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Literature

Sweet Old Shanghai: Heritage Bakeries

February is sweet season (you know - sweethearts, sweet delights...) so just in time for Valentine’s Day, we take a look at Shanghai’s surviving heritage bakeries and legacy of Western pastry classics. A selection of Shanghai heritage pastry classics from Kaisiling - Left, clockwise from top: Napoleon, chestnut ...

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 ...

A Chinese artist, a cartoon boy, and a former French Concession house

by Maura Elizabeth Cunningham Zhang Leping (1910–1992) was a Chinese cartoonist, most famed for his Sanmao the Orphan comics. In the late 1920s, Zhang moved from his coastal hometown to Shanghai, where he quickly found work as a commercial artist and cartoonist. He debuted the Sanmao the Orphan comics — China’s ...

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 ...

Roar, China! Langston Hughes in Shanghai

February is Black History month, and Shanghai has a fascinating, hidden history of Black American poets, activists, and musicians. Our inaugural Shanghai Black History walk is sold out, but you can sign up for the wait list here. Langston Hughes, the poet laureate of the Harlem Renaissance, spent three months in ...