.sh

Saint Helena Island is mostly famous for having hosted Napoleon after he was surrendering in 1815. The British first kept him in Elba island near Italy. The location prooved not to be far enough since Napoleon actually came back and restored his power for a few months. This period is known in France as the 100 days ("Les cent jours"). At their second attempt, the British empire sent him as far as they could, i.e. Saint Helena Island, South Atlantic. The Island seem to have all the features of the dream tropical island with blue sea and palm trees, though it is surrounded by rocky shores. About only 5000 people live on the island... but they found a new resource.
The internet domain name for Saint Helena is sh . It had little use until a clever Shanghai based weekly (8 days) started to use it for its website (the domain does not work anymore since the newspaper has changed its name and ownership). They came up with www.8days.sh. I think that most people in Shanghai associated this URL with 8 days Shanghai. Suddenly, .sh started to find many more usage. There are not so many yet, but I have already spotted www.hudec.sh, celebrating the 50th year anniversary of Hungarian architect Laszlo Hudec death. As Shanghai is become a leading city in Asia and the world, I am pretty sure more of those will soon appear. The 2010 Shanghai World expo should also help a lot.
St Helenans have spotted the opportunity as a .sh domain currently costs USD 120 / year, about 10 times more than a .com or .cn . Like Tuvalu Islands making money out of the .tv internet domains, another tiny island finds itself with a great money maker. Shanghai is becoming richer and richer, and I am sure that this kind of money will not deter Shanghainese to proudly advertise their beloved city. With its (nearly) own domain on the worldwide web, Shanghai is really becoming a world city.

Sin city

I am not sure anymore where is the first time I heard about Ralph Shaw. It must have been about 2 years ago when I started to get really interested about Old Shanghai. I heard the story of this ex-journalist from North China Daily News (the most important English Speaking newspaper in Shanghai and the whole of China). I tried then to buy a copy of the book and this is where the difficulties started. It was not available in any English book store in China, then I started to look on the internet. Sin City was displayed on several book sites such as amazon.com but was listed as sold out. I finally got a second hand copy on the internet. The one I got is not the original publication of 1973, but a reprint in paperback from 1986. I had it shipped by the seller in England to my parents place in France and finally collected it in December.
I don't think the book sold very well, certainly not helped by the cover of the paperback was definitely not representative of the content, slizy and in any case plain ugly. However, it is in the bibliography of most books about Shanghai including the biography of Carl Crow I reviewed in a previous article. I was really interested about and really anxious to read it. It did not last for very long, as I went trough within a few days of Chinese New Year 2008.
Sin City is the memoirs of Ralph Shaw, a Huddersfield (where I studied) boy that was sent to Shanghai as part of the UK military force and became journalist then night editor of the North China Daily News. He arrived in Shanghai in 1937 until 1949. Shaw was in his 20s in Shanghai and fully enjoyed all the pleasure that the city could offer in term of nightlife, drinking, partying and enjoying play with women. In Old Shanghai, like many men he found the perfect playground. His life in old Shanghai is depicted through a series of portraits, locations and actions. What is so interesting in this book is that he mentions all those people and all those places from the old Shanghai straight out of his memory. Shaw arrived in Shanghai a few days before the invasion of the Chinese city by the Japanese forces and witnessed the mounting tensions between the British forces and the Japanese, until the invasion of the settlement in December 1941 and his arrest the Japanese secret police and incarceration as a prisoner of war. There are many books about this period, but reading the actual experience of somebody who went through it is quite a unique experience.
Shaw does not stop at places and people, his memoirs also include a lot about the vices of the city, prostitution, gambling and corruption. Once again, Ralph Shaw was definitely well informed and the light he casts on the city is less than flattering. Corruption, prostitution and alcoholism were normal practice for the most men foreign community in Shanghai and it reflects in the book. Once again, Shaw adds many details about places and people including portraits of the people and funny anecdotes. The book is really good to take the reader in the Old Shanghai, into the smoky girly bars and opium dents. With cross referencing with other books, the picture of Old Shanghai really gets together while reading it.
What is more questionable and probably less interesting for most reader is the display of his own sexual performance, with a distinct preference for handy performances and self help. Although it adds to the story, it also takes away from the plot and take off some of the book's credibility. Some pages of Sin City would easily find there place in men-only literature and take the book far away from most readers. This is where most readers probably get lost. The erotic pages clearly dominated the cover and marketing of the book though they are not that many. It's a pity such a narrow approach was taken for a book that is so full of first hand details about the old Shanghai.

