Shanghai

In the 1920s and 1930s Shanghai was called the whore of the Orient, home to gangsters and warlords, where nightclubs never closed and hotels supplied heroin on room service. It became the epitome of glamour, immortalized in books and films. With its bustling population of British, Chinese, Americans, French, Germans, Japanese and White Russians, its extremes of poverty and wealth, it appeared to straddle East and West. By the time the Chinese Communist takeover of 1949 had destroyed the illusion, Shanghai had passed into legend. This portrait of the city in its heyday combines first-hand accounts with extensive research and lively reconstruction. --- **From Publishers Weekly:** In a spellbinding portrait of Shanghai in the 1920s and '30s, English writer Sergeant (The Old Sow in the Back Room) digs past the familiar image of a vice-ridden Westernized enclave and uncovers a city of many identities. Her Shanghai is an oasis of native artistic experiment; an unregulated refuge for international business where children worked 14-hour days; the center of China's innovative film industry; and a cosmopolitan magnet that became home to White Russian merchants and aristocrats, Japanese jazz musicians, emigre Iraqi Jews and refugees from Nazi Germany. The sprawling narrative is structured around three traumatic historical episodes: the bloodbath of 1927, when Chiang Kai-shek's troops and his former Communist allies slaughtered each other; the Japanese invasion of Shanghai in 1932, which claimed 14,000 lives; and the 1937 outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War. Sergeant, who has made frequent trips to the city since the end of the Cultural Revolution, interviewed dozens of current and former residents, both foreign and Chinese, and she integrates their colorful stories into her exceptionally vivid, informal chronicle. Photos. (Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. ) --- **uploader comments:** historical facts, interviews, stories about shanghai before 1949, mainly focused on western point of view. --- 'This portrait of the city will captivate you with its vivacity and Shanghai you with its sureness of touch' **Mail on Sunday** In the 1920s and '30s, Shanghai was known as "The Whore of the Orient," home to gangsters and warlords, nightclubs that never closed, and hotels that supplied heroin with room service. The city became the epitome of glamour, immortalized in books and films. With its bustling, polyglot population of British, Chinese, Americans, French, Germans, Japanese, and White Russians, and with its extremes of poverty and wealth, it appeared to straddle both East and West. By the time the Chinese Communist takeover in 1949 had destroyed the illusion, Shanghai had passed into legend. Here, through firsthand accounts, skillful research, and imaginative reconstruction, Harriet Sergeant brings the city's heyday vividly to life in a captivating account of its rise and fall. Harriet Sergeant is the author of Between the Lines and The Old Sow in the Back Room , which Booklist hailed as an "elegant, emotional, and fascinating portrayal." Front Cover SHANGHAI Harriet Sergeant By the same author Full Title Page ISBN 0-7195-5713-5 Contents List of Illustrations ACKNOWLEDGMENTS SHANGHAI (MAP) Introduction 1 A Simple Equation - The Rise of a Great City 2 The White Russians Citizens of Nowhere The Sweetest and Cleanest Girls in the Whole Town 3 The Order of the Brilliant Jade 1927 - the First Battle 4 The British The Spoiling Life The Abattoir of All Human Joys A Wonderful Old Racket 5 The War Across the Bridge 1932 - The Second Battle PHOTOS 6 The Chinese The Most Repellent Kind of Slavery The Iron House That House of Multiple Joys Gossip Is a Fearful Thing 7 The War at the End of the Street 1937 - The Third Battle 8 A Bit Like the End of Things The Fall of Shanghai Notes AlITHOR'S NOTE INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4 CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 6 CHAPTER 7 CHAPTER 8 Bibliography Index Back Cover A Simple Equation -- The Rise Of A Great City -- The White Russians -- The Order Of The Brilliant Jade -- The British -- The War Across The Bridge -- The Chinese -- The War At The End Of The Street -- A Bit Like The End Of Things. Far East Cruise. Harriet Sergeant. Originally Published: London : Cape, 1991. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.