The Chinese Museum is proud to present
Shanghai Week – A celebration of culture, life and humanity.
15 February to 24 February 2019
Shanghai Week takes you back in time when Shanghai was the Paris of Orient – an international city of contrasts in culture, life and humanity.
Experience a Shanghai Jazz Club with Shanghai MiMi band (straight from performing at the Sydney Festival) and discover Shidaiqu music (Chinese folk and American jazz fusion) of the 1930s; listen to Sam Moshinsky born in Shanghai, who recounts living through these tumultuous time, or Peter Hack explaining how Chinese Australians were leading commercial enterprise; there’s traditional Shanghainese food and hospitality; and for children, bring the family and try traditional Chinese games played in the laneways of Shanghai.
BACKGROUND
While the rest of the world grappled with the Great Depression of the 1930s, Shanghai entered its most prosperous era of the 20th Century. It became known as the “Paris of the Orient,” attracting people from around the world for its international cultural blend of East meets West.
There were more skyscrapers in Shanghai than in any other place outside of North America. Art Deco was all the rage, and soon the city’s skyline was festooned with such streamlined masterpieces as the Paramount Ballroom, the Grand Theatre, and Sir Victor Sassoon’s Cathay Hotel.
Nanking (now Nanjing) Road was the city’s commercial heart, where great department stores like Wing On and Sincere offered goods from China and all over the world.
The pursuit of pleasure was second only to the pursuit of wealth. Both foreigners and Chinese patronized nightclubs, movie theatres, and dance halls.
Shanghai’s International Settlement was established by the Unites Kingdom, United States and France leading a high life, while in contrast, other parts of the city became the home of anti- Communist White Russians and Jewish refugees fleeing from unrest in Europe and Russia – it became a melting pot of international and local Chinese people and cultures.
