Historic Shanghai NOVEMBER EVENTS

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Questions? info@historic-shanghai.com 

FRENCHTOWN HERITAGE:

The Buildings of Leonard, Veysseyre & Kruze

Sunday November 2, 2pm

RMB 200 members, 300 nonmembers

"When a history of the French Concession is written, it will not fail to include high tribute to the genius of Messrs. Leonard, Veysseyre, and Kruze.” – The China Press, 1935

A stroll through the Art Deco of the former French Concession, focused on the buildings of the Concession’s pre-eminent architects: Alexandre Leonard, Paul Veysseyre & Arthur Kruze—or as they were popularly known, LVK.

LVK were the most prolific architects in the French Concession, creating over 100 architectural jewels, including a host of signature buildings that have come to define the French Concession. Come and see their buildings, hear the stories behind them—and the mystery that still surrounds LVK--and find out why, even in their lifetime, they were considered geniuses.

Inside the Lester Institute

Saturday November 8, 2pm

RMB 250 members, 350 nonmembers

Did you miss our 2024 visit to this Shanghai icon? Now’s your chance!

Join us for an exclusive private tour of one of Shanghai’s iconic buildings. Form follows function in the former Henry Lester Institute of Technical Education, a stunning Art Deco building built in 1934, with breathtakingly innovative features throughout, as befits the premier engineering school in the country. Funded by architect, merchant, and philanthropist Henry Lester—one of Old Shanghai’s most interesting characters—it’s been meticulously restored by the Design Innovation Institute, its current occupant.

Shanghai’s Jewish Taipans

Sunday November 9, 10am

RMB 200 members, 300 nonmembers

Join us as we explore the legacy and lore of Shanghai’s Jewish taipans—bosses--from the famous to the forgotten, in a walk that takes us from the Bund to the former French Concession. As early as 1845, the first Baghdadi Jews came to Shanghai--some came with money, some came with nothing and built fortunes, and many remained for generations, owning great swathes of the city. We’ll tell the fascinating story of these influential families and their mark on Shanghai today, in the landmark buildings, streets, synagogues, clubs, and associations they’ve left behind. 

✦ NEW ✦

SHIP TO SHIP:

From LV ship to Wukang Mansion

Saturday November 22, 2pm

RMB 200 members, 300 nonmembers

Two Shanghai ship-inspired icons, the Louis Vuitton ship on Nanjing West and the Normandie on Huaihai, serve as anchors on this exploration of the neighborhoods that lie between them. Cool icons, but what the crowds that gather around them are missing are the historic neighborhoods that lie in their shadows, unsung enclaves with stories of old country clubs and horse races, villages in the city, Art Deco, unexplored lanes and histories. Worlds long vanished, but alive on this walk, in these buildings, on these streets.

AVENUE ROAD: 

Faded Glamour, Monuments and Mysteries

Sunday November 23, 2pm

RMB 200 members, 300 nonmembers

Stately Avenue Road, today’s Beijing Road, conceals its treasures well. But on this walk, we’ll find them: the magnificent, faded glamour of a sprawling 19th century hotel; sumptuous Art Deco lanes festooned with delicious details; a dramatic modernist temple, a monument to science and philanthropy and another to brotherhood; mansions, mysteries, and more. 

✦ NEW ✦

Scots in Auld Shanghai

Saturday November 29, 2pm

RMB 200 members, 300 nonmembers

Shanghai’s very existence was due to a Scot: William Jardine of Dumfrieshire was the architect of the first Opium War in 1842, the conflict that first opened the city to trade. Many more would follow: traders and merchants, hoteliers and gardeners, bankers and missionaries, liquor importers, plant smugglers, even Scottish cows. By 1865, a St. Andrew’s Society was formed. 

NOVEMBER BOOK CLUB:

River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure

Sunday November 30, 7pm

RMB 100 members, 200 nonmembers

We take a detour this month to read recent Shanghai history, history that many of us have lived through.

In a stunning reversal of the east-to-west immigrant narrative and set against China’s political history and economic rise, River East, River West is an intimate family drama and a sharp social novel.

In 2007 Shanghai, fourteen-year-old Alva lives with her American expat mother. She’s never known her Chinese father and is certain a better life awaits them in America.  But then her mother becomes engaged to their wealthy Chinese landlord, Lu Fang, ending Alva’s American dream. The next best thing? The American School in Shanghai, where she discovers an entirely different world, one where foreigners can ostensibly act as they please.

In 1985 Qingdao, Lu Fang is toiling away as a lowly clerk in a shipyard, but when China opens its doors to the first wave of foreigners in decades, his world opens wide, too, especially after her meets an American woman who makes him confront difficult questions about himself, what he wants, and how much will ever be enough. Alternating between Alva and Lu Fang’s points of view, this is a profoundly moving exploration of race and class, cultural identity and belonging, and the often-false promise of the American Dream.