Book Club Archive
HISTORIC SHANGHAI’S TOP 15 BOOKS
We’re constantly asked to recommend ‘one book’ on Old Shanghai. Impossible! Old Shanghai was too complicated. But we have narrowed it down to 15 must-reads, compiled from Book Club readings and out-of- print classics.
BOOK CLUB ARCHIVE
Books we’ve read, 2019-present. Don’t forget to check out our author interviews and recorded sessions!
Nonfiction: Memoir/Biography
News Is My Job: A Correspondent in War-Torn China by Edna Lee Booker
Tea on the Great Wall: An American Girl in War-Torn China by Patricia Luce Chapman. Interview here.
Shanghai Lawyer: The Memoirs of America’s China Spymaster by Norwood F. Allman, annotated, illustrated and embellished by Douglas Clark
Shanghai Boy, Shanghai Girl: Lives in Parallel by George Wang and Betty Barr. Recording here.
Remembering Shanghai: A Memoir of Socialites, Scholars and Scoundrels by Isabel Sun Chao and Claire Chao (2018) Review here.
China to Me: A Partial Autobiography by Emily Hahn
Ten Green Bottles: The True Story of One Family’s Journey from War-torn Austria to the Ghettos of Shanghai by Vivian Jeanette Kaplan
Stateless in Shanghai by Liliane Willens. Recording here.
Goong-Goong: from Tuscany to Shanghai: The Story of a Chinese Patriarch Through the Eyes of His Italian Daughter-in-Law by Patrizia Chen
Witness to History: From Vienna to Shanghai: A Memoir of Escape, Survival and Resilience by Paul Hoffman and Jean Hoffman Lewanda. Recording here.
Bound Feet and Western Dress: A Memoir by Natasha Pang-Mei Chang
Shanghai Saga: The Story of a City by John Pal
Chasing Hepburn: A Memoir of Shanghai, Hollywood, and a Chinese Family’s Fight for Freedom by Gus Lee. Recording here.
Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister: Three Women at the Heart of Twentieth-Century China by Jung Chang
The Soong Dynasty by Sterling Seagrave
The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties that Helped Create Modern China by Jonathan Kaufman
The Sassoons: The Great Global Merchants and the Making of an Empire by Joseph Sassoon Recording here; Review here.
Shanghai Policeman by E.W. Peters
Bernardine’s Shanghai Salon: The Story of the Doyenne of Old China by Susan Blumberg-Kason Review here.
Nobody Said Not to Go: The Life, Loves, and Adventures of Emily Hahn by Ken Cuthbertson
Shanghai Demimondaine: From Sex Worker to Society Matron by Nick Hordern
The Suitcase: The Life and Times of Captain X by Deborah Taussig-Boehner and Lauren Housman (2024)
Nonfiction
400 Million Customers by Carl Crow
City of Devils: The Two Men Who Ruled the Underworld of Old Shanghai by Paul French. Interview here.
Shanghai Homes: Palimpsests of Private Lives by Jie Li. Interview here.
Champions Day: The End of Old Shanghai by James Carter
Shanghai Grand: Forbidden Love, Intrigue, and Decadence in Old China by Taras Grescoe
Fiction
Dreams of Joy by Lisa See
French Concession: A Novel by Xiao Bai
Homeseeking by Karissa Chen. Review here.
The Painter from Shanghai by Jennifer Cody Epstein.
My Shanghai: 1942-46: A Novel by Keiko Itoh
Rumors from Shanghai by Amy Sommers. Interview here.
Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
Years of Red Dust by Qiu Xiaolong
Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard
When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro. Recording here
Little Reunions by Eileen Chang
The Lives Before Us by Juliet Conlin
Unbound: A Tale of Love and Betrayal in Shanghai by Dina Gu Brumfield
Gangsters of Shanghai: The Most Dangerous Police Beat in the World by Gerry O’ Sullivan
Love in a Fallen City and other short stories by Eileen Chang (translated by Karen Kingsbury)
The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai by Wang Anyi
The Distant Land of My Father: A Novel of Shanghai by Bo Caldwell
Maiden Voyage by Denton Welch
Lust, Caution by Eileen Chang
Fu Ping: A Novel by Wang Anyi, translated by Howard Goldblatt
Miss Jill: A Novel by Emily Hahn (1947)
Night in Shanghai by Nicole Mones
Jewish Shanghai
Ten Green Bottles: The True Story of One Family’s Journey from War-torn Austria to the Ghettos of Shanghai by Vivian Jeanette Kaplan
Stateless in Shanghai by Liliane Willens
Witness to History: From Vienna to Shanghai: A Memoir of Escape, Survival and Resilience by Paul Hoffman and Jean Hoffman Lewanda Recording here.
The Sassoons: The Great Global Merchants and the Making of an Empire by Joseph Sassoon Recording here.
The Lives Before Us by Juliet Conlin
The Suitcase: The Life and Times of Captain X by Deborah Taussig-Boehner and Lauren Housman
Strangers Always: A Jewish Family in Wartime Shanghai by Rena Krasno