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

• China Families, previously called China Coast Family History, and part of the Chinese Maritime Customs project, University of Bristol. The website provides "a growing body of information about men and women of many different nationalities, professions and ages, who lived and worked in China between the 1850s and 1940s. These records have been drawn from government department lists, legal and diplomatic records, cemetery lists, and during research undertaken for a number of projects on the history of modern China and of the foreign relations of China". There is a Search facility and links to a number of online Directories. Look under Records for the databases specifically about Shanghai, including Municipal Policeman and Shanghai’s refugees, 1944.
• 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 or FamilySearch Affiliate Library (as at 2021/03/25).
• 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.

Also see

• China
• Subscription websites-online newspapers, journals and directories : Other Asian publications.

Information about the English language Chinese newspaper database ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Chinese Newspapers Collection; databases for The North-China Herald and North China Daily News published in Shanghai. A few examples are available, see Historical books online, below.

Military

• For a British Army overview, see China.
• For the Shanghai Contingent who volunteered for the British Army in 1914, see China (First World War).

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.

There was a Shanghai Volunteer Corps Armoured Car Company and SVC Artillery.

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. jstor.org. Register with jstor.org and read online for free.
• Article The Jewish Company of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps Compared With Other Jewish Diaspora Fighting Units by Benis M. Frank Chief Historian of the U.S. Marine Corps, 1992 vlib.us. Scroll towards the end of the article for details of the Jewish Company, SVC

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
• "Shanghailanders: the formation and identity of the British settler community in Shanghai, 1843-1937" by Robert Bickers Past & Present. 159.1 (May 1998): p161+. galegroup.com
• Shanghai’s Lost Foreigner Cemeteries by Eric N. Danielson 10 April 2011 from his website YangziMan: Adventures in China, now an archived website.

"Digging up the past" by Zhang Yu 2013. globaltimes.cn, archived. Cemeteries for foreigners in Shanghai.

• 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
• 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.
• Shanghai 1927: 2nd Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment redcoat.info, now archived.
• 2nd Battalion in Shanghai Soldiers of Gloucestershire, now an archived webpage.
• 5th Armoured Car Company in China, 1927-29 by Tony Wilkins 1 May 2017. Defence of the Realm, now archived.
• 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.

There is an English language version of his memoir The Diary of a Shanghai Physician by Victor Smolnikoff ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8577807931

• William E Fairbairn was with the Shanghai Municipal Police for over 30 years from 1907 where he developed a system of Self Defence. William E. Fairbairn Wikipedia. "History of Self Defense: Fairbairn's DEFENDU" September 21, 2015 myselfdefensetraining.com.

W E Fairbairn's first book Defendu. Scientific Self-Defence was published in Shanghai in 1926 and is available at the British Library UIN: BLL01001192954, along with a number of his other titles, as is a biography The legend of W.E. Fairbairn : gentleman & warrior : the Shanghai years research by Peter Robins & Nicholas Tyler ; compiled & edited by Paul R. Child 2004 UIN: BLL01013468205. One volume, first published 1931, is available online, refer below.

• "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. Personal memoirs mentioned which are available at the British Library include Hunting Opium and Other Scents by Maurice Springfield (British assistant police commissioner) UIN: BLL01003468563 ; Shanghai Saga by John Pal (an officer of Chinese Customs) UIN: BLL01002750919 ; Stone - paper - scissors : Shanghai, 1921-1945 : an autobiography by the Stead sisters (daughters of a British real-estate man) UIN: BLL01008149019 . I Didn't Make a Million by Whitey Smith first published 1956 in Manila, republished with the additional title wording How Jazz Came to China. Details of the book, including extracts.

See Hong Kong for more details of The Breach in the Wall: A Memoir of Old China by Enid Saunders Candlin (born in Shanghai, daughter of a tea merchant) 1973 UIN: BLL01000594031

• "Top 10 books about Old Shanghai" by Paul French 26 September 2018 The Guardian. Old in this article refers to the 1930s onwards.
• Video: Old Shanghai 1930s YouTube video.

