Quelques grammes de culture dans un monde de brutes

The above title refers to a famous French TV 1980's advertising. Lindt chocolate was described as "Quelques grammes de finesse dans un monde de brute" (that could be translated as "a few moments of light in a very dark world"). This really applies to the Shanghai International Literary Festival. As much as I like Shanghai, this city is not a cultural center, but the festival brings a lot of it to us.

Shanghai International Literary Festival was taking place this month. As a literature fan and heavy reader, I spent most of my weekends at the conferences.Events take place in the wonderful atmosphere of Glamour Bar, giving it a real touch of the old Shanghai. The old building of Bund #5, renovated by lovers of Old Shanghai with a touch of modernity is the perfect cradle for the event. In the city of modern skyscrapers, electronic billboard advertising and constant marketing noisy aggression taking about a "old" media like book was a blessing. The weather was foggy, modern towers in the other side of the river were disappearing through the mist. Looking at the next door building (3 on the Bund), it felt like we were back in the days of old Shanghai. We were listening to a single person talking about their love of writing and books, just like our predecessors must have done decades ago. I enjoyed the conferences tremendously, as well as the highly cultural atmosphere.

I have to admit that I did not read most of the books that were discussed before the sessions, but I left with a massive stack of reading to do. Conferences I enjoyed including Qiu Xialong (writer of the chief inspector Chen), Amy Tan ("The Joy Luck Club"), Arlette Shleifer ("Le Bar Rouge" which ends on the Bund), Xiaolu Guo ("A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for lovers") and many others. The closing session of the festival was the launching of the new guide to the Bund by Peter Hibbard.

Shanghai is not the city of culture, but the literary festival definitely brings a lot on that field. Thanks to this great event, Shanghai is becoming a little bit more of a world cultural city.

City of the flat world

"The World is flat" is a book from Thomas Friedman about globalization and the changes it is bringing to the world, companies and individuals. The main point is that the World has become a level playing field on a worldwide basis.
The collapse of Marxist Leninist style of regimes has allowed 3 billions of people (Russia, China, India and others) to join the capitalist system. The Internet and other technologies have made communicating with the whole word something easy. Work flow software allows to cut service work into pieces that can be separated and done anywhere in the world, before being put together. This was previously only possible with production of goods. Manufacturing is now "off-shored" to places like China. Services can be "outsourced offshore". Most people connected to the Internet can "upload" their creations or point of view in such things as this blog, or wikipedia (that is very difficult to access in China because it's banned). All data and information created by humans can be accessed and searched via search engines and the Internet.
I read this book within a few days mostly in the plane as I was traveling between Asia and Europe. For most people involved in international business, it's very clear that the world has actually gone flat. Although, the book did not bring much news to me, it's still enjoyable to read an analysis of this phenomenon that is influencing our lives so greatly. The version I read was the one from 2006, that was already revised, though I think one point was missing. Friedman explain clearly that the information is becoming much more diverse, with a very large share of the Internet being in other languages than English... but the reasoning does not go to the logical conclusion, i.e. that native English speakers should also learn foreign languages instead of waiting for others to learn there, being able to master it along with their own.
During the whole reading, I could not stop thinking about Shanghai today. This city is the center of the business battlefield for the largest market in the world. Any company of a respectable size has to be in China and most multinational companies make it the center of their growth for the next decades. As a consequence, the city is full with foreigners from any nationality you can think of. Shanghai today is one of the metropolis of the flat world... and will maybe become it's capital though there is still a long way to go. Thanks to Friedman's "flattening factors" Shanghai is everyday becoming more of a world city.

Qian Xiang Fang

Walking around Wing On I have tried to find the restaurant on 4th and 5th floor of the Wing On department store that I mentioned in a previous posting. The old Wing On has only restaurants on 6th and 7th floor, that are not inspiring at all. The New Wing On has a restaurant on the 7th Floor that is called 7th Heaven. This place seems to have been really famous in the old Shanghai, but the renovation has not left much of the old atmosphere. Going around the old building for a last look, I was attracted by a groups of tourists going through a back door with a restaurant sign above it. Because of the long queue to get into the lift, I climbed the 5 floors of stairs noticing that they were very well renovated... This was little compared to the beauty of the restaurant itself, Xian Qiang Fang.

