Historic Shanghai AUGUST EVENTS

Good Morning, Shanghai:

Former French Concession edition

Saturday August 1, 8am

RMB 250 members, 350 nonmembers

including breakfast tasting

Mornings are when a city reveals itself, so join us for a summer morning stroll through the former French Concession. In the parks, tai chi practitioners and dancers get their energy flowing; old men hang their birdcages in the trees, listening to a symphony of songbirds.

As we stroll the plane tree-shaded streets, we’ll share the stories of the historic architecture all around us, as we make our way to a classic street food breakfast: griddles sizzing with jianbing, steam curling around the first dumplings of the day; flatbread baking and youtiao (crullers) frying—before morning Shanghai vanishes, like a mirage.

Directed by Cai Chusheng 蔡楚生

Starring Ruan Lingyu 阮玲玉, Zheng Junli 鄭君里, Yin Xu 殷虛, Wang Naidong 王乃東

Movie: New Women 新女性(1935)

starring Ruan Lingyu

Silent film, Chinese intertitles with English subtitles

Sunday August 2, 3pm

RMB 150 members, 250 nonmembers

includes a glass of wine, coffee/tea

One of the best, and most sensational films of the 1930s, New Women explores the status of women through the story of three young women navigating life and work in modern Shanghai.

Inspired by the life and death, by suicide, of silent screen star Ai Xia the previous year, New Women considers the reality of the status of women in modern (ie 1930s) society, particularly the perils women must deal with in a public role what with predatory gatekeepers and a greedy news media.

The film resonated strongly with young women grappling with their changing roles in society, but it became a sensation when, barely a month after the film’s release, its star, the luminous Ruan Lingyu, died by suicide--on March 8, 1935, International Women’s Day.

The Summer Gelato Crawl:

Heritage Architecture and Gelato

Saturday August 8, 3pm

RMB 280 members, 380 nonmembers

includes gelato tasting

By popular demand!

The Great Gelato Boom of 2025 in one of the city’s most historic enclaves called for an investigation, and so the Summer Gelato Crawl was born. Join us this summer, for round 2~new gelaterias, new route!

Between a rainbow of gelato flavors, we’ll walk through lanes and plane tree-shaded streets in one of the city’s most architecturally intact neighborhoods and see the surprises that lie beyond the hipster hangouts. Art Deco delights, traces of pre-Concession Shanghai, hidden mansions, lush gardens, treasures tucked away in deep in lanes … and then more gelato!

Bloody Saturday:

The Battle of Shanghai Walk

Saturday August 15, 10am

RMB 200 members, 300 nonmembers

It was the deadliest aerial bombardment the world had seen.

On Saturday August 14, 1937, misfired bombs shattered a white-hot summer’s day, raining death and destruction upon downtown Shanghai in a bloodbath that took an estimated 2,000 lives. It would change Shanghai forever.

Bombs fell at the intersection of the Bund and Nanjing Road, freezing the clock at the Cathay Hotel at 4.37pm; less than 20 minutes later, more bombs fell in front of the Great World Entertainment Center, where thousands of refugees were taking shelter. For the next three months, the Battle of Shanghai would ravage the city.

We’ll explore this dramatic story on a walk that takes in several of the key battle sites, sharing eyewitness accounts of Shanghai’s darkest days, and why it marked the beginning of the end.

Metro Art Deco:

Shanghai’s Art Deco Icons ~ A Citywide Tour

Saturday August 22, 10am

RMB 200 members, 300 nonmembers

Join us for a citywide tour of the Art Deco icons that define this city—we’ll visit three Art Deco enclaves for an endless supply of glamour, style, and modernity of Old Shanghai.  We’ll see grand towers of commerce and stylish apartment houses, landmark hotels and streamlined theaters, stately department stores and hidden lanes. We’ll share the stories behind these magnificent buildings, who lived in them, who built them, and how Art Deco became Shanghai’s signature style.

Staying cool(ish) and environmentally friendly on this walk by traveling between enclaves on the metro! So much Art Deco, so little time…

Nanjing Road:

Country Club to the Race Club (and a landlocked ship)

Sunday August 23, 10am

RMB 200 members, 300 nonmembers

Time travel with us, back to the days when Nanjing West was Bubbling Well Road, when a sprawling country club stood where the giant silver ship stands now. The crowds gather round see the ship icon, but oh, what they’re missing in the surrounding neighborhood!

We’ll explore this unsung section of the street, from country clubs and horse races to villages in the city, the ghost of the city’s poshest nightclub, a living legacy of Concession-era Western cuisine, Art Deco architecture, a Moorish memory in stone, and more. Worlds long vanished, but alive on this walk, in these buildings, and on these streets.

Schools of Old Shanghai

Saturday August 29, 10am

RMB 200 members, 300 nonmembers

It’s back to school time, so we’re heading back—way back—to the schools of Old Shanghai. The hallowed halls that once educated the sons and daughters of Old Shanghai still stand—some still educating the youngsters of today, and we’ll see a fascinating mix, from a 19th century joint venture school to an Art Nouveau French school, missionary-run institutions and schools for every community, from the International Settlement to the former French Concession to Hongkou. Who built them, ran them, and attended them? Come and discover the stories behind the bricks in Shanghai’s legacy of education.

AUGUST BOOK CLUB:

I Love Bill and Other Stories by Wang Anyi

Sunday August 30, 10.30am

RMB 100 members, 200 nonmembers

Wang Anyi is one of the finest Chinese novelists writing about the post-1949 era. The book club has read two of her novels previously—Song of Everlasting Sorrow, set between the 1930s and 1980s, and Fuping, set in the 1950s, and each has been a book club favorite. I Love Bill is a collection of two novellas and three short stories, set at the turn of the millennium, with nuanced portrayals of life during a time of vast economic and cultural change.

In the title novella, a young artist's life spirals out of control when she drops out of school to pursue a series of unfulfilling relationships with foreign men. A performance troupe struggles to adapt to a changing China in the mid-1970s. The head of an isolated village arranges a youth's posthumous marriage to an unknown soldier, only to have the soldier's former lover unexpectedly turn up. A fun trip takes an unexpected turn when two young women are kidnapped and sold off as brides. A boy's bout with typhoid provides an intimate look at family life in Shanghai's longtang alleys.

Membership is RMB 600 for a single membership,

1000 for couples / family for 12 months.