Historical books online

• Also see China - 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 North China Herald Collection 1850-1941. Archive.org. Published in Shanghai as the weekly edition of the North-China Daily News. Searchable as a collection. There perhaps may be additional editions available outside of this collection, also on 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
• Shanghai Directory or similar title, mainly 1924-1941 broken range. Archive.org
• Searchable, but not viewable Shantung Road Cemetery, Shanghai, 1846-1868: With Notes about Pootung Seamen's Cemetery [and] Soldiers' Cemetery by E. S. Elliston 1946 Google Books. This book was possibly filmed from the collection of Stanford University which holds this book.
• Journal of the Shanghai Literary and Scientific Society Multiple volumes from 1860 HathiTrust Digital Library
• Return to an address of the Honourable The House of Commons, dated 25 June, 1863 : for, "Copy of the correspondence between the military authorities at Shanghai and the War Office respecting the insalubrity of Shanghai as a station for European troops:" "And, numerical return of sickness and mortality of the troops of all arms at Shanghai, from the year 1860 to the latest date, showing the per-centage upon the total strength" Archive.org.
• 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
• Henry S. King & Co.'s Hand book for homeward-bound travellers from India, Australia and the East 1893 National Library of Australia. Includes the telegraph code to be used, as words or phrases more than ten letters are charged double. This company had an agent in Shanghai, Kelly & Walsh, Limited.
• The Jubilee of Shanghai 1843-1893: Shanghai: Past and Present, and a Full Account of the Proceedings on the 17th and 18th November 1893, Revised and reprinted from the North-China Daily News, Shanghai, 1893. 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 Shanghai War Book. Being a register of many of the Britons and some of their allies on service from China with a few of those from Japan including a roll of honour ... published December 1915. Archive.org. Lists of those serving, wounded and died.
• The gateway to China; pictures of Shanghai by Mary Ninde Gamewell 1916 Archive.org
• Drainage problems of the East : being a revised and enlarged edition of "Oriental drainage", [Volume 1] by C C James 1917, first published 1906 Archive.org. Includes chapters relating to Drainage of the major cities in India (Bombay, Calcutta, Karachi, Madras, “Benares, Lucknow, Mirzapur and Lahore”), Rangoon, Singapore, Penang and Shanghai, and of the major cities in Egypt. Drainage problems of the East, Volume 2- Plans by C C James 1917 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
• Audacious Angles Of China by Elsie Mccormick 1922 Archive.org. Originally appeared as articles in The China Press.

1923 edition includes as "Part II": The Unexpurgated Diary of a Shanghai Baby, from page 209. Also see next item. Archive.org

• 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 McCormick first published c 1922, or earlier. 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".

  Also available as part of Audacious Angles Of China (see above) and as selected extracts (not complete text) in Maclean’s “Canada’s National Magazine” 1 February 1924 to 1 April 1924. With illustrations by Lou Skouce. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 macleans.ca

• Shanghai: its municipality and the Chinese; being the history of the Shanghai Municipal Council, and its relations with the Chinese, the practice of the International Mixed Court, and the inauguration and constitution of the Shanghai Provisional Court by Anatol M. Kotenev 1927 virtualshanghai.net. Also available Bibliothèque Numérique Asiatique /Asian Digital Library

See China for Kotenev's 1931 book New Lamps for Old.

Big Trifles and Little People: Memoirs of a Russian Nobleman by Anatol M. Kotenev 2000. Sample pages Google Books.

