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Amy Sommers on Shanghai Scrap – Disappearing Shanghai: The History of Shanghai Housing 1949 to the present

Posted: February 24th, 2011 | 1 Comment »

RAS WEEKENDER

Saturday 26th February, 2011 at 4.00pm

The PuLi Hotel and Spa, 1 ChangDe Road, Level 3 Meeting Room

AMY SOMMERS

Disappearing Shanghai: The History of Shanghai Housing 1949 to the present

Ever wondered why so many of Shanghai distinctive pre-1949 houses and apartments are so dilapidated? Ever passed the door of a single family home in one of Shanghai’s old neighborhoods and counted 5, 6 or more mailboxes dotting the entry? Ever counted electricity outside an apartment unit and wondered why one family’s home would have so many?

How Shanghai’s pre-War residential housing market became such a crazy quilt, the problems that creates today in determining who ‘owns’ these residences, and how those problems feed into the drive to tear down the last abundant stock of historic urban residential neighborhood architecture in a Asia.

Ms. Sommers has researched and written about the historic and legal background to these questions. The article she co-authored with Kara L. Phillips on the subject is entitled “A Tragedy of the Commons: Property Rights Issues in Shanghai Historic Residences” (http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1564413). As part of her research, Ms. Sommers interviewed city residents from decades past and will explain how the intersection of historic events continues to play out today.

We plan for Amy’s presentation and research to be the starting point for a future RAS Weekender; exploring some of these areas together culminating with a discussion on the findings.  We are also delighted that images of Shanghai’s disappearing old neighborhoods shot by Ms. Sue Anne Tay, the photographer and blogger behind “Shanghai Street Stories” (http://sueannetay.webfactional.com/) will be shown as part of this event.

Amy L. Sommers is a US-trained lawyer resident in Shanghai since 2004. Her involvement in China goes back over 25 years, when she first started studying Mandarin, later developing deep appreciation of China’s history, politics, culture and legal system.  Ms. Sommers is a frequent writer, speaker and commentator on China issues. For the 2010 Shanghai Literary Festival, Ms. Sommers presented a talk on “China’s Literary Legacy: Outsiders Looking In – Forgotten Memoirs.”  The Expatriate Professional Women’s Society of Shanghai awarded her their award for Professional Excellence in 2007.

Entrance: RMB 30.00( members) and RMB 80.00 (non-members)

Those unable to make the donation but wishing to attend may contact us for exemption, prior to the RAS Weekender. Membership applications and membership renewals will be available at this event.

RSVP: to RAS Enquiry desk enquiry@royalasiaticsociety.org.cnVenue

Venue:
The PuLi Hotel and Spa
Street:
1 ChangDe Road, JingAn District
City:
Shanghai

Description

The PuLi Hotel and Spa, 1 ChangDe Road, JingAn District

璞麗酒店, 静安区常德路1 号

One Comment on “Amy Sommers on Shanghai Scrap – Disappearing Shanghai: The History of Shanghai Housing 1949 to the present”

  1. 1 ScottLoar said at 3:06 am on February 26th, 2011:

    I acted immediately in 2001 when Shanghai authorities allowed those other than Chinese citizens to buy residential property, ultimately having to settle for a new high-rise apartment after discouraged by the reality that for pre-liberation buildings 1) 产权不明 (property rights were not clear) and 2) the local residents would not tolerate changes to existing arrangements.

    Those facts have not changed.

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