Here, from the 1930s, a typical example of the sort of thing that appeared in many newspapers – The Motorist’s Guide, a targeted page of ads at motorists in the treaty port. This one is from Shanghai in 1937. As you can see the names haven’t changed much – Skodas are back in China while Buick remains a strong brand in China, and just about nowhere else!! Haven’t seen a Renault for a while! Any problems? pop along to Reliance Motors on Avenue Foch (Yanan Road). Interestingly a lot of people, Chinese and foreign, used to enjoy motoring out on day or weekend trips – Soochow, Hangchow, Wusi, into Anhwei…something not many people do much now I think. I guess the fact that all the countryside around Shanghai has been turned into the endless lavatory tile and blue glass factories rather detracts from the scenic day trip!
What should be an intersting discussion on Eileen Chang (Zhang Ailing) at this years Shanghai International Literary Festival.
(fascinatingly Xinhua, the commie news agency, is sticking its logo on pictures of Eileen Chang appearing to indicate that they are claiming some sort of copyright over Chang’s image – a most interesting concept but utterly preposterous – particularly as she hated the bastards with a vengeance too!!)
China’s Literary Legacy – David Der-wei Wang & Lynn Pan on Eileen Chang Speakers: David Der-wei Wang, the Edward C. Henderson Professor of Chinese Literature and Director of CCK Foundation Inter-University Center for Sinological Studies and Shanghai’s very own Lynn Pan, who shouldn’t need any introduction to anyone reading a blog largely about Shanghai history! Date: 19 March, 2011 (Saturday) Time: 11:00 am Venue: The Glamour Bar, 6/F, No.5 The Bund, Shanghai Ticket Price: RMB 65 Taking off from Eileen Chang’s posthumously published, tell-all auto-biographical novel, The Book of Change, David Wang talks about the experiences particularly those in Shanghai, from which Chang’s much-loved novellas & short stories came. A conversation with Lynn Pan.
More details and how to get tickets: http://www.m-restaurantgroup.com/mbund/literary-festival.html
A few postcards of Singapore I came across recently…
The basic layout of Boat Quay hasn’t really changed…anyone who’s sat in the bars and restaurants here will recognise it
But Collyer Quay has…rather a lot…
Clifford Pier remains but is a bit tricky to get to now I’ve found in the past although I hear the area is being redeveloped now – not sure what that means for the preservation of the pier.
The inimitable Tess Johnstone’s Old China Hand Press has just published a new book of walks around Shanghai, Still More Shanghai Walks. The theme of the book is ‘Shanghailanders and Shanghainese: Where They Lived, Worked and Played‘. There’s some great areas of the city featured here and some all of the contributors are old friends of China Rhyming. William Patrick Cranley tackles the Bund. Patrick reminds us that while the new Peninsula Hotel likes to act as if it is a welcome addition to the Bund and has some sort of rightful place there that it was responsible for one of the worst acts of vandalism in recent memory – the bulldozing of the 1865 Pustau and Company building which had an intriguing art-deco frontage until it was pulled down in 2004 to allow the nasty shiny marble contraption that is the nouveau riche Peninsula Hotel (standing completely out of character with the rest of the river frontage). You won’t find that particular sin noted in the Peninsula’s glossy PR. I had cause to attend a meeting in the Peninsula the other day and parts of the interior already appear quite shabby and gloomy due to the poor interior architecture.
Next up is a walk from Sue Anne Tay, the Shanghai street photographer, through Tilanqiao and the former Jewish ghetto. This is a pleasant walk as, as well as the familiar and well documented sights of the area such as the old Ward Road Jail etc, Sue Anne reminds us that much of this area is still a sprawling market selling everything from vegetables to jade to old rags. Just about all Shanghai’s former sprawling street markets are gone now, victims to the relentless march of ‘modernisation’ but Tilanqiao just about hangs on.
There are two Frenchtown walks – one from Tess concentrating on Hengshan Road (Avenue Petain) and relfecting her love of architecture, and another from Lisa Movius, a journalist who has done much to chronicle the city’s music and artistic community. She looks at an area of Frenchtown life, especially around Anfu Road (Route Dupleix), and the Chinese artists and writers that congragted in that area.