• Scientific Self Defence by W E Fairbairn first published 1931 (catalogued 1942) Archive.org. Title page states "The Official Text Book for the Shanghai Municipal Police and Hong Kong Police".
• China's Trial by Fire : the Shanghai War of 1932 by Donald A Jordan 2001. HathiTrust Digital Library
• 4 online editions of North-China Sunday News Magazine Supplement dated 7, 14, 21, 28 February 1932. Click on "Browse this collection" for the 4 issues. The content includes war. Including
  • Images "Mobilisation of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps During the Past Week page 4 North-China Sunday News Magazine Supplement 7 February 1932. National Library of Australia.
• The Municipal Gazette Shanghai 2 editions, Thursday February 4, 1926 and Friday March 25, 1938. National Library of Australia.
• Shanghai, the Paradise of Adventurers by G E Miller (Pseudonym) Diplomat 1937 HathiTrust 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 HathiTrust Digital Library
• "Chapter 10. Shanghai May 25-June 12 [1938] page 237, Journey To A War by W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood 1939 Archive.org.
• Shanghai and Tientsin, with special reference to foreign interests by F C Jones 1940. HathiTrust Digital Library
• Shanghai: City For Sale Ernest O. Hauser 1940 Archive.org. Elsewhere, this book is stated to contain factual errors.
• Economic Shanghai: Hostage to Politics, 1937-1941 by Robert W. Barnett 1941 HathiTrust Digital Library.
• Shanghai Lawyer by Norwood F. Allman 1943 HathiTrust Digital Library.
• Journey to the Beginning by Edgar Snow 1958. Includes Chapter 4 Shanghai page 15, where he arrived in 1928. File 2: 1972 reprint. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library. Edgar Snow Wikipedia. Snow was an American journalist who lived in China for many years from 1928, best known for his book, Red Star Over China (1937), an account of the Chinese Communist movement from its foundation until the late 1930s.
• Yellow Creek : the Story of Shanghai by J V Davidson-Houston 1962. Archive.org Lending Library.
• The Chinese city between two worlds edited by Mark Elvin and G. William Skinner 1974. Includes chapters on Shanghai and Canton. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library.
• Eastern banking : essays in the history of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation edited by Frank H H King 1983. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library.
• Shanghai by Harriet Sergeant 1998, originally published 1991. Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s. Archive.org Lending Library. Based on many interviews with past residents.
• Shanghai Refuge: A Memoir of the World War II Jewish Ghetto by Ernest G. Heppner 1993. Books to Borrow/Archive.org Lending Library.

Strange haven : a Jewish childhood in wartime Shanghai by Sigmund Tobias 1999. Books to Borrow/Archive.org Lending Library.

Voices from Shanghai : Jewish exiles in wartime China edited and translated by Irene Eber 2008. Books to Borrow/Archive.org Lending Library.

The Jacquinot Safe Zone: Wartime refugees in Shanghai by Marcia R.Ristaino 2008. Bibliothèque Numérique Asiatique /Asian Digital Library. Page 1 of a review about the book. Jacquinot, a Jesuit priest, provided refuge for Chinese civilians.

• E Library, Virtual Shanghai including
  • Four months of war; a pen and picture record of the hostilities between Japan and China in an around Shanghai, from August 9th till December 20th, 1937, from the press of the North-China Daily News 1937. Also available Bibliothèque Numérique Asiatique /Asian Digital Library
  • Streets of Shanghai. A history in itself by A H Gordon 1941.
  • Programme of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps Centenary Dinner held at The Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club on Friday, 2nd April 1954, including list of SVC Commandants, mobilizations, brief history, menu, Roll of Members, plan of the Battle of Muddy Flat, and text of 'Maloo Memoires'.
  • The Sino-Western miscellany : being historical notes about foreign life in China. Vol. 2, The origins of the roads and road names in foreign Shanghai: the French concession by JH Haan 1993
• Bibliothèque Numérique Asiatique/ Asian Digital Library Includes English language books on Shanghai. There appears to be some connection with Virtual Shanghai, see previous website, with at least some overlap.
• "Chapter Four Shanghai" page 239 Shanghai on the Métro: Spies, Intrigue, and the French Between the Wars by Michael B. Miller 1994. UC Press E-Books Collection, 1982-2004. A transcription. Sample pages only Google Books.
• City of Devils : the two men who ruled the underworld of old Shanghai by Paul French 2019, first published 2018. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library.

Paul French is the author of many books on the "old" (1930s) period in China, including Bloody Saturday: Shanghai’s Darkest Day, published 2017 Sample pages Google Books. The day was Saturday, August 14, 1937, when the Japanese bombed the city. For additional books by French, see China - Historical books online - General.

• 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.
• Books including Shanghai in the title Archive.org.
• Fiction
  • Juan In China by Eric Linklater. 1961 edition, first published 1937. Archive.org. Elsewhere it is stated "The Japanese artillery during the Sino-Japanese war of 1937, well described by Eric Linklater in his novel “ Juan in China” (practically every word is true)…"
  • Yangtze Skipper, by Thomas Woodrooffe 1937. HathiTrust Digital Library. Set in 1919 Shanghai, Toby Warren is First Lieutenant on the "Beetle", a (fictitous) 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

• Empire of the Sun by J G Ballard, first published 1984. Book File 1 1994 reprint, Book file 2 1985 reprint. Archive.org Lending Library. A novel based on the author’s experiences in Shanghai during the Second World War, including internment from 1942 to 1945.