Meet Point: In front of the Best Buy on the corner of Yuyuan, Changning & Dingxi Roads, Shanghai
Address in Chinese: 愚园路,长宁路和定西路路口的百思买门口
(nearest subway, ZhongshanPark line 2,3,4)
From the Badlands to the West End - a walk on Yuyuan Road, from Zhongshan (Jessfield) Park to Paramount Ballroom with Duncan Hewitt.Yuyuan Road extends through what was, in the 1920s and 30s, one of Shanghai's most upwardly mobile areas, known as the "West End." Attempts to incorporate into the International Settlement never quite succeeded. But that didn't stop some of Nationalist China's wealthiest business people from building their mansions there; and Yuyuan Road's smart "garden longtangs' became home to many foreign residents and members of the local middle class. The proximity of the prestigious McTyeire
School and St John'sUniversity, as well as Zhongshan (Jessfield) Park, were part of the attraction. But the area was also home to spies, torturers and revolutionaries - and following the Japanese takeover of Shanghai became known as the Badlands, due to its many casinos and houses of ill repute. (Eileen Chang, who briefly lived round the corner, mentioned the area in Lust, Caution.)
Starting at Zhongshan Park, we will pass by the Museum of the Underground Bolshevik Printing Press and the former headquarters of the puppet government, see the house where Rewi Alley and Soong Ching-ling kept in touch with the communists in Yan’an by secret radio transmitter, and wind through various lanes, taking in the former home of the Kwok family, the house Li Hongzhang built for his mother, and the residences of various merchants, villains, and literati, before finishing at the Paramount Ballroom opposite Jing'an Temple.
Duncan Hewitt currently writes for Newsweek and other publications from Shanghai. He moved to the city in 2000, having previously been a BBC correspondent in Beijing. His interest in Shanghai’s history was first stirred by an accidental stint as an extra during the filming of Empire of the Sun in the city in 1987, while he was studying a degree in Chinese Studies at Edinburgh
University. His book on social change in China, Getting Rich First – Life in a changing China (Vintage, 2008) contains a chapter on Shanghai’s upheavals over the past two decades.
DONATION: RMB 100 for members RMB 200 for guests.
Strictly limited to a maximum number of 20 participants on a first come, first served basis – RAS members will be given priority. Membership applications and renewals will be available on the afternoon. Those unable to make the donation but wishing to attend may contact us for exemption.
