Historical Shanghai

[Randy W]

The Rise and Fall of Shanghai’s Cabaret Culture 

In the 1920s and ’30s, Shanghai was known as a city of sin: a “Paris of the East” famous for its rich nightlife. The city had hundreds of cabaret clubs, where gang leaders clinked glasses with high-level politicians. From here, cabaret culture spread across China and beyond.

Today, Shanghai’s cabaret scene is remembered as a colonial import, but the story is more complicated than that. The art form was also embraced by China’s “May Fourth Generation” — a revolutionary youth movement for whom nationalism and sexual liberation went hand in hand.

Learn more: http://ow.ly/w38M50IOPF2

from the Sixth Tone on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/sixthtone/videos/1162077161162350/

 

The Rise and Fall of Shanghai’s Cabaret Culture

A view of the Bund in Shanghai, 1930.

Quote

 

The art form was also embraced by China’s “May Fourth Generation” — a revolutionary youth movement for whom nationalism and sexual liberation went hand in hand.

Over time, cabaret became a part of Shanghai’s local identity, and the city’s scene gained global recognition. “Rose, Rose, I Love You” — one of the best-known cabaret songs of the era, by Shanghai pop star Yao Lee — even made it onto the U.S.’s Billboard music charts in 1951, when it was re-recorded by the American singer Frankie Laine.

This is the first edition of Undertone China, a new video series exploring untold histories of how cultural imports have shaped modern China — and continue to influence the nation today.

 

 

[Randy W]

Indiana Jones in the Shanghai night club "Obi Wan"

Anything Goes Lyrics
Yi wang de si wa yi kan dao
Xing li bian yao la jing bao jin tian zhi dao
Anything goes

Yi wang yi lu jiu cha zhen mei hao
Qing shu shu shua le feng ye ni dao yi dao
Anything goes

Wan hua chen shi yi yi dao dao
Bian hua wei bao bian wei dao
Meng huan dong shi da du shi
Do shi wei ni fu shao
Ze qi wo dui fei hua long qing liao
Dong hua dong feng song dao shou yi ding hui bao
Anything goes

[Randy W]

Anything Goes (From "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom") Lyrics

In olden days a glimpse of stocking was
Looked on as something shocking
Now heaven knows,
anything goes

Good authors too who once knew better words
Now only use four letter words writing prose
Anything goes

The world has gone mad today, and good's bad today
And black's white today, and day's night today
When most guys today the women prize today
Are just silly gigalos
So although I'm not a great romancer
I know that you're bound to answer when I propose
Anything goes

I know you're bound to answer when I propose
Anything goes

Lyrics powered by www.musixmatch.com

 

Edited January 22, 2023 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Shanghai’s opening as a treaty port has become shrouded in myth. What actually happened? And how did it shape the city?

from the Sixth Tone on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/sixthtone/posts/pfbid02M3aSbmiTzsYZtHBHAs9qtk1c3GkCpPSJUB6dbHYCUVyBj82S8PrdAbJSgTjif9cKl

The Fishing Village That Wasn’t and Other Myths About China’s Largest City
Shanghai’s opening as a treaty port has become shrouded in myth. What actually happened? And how did it shape the city?
 

Quote

 

On the evening of Nov. 8, 1843, Sir George Balfour arrived in Shanghai aboard the HMS Medusa, tasked with negotiating the city’s opening to foreign trade and settlement. Six days later, on Nov. 14, the Circuit Intendant of Shanghai County, known as the daotai, posted an official notice declaring the city would fully open to foreign traders for the first time in its history.

This announcement marked the beginning of Shanghai’s life as a “treaty port,” one of five forcefully opened to the outside world after China’s 1842 defeat in the Opium War. Almost immediately, foreign goods and investment poured into the city as traders took advantage of its convenient location at the mouth of the Yangtze River. Warehouses were established, docks were constructed, new foreign-administered concessions were delineated, and banks were established to fund it all.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the significance of this moment in Shanghai’s history, the city’s opening has attained almost mythic status — sometimes literally. A number of widespread misconceptions have sprung up about the city’s opening, from the idea that pre-opening Shanghai was little more than a fishing village to the belief that Shanghai was simply another Western colony.