László Hudec: Shanghai’s Master Builder
You know Hudec’s buildings: The I.S.S. Building/Normandie (Wukang Apartments), that red brick beauty shaped like a streamlined 1930s cruise ship, where hundreds gather daily, waves beneath the ship, to snap a precious photo. The Park Hotel, the dramatic Art Deco building that was Shanghai’s first skyscraper and tallest ...
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Presents from the Past: Christmas Shopping in Old Shanghai
"Watch the crowds on Nanking Road these days. Happy faces everywhere, and nearly everyone carrying huge bundles wrapped in colored paper. Yes, Christmas is just around the corner…” –China Press, December 1936 Need a little inspiration for your Christmas shopping? Take a look at what was on offer in Old Shanghai! ...
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The Soong House on Seymour Road: A Pictorial Tour
There are several Soong houses in Shanghai that you can visit, but the modest house on Shaanxi Bei Lu that was the family home for more than a decade is not open to the public. So, for your viewing pleasure, some photos (from our private 2020 visit)! The Soong front door Original tile, front door Just inside ...
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The Garden Bridge: Misunderstanding, War, and a Century’s Worth of History
This Sunday (July 13), we'll take an evening stroll along the banks of the Suzhou Creek, exploring its history and some of the 31 bridges that span its length. Some are delights, some surprises, some historic marvels - but none is more famous, or more photographed than the Garden Bridge. Read on for the story, and click ...
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Half of a Lifelong Friendship
By Susan Blumberg-Kason // The world knew him as C.T. Hsia, the man who brought Chinese literature--and Eileen Chang--to the West. But to my dad, Avrom Blumberg, he was his old friend, Jonathan. In 1949, at the age of 21, my dad started graduate school at Yale. He quickly befriended another graduate student named ...
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Alexandre Léonard: The Man. The Art Deco. The Mystery.
You can't talk about Art Deco in Shanghai without talking about the immensely talented Alexandre Léonard. One of the city's leading French architects during the Art Deco age, Léonard designed villas, apartment houses, and civic buildings that would become landmarks of the former French Concession and define the Shanghai ...
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Bookshelf: Bernardine’s Shanghai Salon: The Story of the Doyenne of Old China
When we first meet Bernardine Szold, it’s 1929, and she’s on a train heading for Dairen (Dalian) to marry her fourth husband, suffering dreadful pre-wedding jitters (or perhaps it’s simply a premonition?). Chester Fritz, that fourth husband, did turn out be a mistake, but he had one thing going for him: ...
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