Shanghai

Shanghai, the largest centre of commerce and finance in China, is situated at the mouth of the Yangtse River. First opened as a treaty port following the 1st China War, it became a multinational business hub by the 1930s.

Shanghai
[[Image: Pudong Waterfront, Shanghai |250px| ]]
Presidency:
Coordinates:	31.202462°N, 121.49743°E
Altitude:	4 m (13 ft)
Present Day Details
Place Name:	Shanghai
State/Province:	Shanghai Metropolitan Area
Country:	China
Transport links

History

Capture of Shanghai 1842
Battle of Shanghai 1860

Records

• Shanghai Ancestors from China Coast Family History, Chinese Customs Project, University of Bristol has various information, including a number of useful databases, on its website which may assist in the search for European ancestors. These databases include a searchable named index of Chinese probates, cemetery information and directory extracts. Also includes an alphabetical database of names for Shanghai Municipal Police.
• The FamilySearch Catalog for microfilm/digitised microfilm records includes "Cemetery records of old and new cemetery, 1859-1899 and Seaman's cemetery, Pootung, in Shanghai, China, 1859-1879" catalogue entry microfilm 418134 which has been digitised and may be viewed at a FamilySearch Centre.
• Guide to the Scholarly Resources Microfilm Edition of the Shanghai Municipal Police Files 1894-1949 library.uoregon.edu

The SMP files represent a large portion of the archives of the British-run municipal police force based in Shanghai's former International Settlement. This force was established shortly after the formation in 1854 of the settlement's presiding body, the Shanghai Municipal Council. The files are, for the most part, the records of the SMP Special Branch, which investigated and reported on alleged subversive activities and maintained peace and stability in the International Settlement. The time period covered by the SMP files extends from 1894 to 1949, The collection is housed [at the time of the guide] in the Military Archives Division of the National Archives, Washington, DC.

Military

• For a British Army overview, see China.

Shanghai Volunteer Corps

A reserve force in time of emergency in the International Settlement. By the 1930s, the Volunteers were a truly international force, with American, English, Scottish, Chinese, Italian, Jewish, Portuguese, Filipino and White Russian units. C 1937 it consisted of one professional battalion of young White Russians, superbly disciplined and impeccably turned out in British Army uniforms. The other companies were manned by volunteers from the civilian population. There was 'A' Company formed by Britons of pure-white descent. 'B' Company contained Eurasians. 'C' Company was the Chinese unit.

Regimental histories

• Eighty Five Years of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps by I I Kounin, published Shanghai c 1938. Available at the Imperial War Museums, catalogue number LBY 96 / 1685
• Article: "Notes On The Shanghai Volunteer Corps" by A. McKenzie Annand Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research Vol. 53, No. 214 (Summer 1975), pp. 98-102.

Shanghai Defence Force

The Shanghai Defence Force was a tri-service military formation established by the British Government to protect European nationals and their property in Shanghai from Chinese nationalist forces during a period of tension in 1927.

National Archives catalogue reference Despatch of Shanghai Defence Force to Shanghai in 1927. FO 371/63436

External links

• History of Shanghai Wikipedia
  
• Shanghai International Settlement Wikipedia
• Virtual Shanghai is a project of an academic partnership whose project director Christian Henriot is at the Institut d'Asie Orientale, University of Lyon. Includes Maps, Images, E books and papers including
  • "The Colonial Space of Death in Shanghai (1844-1949)" by Christian Henriot 2007
• Graham Earnshaw's Tales of Old Shanghai, now an archived website. Includes
  • Online Library. Note, most of the books appear to have text. If the book you select does not appear to contain text, try clicking on an earlier (or later) archived link, and text may be available.
  • Maps
• Shanghai’s Lost Foreigner Cemeteries by Eric N. Danielson 10 April 2011 from his website YangziMan: Adventures in China, now an archived website.
• Bubbling Well Road Cemetery Find A Grave. List of names.
• Photograph: Bubbling Well Cemetery, Shanghai from www.virtualshanghai.net
• B is for … Bubbling Well Road, Shanghai by Robert Bickers March 13, 2012 from the University of Bristol’s Visualising China Blog
• Photographs: British Shanghai, one of DBHKer’s galleries on flickr.com
• 2nd Battalion in Shanghai Soldiers of Gloucestershire.
• Shanghai Volunteer Corps Wikipedia
• The Shanghai Volunteer Corps by Robert Bickers. 19 April 2013 robertbickers.net
• German Troops in the Shanghai Volunteer Corps
• Shanghai Defence Force Wikipedia
• "'Duncan Force' - the Shanghai Defence Force in 1927, & the Career of Captain Ronald Spear" by Keith Stevens Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch Vol. 48 (2008), pp. 151-174 jstor.org. Register and read online for free.
• 5th Armoured Car Company in China, 1927-29 by Tony Wilkins 1 May 2017. Defence of the Realm.
• Sikhs in Shanghai
• "The Raj on Nanjing Road: Sikh Policemen in Treaty-Port Shanghai" by Isabella Jackson Modern Asian Studies March 2013, pp 1 – 33
• Doctor Smolnikoff's memoir: My Sikhs : Translated extracts from Victor Smolnikoff 's memoir of the 1940s in Shanghai (written in the 1970s in Russia). He worked as a doctor until 1954 in Shanghai, when he and his family were repatriated to the Soviet Union. avezink.livejournal.com. Most Sikhs were in the employ of the Shanghai Municipal Police.
• "From 'Hunting Opium and Other Scents' to '400 Million Customers'" by Hugo Restall March 6, 2009 The Wall Street Journal, now an archived page. Expat writers in the first half of the 20th century. Hugo Restall was then editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review.
• Video: Old Shanghai 1930s YouTube video.