Bill Savadove wanders around Xinhua Road (Amherst Avenue) and the marvellous and, sadly to a newer generation of Shanghailanders little known, Columbia Circle. Much of this walk derives from some time Bill spent with myself and Duncan Hewitt crawling over this area – good days, but marred of course by the sad gutting of the cornerstone property of the walk, JG Ballard’s boyhood home. And Duncan Hewitt rounds out the book with a walk along Hongqiao (Hungjao) Road. I am actually going to do this walk soon as it is ages since I went around that area in any detail and the villas are excellent.
A good collection of walks – if you’re coming to Shanghai do pick up a copy and see these areas before they’re submerged under shopping malls. Interesting that nobody seems very interested in a walking tour that goes lavatory tile tower block to lavatory tile tower block and shopping centre to shopping centre!
The Teddy Bakery was just inside the Settlement on East Jukong Road (or sometimes spelt Ju Kong),up round the back of the railway station. Jukong Road was an external road, but the eastern end was located just inside of the Settlement in Hongkew (Hongkou), where it was really more of an alley. The road was named after a type of Chinese junk-style sailing ship. Being on the edge of the Settlement the road had a reputation as a hangout for petty criminals. Nightclubs and bars proliferated along the road and constantly changed name and ownership – Russians apparently favoured the Red Rose which specialised in gypsy music. There was also Teddy’s Bakery selling ‘Brot, Broethen, Kuchen, Torten and Pralinen’ as well claiming to be a specialist in ‘Deutcsches Schwarzbrot’. It’s now Zhongxing Road but the bread’s just not the same anymore.
Well done to occasional China Rhyming reader Dan Lindley for turning up this excellent luggage sticker from Tientsin’s old Imperial Hotel. The Imperial was, along with the Astor and the Court, one of Tientsin’s finest hotels. However, unlike the Astor and the Court, was in the French concession and not the British.
While researching my book The Old Shanghai A-Z I was fascinated by a small road apparently called Astor Terrace. It was listed in the Shanghai Municipal Council lists as being a small road just behind the Astor House Hotel. Only a couple of addresses of commercial premises were given as actually being on Astor Terrace itself and, as ever, the dark corners behind hotels concealed some interesting spots – a certain wonderfully named Madame Madani Francis ran a massage parlour (make of that description what you will in old Shanghai!!) at No.4 that I fear may or may not have been totally legitimate.
However, this road never seems to appear on maps. Astor House Hotel today is still there – The Pujiang Hotel now – and fronts onto Huang Pu Road (formerly Whangpoo Road). The Astor Hotel now runs seemingly straight into another building that fronts onto Daming Road (formerly Broadway). There is no Astor Terrace apparently at the back of the Astor Hotel. However walking down Jinshan Road (formerly Astor Road) the other day I noticed that it appears there may once have been a small lane that could have formed a narrow terrace that ran between the buildings – though it appears that it was a dead end and did not come out on Broadway and must have been fairly dark (at least enough to perhaps shade those scurrying home from Madam Francis’s?). However, it’s been sealed up with additional new buildings – so we can assume that Madame Madani Francis’s place lies hidden somewhere inside still!
The now built over small street that may once have been Astor Terrace at the rear of the hotel here on Jinshan Road – nothing particularly solid, just some additional water tanks it seems
Here you can see what may have once been Astor Terrace at the right of the picture with the hotel running down to Huang Pu Road.
The bulldozing of Hongkou (Hongkew) is moving forward apace – quite startling amounts of land are being cleared and this means removing a vast number of structures. Additionally, to prepare for future demolition, growing amounts of housing and other properties are being abandoned, cleared or created as slums by intent down into Yangpu (Yangtzsepoo). Bizarrely at the same time that Yangpu District is trying to raise awareness of Yangpu’s industrial architectural history with some new signs.
Anyway, if you haven’t strolled along Hongkou’s Jingxing Road (formerly Jansen Road) now would be a good time to do it as by the summer it won’t be there. A large portion of the street is already cleared, more is being cleared as you read this and all will be gone soon. It’s an older Hongkou street that once marked the expansion of the Settlement east to Yangtzsepoo. The road was always primarily residential.
The most clearly threatened block that you need to see soon, if you’re to see it at all, is the block between Huimin Road (Baikal Road) and Yulin Road (Yuuin Road) – which has its own problems – see here.
The corner of Jingxing and Huimin – gone
The first storey balconies that stood above the shop houses were always a nice feature on Jansen Road
The lanes running behind the front buildings on Jansen Road are now cleared and ready to go – see them soon or miss them!