Looking for Hudec

Hudec was one of the main architect of the old Shanghai. He designed major buildings of the city, such as the Park Hotel and the House of Dr Woo (now used as a club and restaurant). Hudec introduced a new style to the city after his trip to America creating the most modern buildings at the time. His legacy can be clearly seen around the International Settlement of the old Shanghai. I got particularly interested in Hudec since he came from Hungary and I spent years in this coutry before. One of my architect friend was putting together a presentation about Hudec work. Since she is from Australian, she knew very little if any about the history of that part of the world. For her, I had to tell the story of the Austro-hungarian empire and how the treaty of Trianon (1920) dismantled it and created tensions that are still so vivid there. I even took my map of Hungary before and after Trianon treaty that I bought a few years ago in Budapest as a souvenir (my friends from Budapest will know exactly what I am talking about).
50 years after his death, Hudec is finding himself in the center nationalistic competitions that started after he actually left the country and never returned. Hudec was born in a city that was Hungary then, but is now located in Slovakia, know as Banska Bistrica today. Since he studied in Budapest Royal Academy, he clearly spoke and wrote Hungarian. Hungary was rouling this part of the world at that time so his education was certainly done in Hungarian, thus he is seen as Hungarian by Hungarians. At the same time, he is refered on all his buildings in Shanghai as Laudislav Hudec, a architect from Czechoslovakia. This surely infuriates any Hungarian knowing about it.
Having lived in Central Europe I heard the story from both sides so many time. I find it really strange to be caught back this typical central european story as far as Shanghai. Both countries are now part of the EU and entered the Schenghen space but this competition is still going on. Seen from China, they are tiny nations (Hungary and Slovakia's population combined is smaller that Shanghai). Hudec was taken prisoner on the Russian front in 1917 and escaped a train to a prisonner camp in Siberia to finally arrive in Shanghai. He stayed away from Europe and move to Canada when Old Shanghai closed its doors to foreigners. Though is never went back, he still finds himself caught back by it even after his death.
This will not stop the celebration of his work still that is so much part of Shanghai (more details on www.hudec.sh). More information about Laszlo Hudec and his life can be found on (http://students.washington.edu/lrh/hudec/index.html).

For everything else there is Mastercard

My last trip to London was like an advertisment for a financial services or credit card company.A long flight in a comfortable seat, followed by a trip to an old friend's house. After a few glasses of wine we started counting the number of years since we met the first time. We were actually living together in a Huddersfield's University dorm in... 1993, i.e. 15 years ago. We don't meet very often (last time was 4 years ago), but catching up was really nice. My friend is now married with Lucy and has little baby Grace. Life has changed a lot for both of us, but we still connected instantly. After so many years, the bond is still there.
The next day included a little bit of shopping, some sightseeing finishing with beers and then diner with 2 old friends from Budapest. Once again, we probably did not meet the 3 of us since 4 years, but it felt like we left each other yesterday. Suddenly this India restaurant near Gloucester Road transported itself to good old Budapest. The feeling of finding back all those friends was really nice and definitely priceless. Like in the add, for everything else there was Mastercard but rejoining these old friends was a pleasure that no money could buy.

London recalling

Shanghailanders like me are used to the mix of architecture that makes old Shanghai. Elements of various nations were taken to create buildings in the city and seeing faux-Tudor style next to Art Deco are quite common. All of them are reminders of the past and (in my opinion) much better than the present raws of unimaginative apartment buildings or ugly office tower.
It's only when coming to European capitals that one suddenly realizes how similar buildings in Shanghai are diverse as well as imitating to the style of the home or adoptive country of the one who built them. I remember taking a suburban train to Paris, and looking at houses from the 1910's, 1920's that look very much like the ones in my neighborhood in Shanghai's French concession. I have not been to Spain yet, but I can imagine that "Spanish" style houses like the one I live in in Shanghai can also be found there.
I had a similar revelation walking on Marelyborne road these days. I ran into the Court of Westminster (picture) and could not miss the similarities with some of the Bund's facades, in particular the customs building. The little tower on large buildings that I so much associate with Shanghai is just typical from British architecture from this period. The building even have the same flag poll with a Union Jack floating on it. It does not take much to imagine a Union Jack floating on every tower on the Bund like it floats on the one in the picture. Walking around the area, I went to neighboring Regent's Park. Regent College building does also look like some of the large mansions in old Shanghai. Similarly, some of the Lilong or Shi Ku Men houses have a lot in common with terraced houses in London or with row of houses in The Netherlands. They were also designed to maximise use of limited space and they tend to have a similar design of narrow front with deep rooms piled on the top of each other inside the building.
Old Shanghailanders only reproduced the architecture they were used to in their new home. Just like large columns and small towers represented power in t19th century London, it represented power in 19th century Shanghai on the Bund. With gray sky and brick or gray stone buildings, parts of London from this period feel like parts of Shanghai to me. People of the Empire really managed to re-create the illusion of their home countries far away from home... or Shanghai has become so much a part of myself that I see it everywhere I go.