Turbulent times produce great minds, and Shanghai's French Concession was certainly no exception in the 1920s. The average life expectancy for a Chinese person in Shanghai at the time was 27 years old, and the streets were laden with gang violence and tuberculosis. Seeing these problems, great thinkers and artists emerged trying to inspire their fellow countrymen proposing viable alternatives to the city's colonial chaos. Consequently, drug dealers and prostitutes rubbed shoulders with political activists and artistic geniuses. Here's just a small selection of the influential people inhabiting the French Concession at the time.
Nie Er – The Tragic Composer
Being most famous for writing the music to China’s National Anthem, Nie’ Er was one of the most accomplished musicians of the age. Nie Er’s original name was in fact Nie Shouxin, however he had a gift of being able to replicate any noise that he heard and also the ability to move his ears independently of one another. These parlor tricks earned him the nickname of ‘Er’ or ears. Nie’ Er considered this nickname to be so appropriate that he adopted it as his official name to give himself ‘more ears’.
Almost all of Nie Er’s compositions were written in the final two years of his life while he was living in Shanghai on Huaihai Road. Nie Er died at the tender age of 23 while swimming with his friends in Japan. Many people claim that he was assassinated by the Nationalists or the Japanese, however it is rather likely that he simply drowned in his own genius.
Margot Fonteyn – The Ballerina Suprema
Widely acknowledged as one of the greatest ballerinas to have ever lived, Britain's Margot Fonteyn began her career in China. Her father had taken up employment in a tobacco company in Shanghai, and so at the age of eight, Margot was educated in the ways of the fine art by George Goncharov, a Russian man living in Shanghai having fled from Russia's Bolshovik Revolution.
The Lyceum Theatre on Maoming Nan Lu, near Changle Lu is where Margot Fonteyn began her career before her mother brought her back to England when she was 14 years old. Her father, however, stayed in Shanghai and was interred during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai.
Feng Zikai - The Amiable Artist
Feng Zikai's seemingly simple and apolitical works of art can often be seen gracing the billboards on which Shanghai's government extolls the virtues of civilized behavior. He was, however, far more than just a painter, and the art that he produced was far more politically charged than it might at first seem.
A literary critic, a musical composer, and an illustrator to boot, Feng Zikai was a great example of the sort of renaissance man that emerged from the tumultuous political upheaval of Shanghai's 1920s and 30s.
Chosen to illustrate the short stories of another great Renaissance man of the era, Lu Xun, Feng Zikai achieved considerable acclaim during his own lifetime. Even during the Cultural Revolution, Red Guards that went to his home claiming to want to persecute him as a bourgeois artist, went on to proclaim their admiration and asked him for his autograph when speaking to him in private.
John Maximovitch – The Wonderworker
Right in the heart of the French Concession lies a building which is undoubtedley not French. Construction of the former Russian Orthodox Church was completed in 1934 by John Maximovitch, who later became pastor of the church. Once the Communists came to power in China, Maximovitch fled overseas before settling in San Francisco where he found another incomplete Russian Orthodox Cathedral to finish.
John Maximovitch was such a magical man, what with being able to see into the future, speak with the dead and heal the sick, that he was made a saint upon his death and is now referred to as St John the Wonderworker. If you ever happen to be in San Francisco, perhaps you should pay him a visit, as he has been now embalmed for all to bask in his splendour.
Edward Isaac Ezra
What is now the Red Leaf Women’s Hospital once was the opulent home of Edward Isaac Ezra. Boasting a ballroom that could fit 150 dancers, a music room for an audience of 80, real Louis XIV furniture, and 25 acres of land, Edward was one of the richest men in Asia.
Edward acquired his wealth through the sale of opium, and turned his nose up at any attempts to stop him. Indeed, when caught red handed, he arranged for his Chinese associate to serve the time for the crime he had committed. Opium was not, however, Edward's only source of wealth, for he also owned great swathes of property, and ran a newspaper called The China Press.
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To find out more about the French Concession's historical heroes and villains book your place on Newman Tours' French Concession Tour or Gangster Tour.
Further afield, Newman Tours also offer a wide range of unique experiences in and around Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Xi'an, Hangzhou, Suzhou and Nanjing
To find out more call 138 1777 0229 or email info@newmantours.com
Words by Katerina Carbin.
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