Inspired by last month’s incredibly popular screenings of Yakov Bliokh’s 1928 ‘Shanghai Document’, RAS Documentary Group is showing ‘Legendary Sin Cities: Shanghai’.

‘Legendary Sin Cities’ is documentary series of three programmes produced by the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) that separately profile the spontaneous growth, flowering and decay of Paris, Berlin and Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s. In the period between the first and second world wars, Berlin, Paris and Shanghai were notorious hot spots of sin and vice. Debauchery, brutality and corruption commingled with art, culture and political liberties. Tolerance and freedom were pushed to their limits. This revealing new documentary series is filled with rare, evocative archival film and photos which bring to life an extraordinary cast of musicians, artists, journalists, rogues and sinners, resulting in a richly drawn portrait of an era when these 3 cities pushed the limits of tolerance and freedom and defined the social, political and sexual culture of the 20th Century. In Shanghai, nightclubs never closed and hotels supplied heroin with room service. No passport was required. Refugees of war, poverty and politics wandered the streets among the gangsters, prostitutes and cops. (from DocuWiki)

For reservations email bookings@royalasiaticsociety.org

ENTRANCE:  Members 20 RMB - Nonmembers 50 RMB. The venue requests that participants buy a drink to cover their costs.

BOOKINGS: bookings@royalasiaticsociety.org.cn

WEBSITE:  www.royalasiaticsociety.org.cn

MEMBERSHIP: Membership renewals and applications will be available at the front desk