The wonderful renovation of what used to be the restaurant and ballroom of the Wing On was a wonderful surprise. It has been done with a lot of taste, a lot of attention to details and great preservation of history of this building. Most of the original flooring has been preserved, as well as the radiators, doors and other equipment. Some modern touch has been added without changing the grandeur feeling of the place. The main restaurant room features a high ceiling and old style furniture, giving a real classic touch. Food is great and well served by an effective staff. Many tourists are dining in the private room, but they don't really invade the main space.

Xian Qiang Fang was made by the same group than Yong Fu Elite and The Door, others famous restaurants in Shanghai. This restaurant is perfectly re-creating the 1920's and 1930's Shanghai atmosphere. This is by far the best part of the visit of Wing On and a great addition to it. It also proves that the grandeur of Shanghai's history can be brought back with a modern touch.

Xian Qiang Fang, 4h & 5th Fl, 600 JuiJiang Rd, Shanghai - Tel:021-63515757

Wing On

Shanghai has always been the place where new developments where brought to China. Department stores were of the main features, starting to populate Nanjing Road from 1913. Wing On was the third shop to open in 1918 after Whiteaway Laidlaw & Co (1913) and Sincere (1917) (more information about the history of Wing On this article from Shanghai Star). Wing On was clearly one of the most influential department stores in China, setting the trend for others in Shanghai and other cities.
Fortunately, the Wing On shop still exists and is still a department store. After many changes of names, the Wing On company of HongKong got it back and the shop is now called Wing On again.
The exterior has been recently renovated, making it once again one of the stars of Nanjing Road. An additional building was erected in the 1930's next to the original one. It also has a shopping center on the bottom (now hosting a massive Giordano shop), with an hotel above it. Both buildings are linked by two bridges that do not seem to be used anymore.
Unfortunately, renovation of the interior of both buildings has left very little of the original construction. They look just the same as the brand new shopping centers built in other parts of the city. The old time spirit has been completely lost, though I recently learned that the 4th and 5th floors of the old building that used to be the restaurant and dance hall have been turned into a Old Shanghai themed restaurant. I will have to check that out soon. Wing On and Sincere (the opposite department store) used to feature various animals and displays to attract people to the shops. Wing On seems to have restarted the trend, as they had 3 peacocks and a few other birds in a large cage in front of the shop in early March this year. This was attracting a lot of attention from people passing by, renewing an old tradition.
The object featured in this post is an original letter size note paper pad from Wing On marking the 14the anniversary of the shop. As the opening of Wing On was 1918, one can guess that this article was produced in 1932. I Actually found 2 of them of slightly different colors at the same time. Of course, the paper has become a little yellow but once again having this object in hand is like a transportation to the old Shanghai, it's department stores and busy shopping streets.

Sliding doors

Shanghai underground train is one of the feature of the new Shanghai. As opposed to Beijing which metro was started in the 50's with Soviet help, Shanghai Metro was only started in the 90's. New lines are being built at fast speed, opening the one after the other. The first time I was in Shanghai in 1998, line 1 was just starting with only a few stations. Line 1 has been expended, line 2, 3, 4 and 5 have been put into actions. The Shanghai Metro authority just opened the extension of line 2 towards Hong Qiao.
The only real node was People Square station for a long time. Peak hours in the corridor going from Line 1 to Line 2 is just like going through a sea of black hair. Riding the metro then always involves a lot of pushing around in the very dense crowd. The trains and stations get packed and everybody is jut trying to keep a little space for him/herself, and trying not to fall on other people. No politeness or manners in here and people nearly climb on each other sometimes. It feels a little like Paris metro on strikes days, when the number of trains is drastically reduced. The most funny or annoying is that people climbing in the train often don't let people go out first. This always creates a mess, and one has to sometimes push people out to be able to escape. I have to admit that education campaigns seem to have an effect as now people step out more often if they are blocking the way, as well as (sometimes) give up their sit for elderlies or women with kids.
Until last year, the Shanghai Metro was relatively simple. The older stations were not really fancy, but pretty effective in carrying tens of thousand people a day. Since then, Shanghai metro has embark on a campaign for modern and fancy look by adding glass sliding doors on the platforms. I am not so sure what is the reason for it. Local people say that people have regularly jumped on the tracks, needing a brand new wall to stop that. As incidents and delays do not seem that frequent I am just convinced that Shanghai metro wants to look like a "world city metro". Like in HongKong and Singapore, they need sliding glass doors. This is where the Shanghai twist comes in. Work was started in some of the stations, without any announcement. There was very little protections for the passengers on the platform. Even better, the glass partitions were installed, but the doors whould not be operating. This made passengers feel very safe behind the glass protection... until they realise that the door was not there... generally when the train was arriving. This whole mess made it look pretty disorganised and even dangerous for unaware passengers. Not all the doors are functioning yet, but after a few monts of being interrupted in the middle, work has restarted. Major stations on line 1 have been equipped and completion now seems near. I am sure the people selling glass doors and separations must have had great connections with the metro authorities. They must now be celebrating. With glass doors and seperations in the it's metro, Shanghai is trying to become a little more of a world city.

