All things old China - books, anecdotes, stories, podcasts, factoids & ramblings from the author Paul French
Today’s gang of old Shanghai with That’s Shanghai – the Wiengarten brothers and the Red Rose Gang up on the Jukong Alley (Zhingxing Lu – seen here after being bombed by the Japanese)…click here for more
Speaker: Beth Epstein
During the session we will hear and discuss Beth Epstein’s presentation on “A History of Mahjongâ€
Chinese History Study Group meets monthly – generally the second Tuesday of each month September through June. Our members select and research topics of personal interest, make brief oral presentations, then engage in discussion with those attending the talk. Each month one or two members discuss their topics.
For a list of future topics and presenters, please contact convener Furkan Erdogan studygroup@
Today’s old Shanghai gang in my series with That’s Shanghai is the Burlington Hotel gang run by Old Bill Hawkins up on the Bubbling Well Road (Nanjing Xi Lu)….click here…
Bespoke Beijing (who organise the Midnight in Peking walking tour) have been blown away by the response to the tours I’m jouning in March – amazingly, and perhaps somewhat bizarrely, they sold out in a matter of days. As a result we’re going to do one more walking tour + dinner on Sunday April 1st! Click the link to buy tickets!
The original French Connection – Frenchtown Shanghai to Marseilles courtesy of the Union Corse…click here to see more
The 37427 gang run by “Fat” Tony Perpetuo was based out of the 37427 Casino on the Bubbling Well Road (Nanjing West Road – below). Fat Tony was Shanghai’s other Portuguese mob boss (see yesterday’s post on Jose Bothelo and the Silver Palace Gang for more Portuguese bad guys in old Shanghai – Jose in Frenchtown and Fat Tony in the Settlement)….
Today’s old gang of Shanghai, in association with That’s Shanghai, is the Portuguese crew of Jose Bothelo (one of two big Portuguese gangs in Shanghai) that operated out of the Silver Palace Casino on the Avenue Foch (Yanan Zhong Lu)….click here…
Today’s gang of old Shanghai is the Giraldi gang – that’s the gang of White Russians around Shura Giraldi who some might remember as the hermaphrodite nightclub owner in Midnight in Peking. Shura allegedly robbed, burgled, fenced and procured his way to great wealth in the Peking Badlands but invested the money in Shanghai’s Frenchtown. Ultimately, in the 1950s, he was reduced to being shipped back to an uncertain fate in the USSR – here he is, with a last remaining young friend, in the Talati Hotel on Tianjin’s old Victoria Road (now Jiefang Road and the First Business Hotel) before being deported to Russia in the mid-1950s….
