The Truth About ‘Old Shanghai’

The decades between the two World Wars were bizarre, unique, and are kind of like the dinosaurs culturally — everything was different then, but there are very few remnants of the era today. The major cultural earthquakes of the era — US Prohibition, abstract European art, Jazz music, late Western colonialism, the Art Deco movement — are still here in relics and aftershocks, but in general those connections need to be pointed out. However, a LOT of things went down in that era, and it’s well worth exploring.

This essay is about Old Shanghai, a time and place that often gets glorified for its East meets West art and culture, during a colonial era that lasted around 100 years starting in 1843 and peaked in the 1930s. Is its reputation warranted? Read on.

Culturally, the interwar period is MOSTLY forgotten, but there are a handful of settings (for lack of a better word) that most people will know about if they pay attention to modern media. First, Jazz Age New York is always good for a movie, book, or TV show. This would be the world of the Great Gatsby, one of excess and flappers, and it certainly existed — although most people in the NYC region during the 1920s weren’t, obviously, filthy rich, and couldn’t frequent the insane parties that you see portrayed in period pieces today.