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Tess Johnston

Tess Johnston: Shanghai’s Preservation Pioneer

The cult of Old Shanghai is flourishing: WeChat groups, walking tours, Instagram, books; everywhere you turn, someone’s leveraging Shanghai history. It’s a “booming cottage industry,” says historian Jeffrey Wasserstrom. For all this, we owe a great deal to Tess Johnston, Historic Shanghai’s co-founder, who ...

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: [caption id="attachment_2406" align="aligncenter" width="642"] [Not the actual log book - our artist's impression!][/caption]A Logbook's Insights ...