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Book Club

“Shanghai is too complicated to be understood with the naked eye. It needs to be read.”  

And that’s what we do at the Historic Shanghai Book Club: read the multi-layered story of this city and her people, from different perspectives, genres, and periods of history. After all, the history of this cosmopolitan metropolis, where east and west, communism and capitalism, tradition and revolution coexisted could never be told with a single story, a single book.  

The Rules [in brief]:  Buy the book. (NO pirated copies!) Read the book. Contribute to the discussion. 

What we’ll read:   Our focus is Shanghai, and history. We’ll read as much original and contemporaneous material as we can, from many different perspectives. We’ll also read well-researched current books, historical fiction, and nonfiction in a variety of genres.

Who should come: Anyone interested in finding out more about the incredible history of this city. No prior knowledge of Shanghai history (or literature, for that matter) is required!

Book & Author Walks: Whenever possible, we’ll pair the book with a walk, so we can walk in the footsteps of our authors – and with the authors, when we can.

How It Works:  We’ll generally meet on the third weekend of each month, but that will vary depending on guest speaker schedules, etc. We’ll discuss the book first, and, whenever possible,  have the author or an expert on their work join us after that.  Do you have to have read the book to come? YES! YES! YES! And contribute to the discussion, too. A book club’s only as good as the quality of the discussion.

Getting Books: The books selected are all available on Amazon and Kindle/ibook. Hard copies are increasingly difficult to come by, but when books are available in Shanghai, we’ll note that, and their whereabouts under the relevant selection. ALSO – and this is very important – do not ever, ever share pirated copies of books in the group. Writers need to make a living. Buy the books and support the writers who create them. **We Support Writers! Please buy the book!**  

Cost: RMB 100 members, 200 nonmembers per session

Interested?  Email info@historic-shanghai.com to be added to the mailing list and WeChat group. 

THE 2024 READING LIST 

For the list of books previously read, visit our Book Club Archive, here.)

JANUARY 2024   

BERNARDINE’S SHANGHAI SALON: The Story of the Doyenne of Old China by Susan Blumberg-Kason

Saturday January 20, 10.30am/Author Susan Blumberg-Kason joined us for the discussion. Our book review is here.

Meet the Jewish salon host in 1930s Shanghai who brought together Chinese and expats around the arts as civil war erupted and World War II loomed on the horizon.

Bernardine Szold Fritz arrived in Shanghai in 1929 to marry her fourth husband. Only thirty-three years old, she found herself in a time and place like no other. Political intrigue and scandal lurked on every street corner. Art Deco cinemas showed the latest Hollywood flicks, while dancehall owners and jazz musicians turned Shanghai into Asia’s top nightlife destination.

Yet from the night of their wedding, Bernardine’s new husband did not live up to his promises. Instead of feeling sorry for herself or leaving Shanghai, Bernardine decided to make a place for herself. Like other Jewish women before her, she started a salon in her home, drawing famous names from the world of politics, the arts, and the intelligentsia. She introduced Emily Hahn, the charismatic opium-smoking writer for The New Yorker, to the flamboyant hotelier Sir Victor Sassoon and legendary poet Sinmay Zau. And when Hollywood stars Anna May Wong, Charlie Chaplin, and Claudette Colbert passed through Shanghai, Bernardine organized gatherings to introduce them to their Shanghai contemporaries.

When Bernardine’s salon could not accommodate all who wanted to attend, she founded the International Arts Theater to produce avant-garde plays, ballets, lectures, and visual arts exhibits, often pushing audiences beyond their comfort zones. As civil war brewed and World War II soon followed, Bernardine’s devotion to the arts and the people of Shanghai brought joy to the city just before it would change forever.

FEBRUARY 2024

NOBODY SAID NOT TO GO: The Life, Loves, and Adventures of Emily Hahn by Ken Cuthbertson

Sunday February 25, 10.30am. Author Ken Cuthbertson and Emily’s daughter Carola joined us for the discussion.

Emily Hahn—free-spirited, curious, adventurous—was the most written-about and remembered woman of Old Shanghai, and perhaps the most fascinating. She was only in Shanghai for six years, but her legacy, like the woman herself, is larger than life.

She counted among her closest friends Cathay Hotel tycoon Victor Sassoon, salon host Bernardine Fritz, literati like Lin Yutang, and Hu Shih, she spent time with the Soong sisters, writing their biography, and famously became addicted to opium with her lover, the poet Zau Sinmay. Ken Cuthbertson’s engaging biography gives us her incredible story, from interviews with Hahn, her family and friends, and from her enormous collection of writing.

BOOK CLUB RULES: Buy (or legally acquire) the book, Read the book, Contribute to the discussion.

MARCH 2024

Lust, Caution by Eileen Chang

BOOK CLUB MEETING: Sunday March 24, 3pm. Scan the March QR below to register.

In the midst of the Japanese occupation of China and Hong Kong, two lives become intertwined: Wong Chia Chi, a young student active in the resistance, and Mr. Yee, a powerful political figure who works for the occupying Japanese government. As these two move deftly between Shanghai’s tea parties and secret interrogations, they become embroiled in the complicated politics of wartime—and in a mutual attraction that may be more than what either expected. Written in lush, lavish prose, and with the tension of a political thriller, Lust, Caution brings 1940s Shanghai artfully to life even as it limns the erotic pulse of a doomed love affair.

This novella by Eileen Chang/Zhang Ai-lin, considered the quintessential writer of 1940s Shanghai, is said to be based on the true story of a wartime spy, drawing on the author’s own experiences as the lover of a notorious collaborator.

