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Bookshelf: Rumors from Shanghai with Amy Sommers

In April, the Historic Shanghai Book Club read Rumors from Shanghai, a historical thriller set in 1940s Shanghai, so we sat down with author Amy Sommers to find out more about hidden histories and untold stories, the city as inspiration, surprise discoveries, and more. Get the book: In Shanghai, you can order from ...

Paul French on “City of Devils”

In May, the Historic Shanghai Book Club read City of Devils: A Shanghai Noir, so ahead of our talk, we sat down with author Paul French to find out more about interwar underworld Shanghai, rumor and gossip, old Shanghai's soundscape, and lots more. Historic Shanghai: What drew you to tell the tale of Jack Riley and ...

Best Shanghai History Books 2019

Our annual roundup of the year's best books on Shanghai's history. We're honored to have hosted many of these authors, and will read several of these books in the 2020 Historic Shanghai Book Club. Last Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao's Revolution by Helen Zia In the spring of ...

Historic Shanghai’s Best Books of 2018

Shanghai’s history could never be painted with a single brush, a single perspective, a single tale. Perhaps that’s true of all cities, but it’s especially so in this cosmopolitan metropolis, where east and west, communism and capitalism, tradition and revolution, coexisted. And to complicate things further, Shanghai’s ...

Top 10 Historic Shanghai Gifts: Our Annual Guide

Revolutionary ornaments. 1932 maps. Old Shanghai memoirs. Mao-rabilia. There are gifts, and then there are Shanghai heritage gifts for the true aficionados. If you've got one in your life*, you know we're a little harder to buy for, so we've done the hard work for you: Historic Shanghai has curated the top 10 gifts that ...

Stray Birds on the Huangpu: A History of Indians in Old Shanghai

The image of the turbanned Sikh policeman, hong tou ah-san to generations of Chinese, remains the popular image of Indians in old Shanghai. But the reality that editors Mishi Saran and Dr. Zhang Ke unveil in their new bilingual anthology, Stray Birds on the Huangpu: A History of Indians in Shanghai (Shanghai People’s Fine ...

Remembering Shanghai: A Memoir of Socialites, Scholars and Scoundrels

We've lost one of the last voices of Old Shanghai with the passing of Isabel Sun Chao on March 13 2023, just a day after her 92nd birthday. Luckily for us, Isabel shared her story with us in her memoir, Remembering Shanghai. Spend a little time in Shanghai and it becomes clear that the history of the city can best be ...