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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Shanghai’s Little White House
They call it the “Little White House,” and it was one of the finest grand mansions of old Shanghai. Still is. Constructed by a company whose buildings would become icons, this gracious belle époque mansion on Fenyang Lu never housed Presidents, but for nearly half a century after it was built, it was the home of men ...
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Old Shanghai Cinemas: Insights from a Logbook
by Tess Johnston// Back in 2010, I found in a local antique market an old ledger covered in brown wrapping paper, with a handsomely-penciled inscription on the front: [Not the actual log book - our artist's impression!] A Logbook's Insights into Shanghai Cinema Management It was a bookkeeper’s daily ...
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Cai Zhen: Painter of Old Shanghai
Inspired by her own heritage, Cai Zhen paints the heritage buildings of old Shanghai, bathing them in sunlight and vibrant color. [caption id="attachment_2288" align="alignleft" width="224"] Cai Zhen, self portrait[/caption] We first encountered Madame Cai at an art exhibition featuring the watercolor paintings of architect ...
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Inside Old Shanghai’s American Club
September, 2025: The 1924 Georgian jewel on Fuzhou Road sits empty, once again. The guards are gone, the Financial Court—its most recent incarnation—has packed up and moved across the river. Too many financial crimes to fit into this six-storey building, hmm? So the building that began life as Old Shanghai’s ...
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