On Sunday evening, author Paul French will Zoom into our book club to chat about Wallis, 1920s China, and that infamous China Dossier. Join us! To book: jinshuju.com/f/aftg1k

The former British Consulate Shanghai, where the head of Special Intelligence was, says French, almost certainly the source of the salacious rumors that made up Wallis’ “China Dossier”, rumors that rendered her unfit to be a Queen. 4/

Broadway Mansions hadn’t been built when Wallis visited Shanghai in 1924, but the Garden Bridge was, and she may well have crossed it, passing by the Rowing Club, designed by Scott & Carter, the firm where her closest Shanghai friend started his career. 3/

And here’s the Astor House Hotel, where maybe, just maybe, she danced on that gorgeous ballroom floor. 2/

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

The house, with its Art Deco shikumen, will be on our Art Deco (Un)Dressed tour this Sunday. Come see it, come hear its stories.

To book: jinshuju.net/f/aftg1k or scan the QR code.

They watched, too, when the owner returned from jail after the Cultural Revolution, and sat in the main hall, catatonic. They watched the stables conveyed to housing, the honey carts to toilets. This move, then, is just another change, but this time, they won’t be there to witness it. 3/

Up here, they can identify every lane, by number. They point out the first skyscrapers: the Garden, the Hilton, the Portman. They watched Shanghai change from this unchanging rooftop. 2/

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?

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