Exploring Shanghai’s Literary Heritage: Murder in the Maloo
//by Susan Blumberg-Kason// April 2025 Book Club selection. Paul Bevan, who translated the novel, will join us for the discussion on April 27. To book, click here. Paul Bevan is the one of the most prominent scholars of early 20th-century Shanghai, and it is thanks to his works like A Modern Miscellany and ...
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The Kidnapping of Wei Tingrong
By Dan Stein // On July 24, 1929, Wei Tingrong’s chauffeur picked him up at the prestigious Sino-French Bank, where he was the boss. The sophisticated, dapper French-speaking Wei was near the apex of Shanghai Chinese society, with wealth and influence unimaginable for most of his countrymen. Wei Tingrong But just as ...
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Old Shanghai Beers
By The Little Museum of Foreign Brand Advertising in the R.O.C (MOFBA) // For almost 30 years, a single brand dominated the local Shanghai beer market: U.B. (友啤), created by the Shanghai Union-Brauerei AG. As its name suggests, U.B. had German roots: it was incorporated in 1912 by a German company, Schwarzkopf ...
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Shanghai Gangsters: The Big Eight Mob
Before the rise of notorious gangster kingpins like Du Yuesheng and Huang Jinrong, there was the Big Eight Mob 八股党 and a crooked cop named Shen Xingshan. Dan Stein delves into the tale: The Louza Police Station, where Shen likely worked. In February 1909, the International Opium Commission, an initiative proposed ...
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Book Review: Witness to History: From Vienna to Shanghai: A Memoir of Escape, Survival and Resilience
by Susan Blumberg-Kason / In his new (but posthumous) memoir, Shanghai Jewish refugee Paul Hoffmann writes about his three most tumultuous experiences. One was enduring six months of Nazi Vienna, the other the terror inflicted by Sargent Kano Ghoya in the Shanghai Jewish Ghetto, and the third life under the new Chinese ...
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Selling the Ruan Lingyu Drama: Tragedy, Irony, and Exploitation in a 1934 Ad
March 8 - On the anniversary of the death of Old Shanghai’s movie goddess, Ruan Lingyu, MOFBA* delves into the story of an ad that is inextricably linked with the actress, her final movie, and her tragic death. By The Little Museum of Foreign Brand Advertising in the R.O.C (MOFBA) // The 1930s marked the first ...
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The Creation of a 1940s Advertisement
By The Little Museum of Foreign Brand Advertising in the R.O.C (MOFBA) // The companies of Old Shanghai left behind their buildings, but what happened to their products? Following Duncan Hewitt’s post on Brunner Mond/ICI, we’re delighted to publish MOFBA's story on the making of a 1940s ad featuring one of ICI's ...
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