This week is *all about* Wallis Simpson in China, or more specifically, HER LOTUS YEAR, Paul French’s latest book.

Last weekend, we did a walk through the places & traces of Wallis in Shanghai.

Here we are at the Palace Hotel, where Wallis stayed. Glitz & glam! 1/ @chinarhyming.bsky.social

100 years ago today, on March 12 1925, Sun Yat-sen drew his last breath. The untimely death of the father of the nation ushered in a wave of commemorations, including statues in his likeness, like this almost forgotten one.
Here’s the story of that statue: www.historic-shanghai.com/shanghais-su...

Facadism on the Suzhou Creek - retaining the facades so the view of historic warehouses is preserved. Umm…that’s not how it works, peeps! #shanghai

Up on a Shanghai lane house rooftop with two residents, both born here, one the grandnephew of the original owner.

In two months they’ll have to move, they say. 1/

Shanghai snapshot: The streets of the old Jewish Ghetto that surround the excellent Jewish Refugees Museum and the old Ohel Moishe synagogue: depopulated, empty, silenced. Zhoushan Lu and its lane neighborhood will likely survive, but it what form?

There’s not much left of the Cathay Theater interior, but what is left is prime! Karoly Gonda, 1931. #artdeco

Love in the lanes, this Saturday (Feb 15, 4pm): celebrate Valentine’s with a walk through the romance, and the stories, of the former French Concession…with a little bubbly, of course! 🥂💘

First, they tear down the history. Then, they put up murals mourning the communities they just tore down. 1/

“Urban renewal” is coming to the area Behind the Bund. We’ve seen this flick before, and it doesn’t end well.

Join us, and see these buildings & streets before they’re gutted, gentrified, gone.

Saturday Feb 8, 10am / RMB 200 members, 300 nonmembers / to book: jinshuju.net/f/keytg2

New Year Greetings, Year of the Snake edition, from the lanes of Shanghai. It’s bittersweet: most are nearly empty, or surrounded by a wasteland of closed neighborhoods. The ones that remain, tho, are proudly festive!

But you can’t help wondering: how many more Chinese New Years here? #shanghai

Uh-oh:,”urban renewal” is coming to that fabulous behind-the-Bund area, with its lane neighborhoods and century-old architecture.

We’ve got a walk coming up in the area next month: watch this space, and that one, too!

#shanghai

In 1931, Zhou Enlai ordered the murder of his aide Gu Shunzhang's wife and eight other family members, including a two-year-old boy, after Gu spilled Party secrets to the KMT. Afterwards, Zhou said: "Let history judge."

Well, history has arrived.

chinabooksreview.com/2025/01/23/z...

Political change in the air for This Week in China's History. The man who almost changed China.... This Week in China's History: The Resignation of Hu Yaobang www.sinicapodcast.com/p/this-week-...

A committee members badge for the old Shanghai Club (home of the famous Long Bar) at #2 Bund, Shanghai….