What are some books about old Shanghai?

November 5, 2007 6:24 PM

What are some books about old Shanghai?

Inspired by Lust, Caution, I want to read some books about old Shanghai. More specifically, about Shanghai before, during, and after foreign (or more specifically, Japanese) occupation. Fiction is preferred, but if it's really good non-fiction, I'd like to read that as well.

posted by nakedsushi to media & arts (7 comments total)

Empire of the Sun
posted by typewriter at 6:28 PM on November 5, 2007

Ballard also has some great essays about his childhood in old Shanghai and returning there for a visit later in life in "A User's Guide to the Millennium".
posted by Item at 7:43 PM on November 5, 2007

Some of my favorites, though I tend to prefer non-fiction:

Beyond the Neon Lights: Everyday Shanghai in the Early Twentieth Century by Hanchao Lu
Factual but still entertaining, everyday life in the Chinese side of colonial Shanghai.

Empire Made Me: An Englishman Adrift in Shanghai by Robert Bickers
English everyman polices, works, and then dies in Shanghai at the hands of the Japanese occupiers. A little denser than the above but covers the expat side of the city's history.

Shanghai: The Rise and Fall of the Decadent City 1842-1949 by Stella Dong
A more traditional approach to historical storytelling, an overview of the rich and powerful people who "made" Shanghai's history.
posted by msittig at 8:03 PM on November 5, 2007

I recall that Kazuo Ishiguro's When We Were Orphans was a pretty good read and evoked the Nationalist era quite convincingly, though on a quick search I see this reviewer didn't like it.
posted by Abiezer at 8:37 PM on November 5, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

By the same author (I am pretty sure) as Lust, Caution: Love in a Fallen City
posted by shothotbot at 6:07 AM on November 6, 2007

All Shanghai: A Standard Guidebook by H.J. Lethbridge (a reprint of a 1934 guide to the city, with lots of maps, photos, period ads, &c—a wonderful resource)

Shanghai: collision point of cultures, 1918-1939 by Harriet Sergeant (1991; a scholarly but very readable history)

A novel I own but haven't read:
110 Shanghai Road by Monica Highland (pseudonym of John Espey and Carolyn See) (1986)

Empire of the Sun is excellent, but it's sharply focused on the experiences of one young boy and doesn't really give a picture of the city as a whole.
posted by languagehat at 7:40 AM on November 6, 2007

For the record I would point out that Shanghai for most purposes didnt exist before foreign occupation. It was essentially a foreign enclave and was created as a place to keep foreigners where the government could keep an eye on them.
posted by BobbyDigital at 9:13 AM on November 6, 2007