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Old Shanghai

Stateless in Shanghai: Living History with Liliane Willens

What was it like to grow up, from birth into young adulthood, in Old Shanghai? Glamour, chaos, deprivation, hope? Yes, yes, yes, and yes. The delightful Liliane Willens will be our guest on ‘Living History’ on October 22 (details below). She was born in Shanghai in 1927 to stateless Russian Jewish parents and lived ...

The Royal Asiatic Society Building: The Museum on Museum Road

I first saw the old building in the summer of 2000, coming out of a lane on Huqiu Lu. It stood there, in all its modernist majesty, still glorious despite half a century of neglect. We asked the residents at the lane entrance just opposite the building about it. One middle-aged man, shirt doffed in the stifling Shanghai ...

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. On Saturday March 19, 4pm, we’ll screen that final movie, “New Women" - details and booking information below ...

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 ...