Historical books online

• Some pages in the history of Shanghai, 1842-1856 : a paper read before the China society on May 23, 1916 by W R Carles 1916 Archive.org
• The Shanghai Almanac and Directory 1856. Incomplete, only to page 126. Hathi Trust Digital Library
• Shanghae Almanac… and Miscellany 1856 (Catalogued as Shanghai Almanac for ... and Commercial Guide) Google Books
  • List of Foreign Residents at Shanghae August 1855
• Shanghai Almanac for the Year 1857 Hathi Trust Digital Library
  • List of Foreign Residents at Shanghai, January 1858
• The Desk Hong List; A general and business directory for Shanghai and the Northern and River Ports etc. 1882, 1884 Archive.org
• Journal of the Shanghai Literary and Scientific Society Multiple volumes from 1860 Hathi Trust Digital Library
• Shanghai Considered Socially. A Lecture by H Lang, 2nd edition 1875. Archive.org
• Sketches in the foreign settlements and native city of Shanghai by W Macfarlane 1881. Reprinted from the Shanghai Mercury. Archive.org
• The story of Shanghai from the opening of the port to foreign trade by J W Maclellan 1889. Archive.org
• Sketches in and around Shanghai etc [by J D Clark] 1894. Archive.org
• Shanghai, by Night and Day , Volume I 1902. The sketches originally appeared in the Shanghai Mercury. Archive.org
• Shanghai : a handbook for travellers and residents to the chief objects of interest in and around the foreign settlements and native city by Rev C E Darwent, Minister of Union Church, Shanghai 1904 Archive.org with a
  • 1904 Map of the Foreign Settlements at Shanghai (in sections)
• Rambles round Shanghai by William R Kahler 2nd edition, revised 1905 Archive.org
• Personal reminiscences of thirty years' residence in the model settlement Shanghai, 1870-1900 by Charles M Dyce 1906 Archive.org
• Twentieth century impressions of Hong-kong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China: their history, people, commerce, industries, and resources by Arnold Wright 1908 Archive.org
• Historic Shanghai by C A Montalto de Jesus 1909 Archive.org
• "A Shanghai Hospital" by Edna R Sparey, an article from The American Journal of Nursing, Volume 14, January 1, 1914. Archive.org
• The Second Revolution in China, 1913. My adventures of the fighting around Shanghai, the Arsenal, Woosung Forts by St Piero Rudinger, Foreign War Reportter 1914. Archive.org
• The gateway to China; pictures of Shanghai by Mary Ninde Gamewell 1916 Archive.org
• "Shanghai" , page 102 The Travelers' Handbook for China (including Hongkong) by Carl Crow. Third Edition, Revised 1921 Archive.org
  • Plan of the Foreign Settlements, Shanghai
• Online Library from the archived website Tales of Old Shanghai. Note, most of the books appear to have text. If the book you select does not appear to contain text, try clicking on an earlier (or later) archived link, and text may be available.
  • One of the books available to read is The Unexpurgated Diary of a Shanghai Baby, by Elsie Mc Cormick first published 1924. A review says "The writing is easy to read and very humorous. It is a great introduction to old Shanghai, but also contains many details of the period that make in an invaluable resource for research on this topic".
• China's Trial by Fire : the Shanghai War of 1932 by Donald A Jordan 2001. Hathi Trust Digital Library
• Shanghai, the Paradise of Adventurers by G E Miller (Pseudonym) Diplomat 1937 Hathi Trust Digital Library. Elsewhere, the author is stated to be Mauricio Fresco, the Mexican Honorary Consul, whose position had long been deeply implicated in the large-scale organized gambling in the city of the 1920s
• The Shanghai Problem by William Crane Johnstone 1937 Hathi Trust Digital Library
• Shanghai and Tientsin, with special reference to foreign interests by F C Jones 1940. Hathi Trust Digital Library
• Shanghai: City For Sale Ernest O. Hauser 1940 Archive.org
• Economic Shanghai: Hostage to Politics, 1937-1941 by Robert W. Barnett 1941 Hathi Trust Digital Library.
• Shanghai Lawyer by Norwood F. Allman 1943 Hathi Trust Digital Library.
• Digital Book originals Visual Cultures in East Asia, a website connected with Virtual Shanghai, (refer above). The books are mainly connected with Shanghai and include a number of Handbooks for travellers and residents. Pdf downloads.
• Fiction: Yangtze Skipper, by Thomas Woodrooffe 1937. HathiTrust Digital Library. Set in 1919 Shanghai, Toby Warren is First Lieutenant on the "Beetle", a (fictious) Royal Navy river gunboat. The author served on HMS "Scarab" (river gunboat) in 1919-1920.

Note, this may be the American title. Appears to be the same book as River of Golden Sand by Thomas Woodrooffe. A review of River of Golden Sand