APRIL 2024

Shanghai Faithful: Betrayal and Forgiveness in a Chinese Christian Family by Jennifer Lin – the author will join us for the discussion

Jennifer Lin combines a journalist’s eye for detail with a scholar’s research and a novelist’s turn of phrase in this tour-de-force. Centered around the author’s grandfather, St. John’s-educated Reverend Lin Pu-chi,  Shanghai Faithful is the story of 150 years of Christianity in China through the lens of the Lin family, from the first convert in a remote Fujian fishing village to the present day.

Lin describes her characters and their Shanghai in fine detail – you’ll come to care for them deeply – but she had help: Grandfather Lin’s letters to her family, written while she was growing up. Lin says this book has been percolating for 30 years, ever since she first visited Shanghai to meet her family, and it shows in the insightful and nuanced perspectives, and descriptions of the city and people that put you right in the scene with them.

MAY 2024

400 MILLION CUSTOMERS by Carl Crow (published in 1937, republished by Earnshaw Books)

Missouri-born journalist, businessman, and author Carl Crow spent a quarter century in China, and this bestseller is a distillation of his experiences. Crow’s vignettes, told with humor and a keen eye, are both of its time, and timeless: In China, explains Crow, shopkeeper chooses his employees not for their intelligence, industry and honesty, but because they are members of important and influential families whose trade the shopkeeper desires; women will not accept, even as a gift, a packet of assorted needles; orthodox poker is played as it was played in 19th century Texas; a man likes to conduct his business in the open so that every passer-by may see and comment upon his industry; an empty beer bottle is counted a precious gift….

JUNE 2O24

Fu Ping: A Novel by Wang Anyi, translated by Howard Goldblatt

Nainai has lived in Shanghai for many years, and the time has come to find a wife for her adopted grandson. But when the bride she has chosen arrives from the countryside, it soon becomes clear that the orphaned girl has ideas of her own. Her name is Fu Ping, and the more she explores the residential lanes and courtyards behind Shanghai’s busy shopping streets, the less she wants to return to the country as a dutiful wife. As Fu Ping wavers over her future, she learns the city through the stories of the nannies, handymen, and garbage collectors whose labor is bringing life and bustle back to postwar Shanghai.

Fu Ping is a keenly observed portrait of the lives of lower-class women in Shanghai in the early years of the People’s Republic of China. Wang Anyi, one of contemporary China’s most acclaimed authors, explores the daily lives of migrants from rural areas and other people on the margins of urban life. In shifting perspectives rich in detail and psychological insight, she sketches their aspirations, their fears, and the subtle ties that bind them together. In Howard Goldblatt’s masterful translation, Fu Ping reveals Wang Anyi’s precise renderings of history, class, and the human heart.

JULY 2024

-SUMMER BREAK-

AUGUST 2024

The Soong Dynasty by Sterling Seagrave

A behind-the-scenes account of the extraordinary Soongs of Shanghai, whose power and wealth dominated China in the first half of the twentieth century. Beginning with the tale of runaway Charlie Soong who made his fortune selling Bibles, the book covers the story of the famed Soong sisters, all educated in America, all powerful in their own right, and each married to powerful men: Ai-ling, who married the extraordinarily wealthy H.H. Kung; Ching-ling, who married the “Father of the Nation”, Sun Yat-sen, and May-ling, First Lady of the Republic of China through her marriage to Chiang Kai-shek.

But unlike most books on the Soongs, Seagrave also covers the rest of the family, including the siblings and spouses that we don’t normally hear from. The author drew on archives of TIME, the National Archives, the FBI as well as individuals for the book. Published while May-ling was still alive, the author went into hiding after publication, “just to be safe”.

SEPTEMBER 2024

SHANGHAI DEMIMONDAINE: From Sex Worker to Society Matron by Nick Hordern

Shanghai in 1930s had a booming prostitution industry which gave the city a certain reputation across Asia, and the beautiful Australian Lorraine Murray was one of its stars — until her patron Edmund Toeg convinced her to leave the high class brothel where she worked. Against the backdrop of the Japanese onslaught on China, and guided by the American author Emily Hahn — the ‘China Coast Correspondent for the New Yorker’ — Lorraine finally put her time as a prostitute behind her. After a stint in wartime Australia as a counter-intelligence informant, Lorraine moved to England, where she was reunited with both Emily and Edmund. Shanghai Demimondaine is the story of how her friendship with Emily helped Lorraine turn her life around — and how the feisty writer mined their friendship for her bestselling books.

OCTOBER 2024

SHANGHAI ACROBAT: A True Story of Courage and Perseverance from Revolutionary China by Jingjing Xue

An artfully-wrought memoir of an orphan boy who became a world-famous acrobat. Dropped off at a Shanghai orphanage in 1949 at the age of two, Jingjing is selected for the Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe at the age of nine. This extraordinary autobiography tells the moving story of Jingjing’s rise from poverty to becoming one of China’s star acrobats, performing for top leaders, and touring overseas to perform as part of a cultural diplomacy initiative. Xue weaves together history, cultural relics, music, Chinese proverbs, and images in this portrait of the latter half of the twentieth century in China.

NOVEMBER 2024

SHANGHAI DANCING by Brian Castro

After 40 years in Australia, António Castro packs a bag and walks out of his old life forever. The victim of a restlessness he calls “Shanghai Dancing,” António seeks to understand the source of his condition in his family’s wanderings. Reversing his parents’ own migration, António heads back to their native Shanghai, where his world begins to fragment as his ancestry starts to flood into his present, and emissaries of glittering pre-war China, evangelical Liverpool and seventeenth-century Portugal merge into contemporary backdrops across Asia, Europe and Australia. A “fictional autobiography,” Shanghai Dancing is a dazzling meditation on identity, language and disorientation, combining photographs and written images.

DECEMBER 2024

-WINTER BREAK-