Sweet like chocolate

Last Saturday was again focused on cruising antic markets. I was showing my favorite spots to a visiting friend, hoping to find something interesting in these old relics.

The item I brought back was one of the weirdest ever, the wrapping paper of chocolate that looked really old. I am not sure exactly when it was used but it' clearly from the 1920's or 30's. The chocolate contained in it was made by Bianchi chocolate factory, located on 23 Nanking Road (Nanjing Dong lu 23 today). The address is written in Latin letters and in Chinese characters on the brown paper. Although I have not been to this specific address yet, it's surely on the beginning on Nanjing lu, around the Sasoon House (Peace hotel today) and the Palace hotel (Peace hotel South wing now). I went to the actual location of 23 Nanjing West Road. This address is the entrance of the Palace Hotel (now called Peace Hotel South Wing). The Bianchi Chocolate shop was certainly within the hotel itself. I guess Bianchi chocolate was the shop on the right-hand side of the main entrance, nowadays selling horrible fake souvenirs for a lot of money.

The Bianchi chocolate shop does not exist anymore of course, but just finding this piece of the old times was wonderful. I imagine walking to buy my chocolate near the riverside. I am walking those busy streets, full of a mixture of trendy office workers, vendors of all kinds shouting to advertise their products and dockworkers. I get to the Bianchi shop, push the glass door. I look at all the chocolates in the shop, talk to Mr Bianchi about his chocolate, good food, life and other topic before getting my simple piece of chocolate, just like I do nowadays in Visage chocolate shop in Xin Tian Di . After leaving the shop, I open the chocolate and starts eating it. It takes me a few minutes to wake up from my dream, holding my 60 years old chocolate paper in my hands. This old relic is so powerful that I still feel the taste of this chocolate created and eaten many decades ago.

Hotel des Colonies

The French settlement in Shanghai was started in 1884, but it did not grow as fast as the British (then international) next to it. When the international settlement was busy with traders shipping things in and out of China, the French settlement remain a much quieter place, eventually extended to become the residential and garden city of Shanghai.
One of the few prominent buildings of the French settlement, was the "Hotel des colonies", the only hotel of the French settlement for quite a long time. It was located on the "Quai de France", the French part of the Bund, located South from the Bund itself. "Hotel des colonies" is mentioned in "Les Francais de Shanghai" and was clearly an important location both for traders coming to Shanghai and for the community. Some of the traders based in Shanghai even lived there for years.
I found the enclosed postcard in an antic shop in Malacca. It was written in Saigon and sent to Shanghai by the post, carried by ship to Shanghai, another French settlement. More than the picture on the front, it's the address of on the back that caught my attention. The postcard is simply addressed to "Monsieur Millon, Voyageur, Hotel des Colonies, Shanghai". No street, no number only the hotel's name, where the card would wait for the traveler to arrive and collect it from the counter. "Poste restante", i.e. letter sent to a post office and remaining their until the receiver collects it used to be quite a popular mean of sending letter, although it's quite difficult to imagine it today. It's just nice to think about a time when time schedule was so relaxed, that people would just post the letter and wait for months until an answer arrive... what a change from today's email. I was still quite happy to be able to check my email in the old port of Malacca. The modern world also has it's great advantages.