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Steps in city's history
By Tom Dartnell |
April 24, 2011, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
WITH its wealth of clubs, bars and other less reputable venues designated for the pursuit of hedonistic recreation, modern-day Shanghai remains the exciting nocturnal playground it was for city patrons almost a century earlier. But with today's nightlife scene existing in a less politically turbulent period in China's history, it lacks the excitement present during Shanghai's "golden age" in the first half of the 20th century.
It's this spectacular era from the past that author Andrew David Field, a scholar of Chinese history and culture, gives such an attractive allure in "Shanghai's Dancing World," his study of the local cabaret culture that thrived at that time and the social and political conditions that influenced it.
From its emergence at the end of World War I to its demise following the establishment of communist power in China, Field delves into a world of change where dancing represented much more than a social pastime.
In the early 1900s, the city's nightlife was set against a more chaotic backdrop, an era which saw global and civil conflict that ultimately had an effect on the way Shanghai's population - both native and expatriate - let their hair down.
From Africa to Asia by way of America and Europe, jazz music was the defining sound of the time and the development of its dances and culture played their part in shaping the city.
As Field details in one chapter, the emerging dance culture played a big part in influencing the construction and appearance of many of Shanghai's prominent buildings - plenty of which still stand today, although no longer with the function of providing space for rhythmic recreation. Venues attempted to outdo each other with the most lavish decor and opened the floodgates for an influx of the Art Deco architecture popular in the West at that time.
But bricks and mortar are only part of the story that Field unravels. His study introduces the main players in the city's cabaret world, from the musicians, the owners, the patrons (from both home and abroad) and most fascinatingly, the hostesses.
The quality of the latter significantly contributed to a cabaret's success and many of these women gained star status. The Liang sisters are a prominent example, with one of the four siblings finding more reward as a dance hostess than in her previous vocation as a film star.
Field describes the hostesses as the "prototypical modern girl" and while serving as dance partners they were precariously straddling the worlds of entertainment and prostitution.
Although Field stresses the cabarets weren't strictly glorified brothels as "the long-term relationships that patrons and hostesses built suggested that taxi cabarets functioned informally as marriage markets rather than sexual market places for the urban masses."
Field's balanced approach is echoed in the range of sources he draws from, personal accounts such as the memoirs of Australian journalist John Pal and US jazz musician Whitey Smith, as well as both English and Chinese language journals from the time. In addition, the inclusion of more than 50 illustrations and maps complete the picture of the players and places in this fascinating story.
For the Shanghai history novice, Field's coherent and detailed account not only lifts the lid on such a distinct aspect of the city's past, it also provides a satisfyingly digestible primer to local and national Chinese history, a result less likely had the content been concerned solely with political matters.
It's this spectacular era from the past that author Andrew David Field, a scholar of Chinese history and culture, gives such an attractive allure in "Shanghai's Dancing World," his study of the local cabaret culture that thrived at that time and the social and political conditions that influenced it.
From its emergence at the end of World War I to its demise following the establishment of communist power in China, Field delves into a world of change where dancing represented much more than a social pastime.
In the early 1900s, the city's nightlife was set against a more chaotic backdrop, an era which saw global and civil conflict that ultimately had an effect on the way Shanghai's population - both native and expatriate - let their hair down.
From Africa to Asia by way of America and Europe, jazz music was the defining sound of the time and the development of its dances and culture played their part in shaping the city.
As Field details in one chapter, the emerging dance culture played a big part in influencing the construction and appearance of many of Shanghai's prominent buildings - plenty of which still stand today, although no longer with the function of providing space for rhythmic recreation. Venues attempted to outdo each other with the most lavish decor and opened the floodgates for an influx of the Art Deco architecture popular in the West at that time.
But bricks and mortar are only part of the story that Field unravels. His study introduces the main players in the city's cabaret world, from the musicians, the owners, the patrons (from both home and abroad) and most fascinatingly, the hostesses.
The quality of the latter significantly contributed to a cabaret's success and many of these women gained star status. The Liang sisters are a prominent example, with one of the four siblings finding more reward as a dance hostess than in her previous vocation as a film star.
Field describes the hostesses as the "prototypical modern girl" and while serving as dance partners they were precariously straddling the worlds of entertainment and prostitution.
Although Field stresses the cabarets weren't strictly glorified brothels as "the long-term relationships that patrons and hostesses built suggested that taxi cabarets functioned informally as marriage markets rather than sexual market places for the urban masses."
Field's balanced approach is echoed in the range of sources he draws from, personal accounts such as the memoirs of Australian journalist John Pal and US jazz musician Whitey Smith, as well as both English and Chinese language journals from the time. In addition, the inclusion of more than 50 illustrations and maps complete the picture of the players and places in this fascinating story.
For the Shanghai history novice, Field's coherent and detailed account not only lifts the lid on such a distinct aspect of the city's past, it also provides a satisfyingly digestible primer to local and national Chinese history, a result less likely had the content been concerned solely with political matters.
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