Shanghai

Shanghai in the 1930s was different from Beijing in every way and the drama endlessly emphsises this. There is Qianmen (Zhengyang) Gate as a landmark in Beiping, here is the Clock Tower in the Shanghai Bund. Trams as well as numerous cars run on the paved streets in Shanghai. We also watch in the show, there are sidewalks on the both side of Shanghai's Boulevard, which is nonexistent in Beiping in the drama. Shanghai's railway station looks better facilitated than Beiping's, although it's not necessarily true. There are also some scenes of small alleys in the Shanghai part. These alleys, which are formed by alleyway houses, Longtang, are famous as the Shanghai Version of the Beijing Hutong. The opera theatre, especially the layout of the hall seats, looks very much like the western theatre. It contrasts with the traditional one in Beiping. Cheng's European style residence is another counterpart of the traditional Courtyard House in Beiping.

## Shanghai in the drama

### the Bund, Boulevard and the Railway Station in Shanghai

The Clock Tower of the Shanghai Custom HouseTramway and Carssidewalks on the both side of the streetinside the Shanghai Railwaystation

### Longtang (Shanghai's Alleyway Houses)

Longtang is the name of certain type of architecture not the streets' name like Hutong. Such buildings started to be built due to the rapid growth of the population resulted from the war refugees of Taiping Rebellion (1851-1864). Two or three-storied houses built by bricks connected by shared front and back alleys that led to broader commercial streets. The four metres wide main alleyways, leading from the gated entrance, branched off onto smaller ones which led to the individual houses. Several Longtangs together formed less representative residential areas in Shanghai and defined the Shanghai urban space. By 1949 almost three-quaters of shanghai's residential dwellings were built in the form of longtang.

In the drama, Ceng Aiyu and her brother live in such a typical alleyway house. The interior of the the apartment looks westernized. They maybe live in "the new-style Longtang" with modern sanitation and gas, which was popularized in the 1920s. That doesn't mean, such alleyway houses don't have any features of Chinese architectures. For example, the vast majority of alleyway houses nearly all face south. This is an effort to follow the precepts of feng shui. Compared to the courtyard houses, the spatial proportions of the alleyway house were tighter and more compact, with more efficient use being made of the space.

### The Opera House

the entrancethe entrancethe stagethe stagethe hall seatthe hall seat

### Cheng's Mansion

Cheng Fengtai and his siblings grew up in this beautiful mansion in Shanghai. When he enters this House after a couple of years in episode 30, memories come flooding back. It isn't surprising, since everything in the house looks almost exactly the same as before, including the carpet, the round table and even the vase in the entrance hall. Once their financial situation improved, they must have bought everything back, maybe also the piano of Meixin.

As always, it is difficult to get the whole layout of such a huge residence, however, the design of its main part is relatively easy to get. The dining room is located on the right side of the landing, while the opposite side of the dining room is the drawing room. The wide staircase leads both the master bedroom on the left side, as well as the guestroom on the right side on the first floor. Shang Xirui uses the guest room.

porchthe landingthe landingthe table and the vase (and the carpet) in the landing, when Cheng Fengtais mother left Cheng's Residence.the dining room. a view from the drawing roomthe dining room.a view from the drawing roomthe drawing roomthe entrance (the staircase was positioned on its opposite side)master bedroom1master bedroom2GuestroomGuestroom
## Shanghai in the 1930s

By the beginning of the twentieth century, Shanghai had the infrastructure of a modern city: the first trams in China, the first stock exchange, a supply of running water, electric lighting etc. The city eventually became East Asia's most important commercial centre. In the 1920s and '30s, Shanghai enjoyed its heyday. Around three million people resided in the city. The city had the largest population in Asia. The image of Shanghai, the mixture of oriental exoticism, of modern glamour, of decadence and depravity, was also created at that time.

Shanghai' status in the 1930s as metropolis was, however, unlike Beiping and Nanjing fairly new. The population of Shanghai was around 200,000 in 1843, it reached 1 million in 1900 and 3 million in 1930.

The city's growth was abruptly stopped by Battle of Shanghai in the very same year. By the time of the Rape of Nanking on 12 December 1937, Shanghai's port had been destroyed, along with most of its trade and industry by the Japanese Army.

All Images of Shanghai in the 1930s: Copyright@Virtual Cities Project (Institut d’Asie Orientale)

## Literature

BERGÈRE, Marie-Claire (translated by Janet LLOYD): Shanghai. China's gateway to modernity (Stanford University 2009).

BRACKEN, Gregory Byrne: The Shanghai alleyway house, Routledge Contemporary China Series Vol. 95 (Routledge 2013).

PING, Lei: Survival of Shanghai Urbanite Culture in the Mao Era: Bourgeois Aspirations and Practice of Longtang Everyday Life, in: Journal of Chinese Architecture and Urbanism, 2019 Vol. 1-1, 1-18. Link: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338725844\_Survival\_of\_Shanghai\_Urbanite\_Culture\_in\_the\_Mao\_Era\_Bourgeois\_Aspirations\_and\_Practice\_of\_Longtang\_Everyday\_Life

TAO, Xu: Bicycle trade organizations in modern Shanghai, in: LINCOLN, Toby / HAIYAN, Liu (ed.): Urban History, Volume 38 Part 3, Special Issue: China's urban turn, 2011, 457-490.

WASSERSTROM, Jeffrey N.: Global Shanghai, 1850-2010: A History in Fragments (Routeledge 2009)

WASSERSTROM, Jeffrey N.: Locating Old Shanghai. Having Fits about Where it fits, in: ESHERICK, Joseph W. (ed.): Remaking the Chinese City. Modernity and National Identity, 1900-1950 (University of Hawai'i Press 1999) 192-210.