosting Simon Gjore in Suzhou…the afternoo0n after Shanghai….

Sunday, November 6, 2011, 3pm

Come to the Royal Asiatic Society for an afternoon of fascinating tales from the roaring 1920s, when warlords shifted sides and assassinated each other as often as they changed concubines, and when the majority of expats in Northeast China lived in the lap of luxury. Take a unique peek into the life and times Zhang Zuolin, one of the mightiest warlords in China during the chaotic 1920s, as chronicled and photographed by the Danish arms dealer and adviser to Zhang, Robert Christensen. Simon Rom Gjeroe from Beijing Postcards is currently writing a book and preparing a documentary film on the subject, with a working title of “The Warlord and the Engineer”, for which he has done extensive research in both Denmark and China.

The Suzhou Bookworm, Gunxiu Fang 77, Shi Quan Jie. 30rmb for students; 50 rmb for members; 70 rmb for non-members. Includes one glass of wine or beer. For more information, contact Bill Dodson at bdodson88@gmail.com.