Cathay Buildings – A Bit Confused on This One

Came across this advert for the Cathay Building, which has apparently had a ‘Grand Opening’. Not exactly sure what they opened as the building’s been there since 1929. It’s more commonly referred to as Cathay Mansions, or always was anyway – the relegation to ‘building’ is new. Of course the Cathay Mansions are one of Shanghai’s iconic gothic art-deco structures. A marvel of modern engineering at the time, one of the city’s first high rises that need special underpinning to stay upright on the marshy land (it appears to have sunk a bit anyway). Still, it has many architectural flourishes still despite some typically ham-fisted restorations with cheap marble and slapped up stucco appearing in a quest to make the interior look like every other Chinese hotel.

The new interiors in the advert look a little horrific, as if a five year with a squeezy bottle of HP Sauce has run amok around the floor but what on earth does their new slogan ‘Legend of the Fall – Era of the Cathay Buildings’ refer to? Can’t work this one out. Of course there’s Jim Harrison’s 1979 novella Legend of the Fall which became a film – but that’s a multi-generational story of people in Montana with a bit of World War One and bootlegging thrown in. Nothing whatsoever to do with Shanghai. There’s the legend of the “fall” of man but that seems a bit tenuous and not a little deep for a property marketing company (but not impossible) and of course fall is a word the Americans use when they mean autumn for some reason. It is quite possible that they mean the ‘fall’ of Shanghai, which could refer to 1937, 1941 or 1949, none of which are legendary but actual. If anyone has any idea what they’re going on about please do let me know.