Historic Shanghai Year in Review 2017
A look back at the last 12 months of walking through Shanghai’s storied history: the walks, the talks, the tours, the films, the cocktails, and an Art Deco weekend, too.
2017 highlights included our springtime jaunt to Xiamen, the treaty port formerly known as Amoy, for a fabulous Amoy Art Deco Weekend. We visited classical Chinese gardens, strolled Wukang Lu with wine, and explored Avenue Haig, Route Frelupt, and the architecture of Leonard, Veysseyre & Kruze. We explored hidden temples and revolution, sacred Shanghai and Americans in old Shanghai, and the changing neighborhoods of Yangpu. We celebrated the reopening of the Paramount and the Great World (though both get the thumbs-down for interiors) with a nightclub tour of old Shanghai and vintage cocktails. We mourned the imminent passing of the Laoximen section of the old city with two walks through that rich, layered neighborhood. Linda Johnson hosted old Shanghai film weekends and we heard from a host of fascinating speakers on topics from culinary history to 1930s artists, Hudec, Art Deco department stores and more.
The Year in Numbers
- 24 walks
- 9 talks
- 2 film weekends
- 1 Art Deco weekend
JANUARY
WALK: Hidden Temples at Chinese New Year
TALK: Ruth’s Record: The Diary of an American in Japanese-Occupied Shanghai 1941-45 with Betty Barr
Betty Barr
FEBRUARY
Avenue Haig, Parts 1 & 2
MARCH
WALK: Classical Gardens of Shanghai: Guyi Gardens
TALK: Two Views of Japanese-Occupied Shanghai with Keiko Itoh & Betty Barr
TALK: Tess Johnston: 35 Years in Shanghai: from Mao Suits & Bicycles to YSL & Lamborghinis
ART DECO WEEKEND: Amoy Art Deco Weekend
Classical gardens of Shanghai – Guyi Gardens
APRIL
FILM: Devils on the Doorstep set in 1944 in Japanese-occupied Hebei
QING MING WALK: The Lost Foreigners Cemetery
EASTER WALK: Jesuits of Siccawei
BOOK TALK: Art Deco Department Stores of Shanghai – the Chinese-Australian connection with Peter Hack
WALK: Workers of the World Unite! The Revolutionary Shanghai Walk
Jesuits of Shanghai walk
MAY
TALK: How the Palmier Became Shanghainese~Culinary Memories of Displacement & Belonging
WALK: A Frenchtown Stroll with Leonard, Veysseyre & Kruze
WALK: Classical Chinese Garden: Zuibaichi
TALK: China’s van Gogh: Who is Liu Haisu?with Gretchen Liu
JUNE
FILM: Men in the Movies
TALK: How Hudec Came to China – The Story of Austro Hungarian Refugee Soldiers in China with Mátyás Mervay
WALK: Nightclubs of Old Shanghai
WALK: Yangpu: Heritage & Regeneration in Shanghai’s old Industrial Heartland with Duncan Hewitt
Yangpu walk with Duncan Hewitt
JULY
WALK: Americans in Old Shanghai – The Independence Day Walk
AUGUST
WALK: Deco After Dark
WALK: Art Deco in the Old Chinese City
SEPTEMBER
WALK: Art Deco on Bubbling Well Road
TALK: What’s for Tiffin? Restaurants in Old Shanghai with Bill Savadove
WALK: Secrets of Route Frelupt
OCTOBER
WALK: Revolutionary Shanghai
WALK: Qiuxiapu: Garden of the Autumn Dew
TALK: Hudec: The Making of the Book
NOVEMBER
WALK: Wukang Lu Wine Walk
WALK: Art Deco Behind the Bund
WALK: Discovering Jewish Shanghai
Discovering Jewish Shanghai
DECEMBER
WALK: Merry Bund Walk ~ stroll down the Christmas-bedecked Bund
WALK: Sacred Shanghai IV ~ the churches of old Shanghai
WALK: Laoximen 1 & 2 ~ a last look at Laoximen, in the old Chinese city, before it’s demolished
Merry Bund walk